This was a bit sudden, I was planning on doing it next weekend, but I saw snow forcast and didn’t want to risk having to use my thrashed summer tires on snow.
This was the last season that I could use those summer tires, the tread was almost used up and there was some dry cracking of the rubber, so I am ordering new Pirelli’s for the next season.
Kudos. There’s a small local garage on my street, and the guy put my two on for £20, which was pretty good. We have an EV, so I just bought two for the front.
This was in December last year, and I didn’t swap them back. Hopefully, they’re still good for this winter.
Good for you. There’s plenty of things most people overlook or don’t think about when it comes to doing this.
- Clean the mating surfaces. Make sure to use a flat block and reasonably aggressive sandpaper on the rims as to not change the plane. Use a die grinder to clean around the hub on the car side, a stud cleaner with an abrasive disc gets where the grinder can’t reach.
- Apply a ring of grease around the hub, nothing on the studs or wheels, this can affect the torque on the wheel nuts. This helps with removal.
- Use a torque wrench. Guessing on the clamping force can cause wheel separations and if overdone, make removal extremely difficult and can snap studs.
- Recheck the torque after 100kms. And again after 500.
- Check the age of the tires. There’s a 4 digit code on the sidewall like 2322. That’s the build date of the tire. It represents when the tire is made. First 2 digits are the week, last 2 are the year. If you can, don’t exceed 7 years (industry standard). Transport Canada recommends not exceeding 10 years regardless of tire condition.
- Torque your wheels in the appropriate pattern, remove your wheel nuts in the same pattern. Loosening wheel nuts in a circle pattern (especially with hot brake components) can cause deformation to the rotor and cause a pulsation when braking.
- Rotate your tires. Mark them where they come off. Mark them from where they came off and rotate them accordingly. If they’re directional tires, make sure they’re on the right way. Mark the location on the tread, not the inside. Gets confusing as the years go by. On the tread, that gets rubbed off as you drive.
- Don’t do vehicle repair for a career, do it as a hobby to save you money.
Im imagining you live closer to Canada, speaking such words
Good job!
Been changing summer/winter tires at home for some years now, it works great, however, I tried today to change on the “new” car but couldn’t even get one of the lugnuts to move. Guess I’m going to pay to get it done this week.
I bought my WRX in October 2024, and changed them for the first time in late November or Early December. I decided to read the manual, despite having had a WRX in the past and it just being changing tires, not rocket science.
The manual said to torque to 89 lb/ft, which let me tell you is not that much, I used to crank em down pretty good. I didn’t stand on the wrench or nothing, but it was always just get em good and on there. So I’m glad I RTFM’d, they did great all winter, summers went back on, did great, and winter’s coming, though later here in Jersey than where you are OP.
On my first cars, I had winter and summer tires. I had them changed and stored by the garage, and it was a waste of money. Especially when i moved close to my job and drove less than 12000km/year, aging was more of an issue than wear.
With all cars since then, I have all-year tires. I can’t drive in the mountains in winter, but I never did in the last 50 years, and I don’t plan to start now. For the 3-5 days of snow that we have, if any at all, this is more than sufficient. And it is way, way cheaper.
I grew up in a mountain town that got plenty of snow, and even then we mostly just used all seasons.
In some areas, all season tires are fine, Stockholm is on the border on where that is the case.
Well, Stockholm is a few kilometers north of here. Maybe so 800km or so.
Hell, I lived in city that had snow on the ground 6-7 months of the year and I got by just fine with all seasons for the six years I was there. I mean the city had a robust snow removal service, but they weren’t out unless there was fresh snow.
I kind of miss the yearly wheel swap. I live in the Chicago area now where the last several years seem like they have single digit days with anow accumulation.
Still do tire rotations every 6mo so it’s almost then same!
Yay global warming.
Winter tires are not just about the snow. They have better dry traction in the cold as well.
Oh, absolutely!
I happen to have studded winter tires, but more and more people are using stud free winter tires, there are even strees in Stockholm where studded tires are prohibited.
That’s because studded tires should only be used on ice. Even in winter on dry roads studded tires have worse traction than even all season tires do. Realistically very few people should even own studded tires because stud less winter tires are just better in most situations.
Proud of you, friend!
Well done sir!
First time doing it completely on my own!
Takes time, but with a funny space disaster podcast playing on a bluetooth speaker it got done quickly enough
Do you need any equipment to do this job?
I needed a hydraulic jack, lug wrench, a steel pipe, and a few blocks of wood.
Nice. I thought tires might need some kind of sealant inside, but glad to know that you don’t need that.
Ah, think I understand the confusion, when we say winter tires in Sweden unless we are talking about buying new rubber tires, we mean the whole wheel assembly, rim+tire.
In Minnesota we say “snow tires,” so I figured “winter tires” meant the same thing.
I am a sweet summer child so I didn’t think that people have a second set of wheels at their home in a garage. That makes sense though, if you have the space for it.
I just have all season tires and one set of wheels, and that’s all I realistically need around here.
Last spring one of my tires had 4/5 bolts seized by rust even though I put ceramic paste on the threads, and it was a pain to get off.
This fall I used spray tar (literally wood tar thinned with acetone in an aerosol can) on the bolt threads. We’ll see the results after this winter.
We spent a few years in Ottawa, experiencing a winter that 8 years in Calgary did NOT prepare me for. We learned the value of seasonal tire swaps and we are so pleased that tire shops will store your spares for you. Since we aren’t handy mechanically and we also prefer to let the professionals do the work properly, this really works out well for us.
Yes, it’s more expensive than storing and swapping our own tires, but we can always budget for regular maintenance and preventative safety work by pros. I don’t do an appreciable part of the driving, now, and I value the things in the car when it’s moving more than I value spare cash in the bank. A+++, would buy again, every time.
Yes, we live in the V3, no longer in the Ts or Ks, and we’re pleased and proud we can still avoid the hassle and risk.
I’m sick so I didn’t :(
That wasn’t a very good poem. No sprogs.
(Hope you feel better)
