newbie winter tire questions

Welcome aboard!

Yes, getting good traction is inportant in the winter.

If you can find good straight rims from the JYs great, but it can be hit or miss.

Point 4 above can be a tricky one. If you bring the car in and it has sensors , it is technically illeagle for the to disable the system in any way. So bring the rims and tires in separately and tell it is for a 71 corolla.

 

Hi tithra!

You can buy rims from a junk yard but it needs to be the right one. Either from another Prius or perhaps a similar year Corolla would be best to make sure they fit.

The sensors are optional for you, but you may find that some shops give you a hard time about installing them. If you can check your own pressures and live with a light on in the dash for the winter you can save the money.

Have you considered ordering from Tire Rack? They will mount your tires on new steel or alloy wheels of your choosing, and mail the whole package ready to mount on the vehicle to you or the garage of your choosing. This might not be much if any more expensive than sourcing your own stuff locally and paying for a mount and balance. Worth a look anyhow.

 

Before looking too hard at junk yards and the like take a look at tirerack.com. They will sell you tires already mounted and balanced on wheels.

 

When we'd just purchased our 2010 (around this time of year) I ended up getting snow tires mounted on Corolla steel rims through a dealership. Also got extra, plain lug nuts. The rims were $70 (CAN) each, and the lug nuts around $32 for the lot (20). You could go the wrecking yard route, but when the dealership has shiny new rims, sure to be compatible...

I could have just purchased parts through them, and then gone across to Costco to get the tires (Michelin X-Ice, which have worked out very well). But I was a bit worried about fit, so let the dealership do the whole deal, and it wasn't that much more. Next time though...

The service writer asked if I wanted extra TPMS on them, kind of shaking his head "no" as he asked it, LOL. They may have tightened up the rules now, not sure. But I would definitely not get extra TPMS unless forced to: they are an ongoing cash cow, need initializing and so on.

Here's some info:

Corolla steel rim, part no: 42611-02471-SW (2007 model year?)
steel rim lug nuts: 90942-01007
Note: the rim is likely for 2006+ Toyota Corolla, and the corresponding wheel cover:
42621-AB110 (didn't bother with this, too expensive)

 

^^^ If she is in the US the wheels are $54/each for steel from Tire Rack including lug nuts. The shipping cost is largely covered by the fact that they mount and balance them for free.

 

I opted for the Tire Rack wheel/tire package and can vouch for how painless the purchase process was. I got nice looking aluminum wheels for $79(?) each, including lug nuts.

I considered getting them without the sensors but really do like having the TPMS system operational so I paid the extra to have them installed. I bought an Ateq Quickset device from Amazon to avoid the semi-annual reprogramming charges. Expensive initially but cheaper in the long run, I hope.

 

Do you actually have to pay to program the sensors? Seems to me the owner's manual describes each step to do it yourself. Or is there something in addition to that?

As for me I choose to ignore the light on the dash during the winter.

 

Unlike many domestic vehicles that allow you to "introduce" new sensors to the car you need to have the dealer or someone with special equipment program your car with serial numbers for the TPMS sensors.

What you might be recalling is the procedure for establishing new baseline pressures to the system.

 

Tire rack is awesome highly recommend.

SPH-L710 ?

 

Got those rims on the car yet? Curious how they look. I'm assuming they are the 5 spoke ones. I think they are the only 79 dollar rim on there. I was trying to see if they were lighter than the steelies.

 

They're probably not going on the car till after Thanksgiving, I'm afraid.

I'll try to remember to photograph one next to the OEM wheel that's on the car.

[Edit: Here you go! The wheels and tires are the same size--blame my wide angle lens for the size distortion]

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/o768/packmule28/F3C7F576-2570-4970-8E98-ACE449CC373E-116-00000000FCAC24CA_zpse97b0836.jpg

 

Hello, thanks for listing your experience with rims & Snow Tires. I noticed from the picture you've posted your winter tires are Bridgestone. I also noticed they are 15". I'm about to purchase SnowTires for my 2010 Prius V, our first Prius. The tires are 17" low profile. I'm concerned about winter travel in the Prius here in Maine. What is your experience with your winter tires, what model Bridgestones' are they? Thanks.

 

Post deleted - forum lag made me think it hadn't posted yet. Ooops.

 

In my opinion, if they're just steelies with winter tires on them, and only going to be used for a certain purpose during one season of the year, I see no reason to put TPMS sensors in them. They're expensive and not entirely necessary.
You WILL, however, get a light on the dash, or possibly a beep, stating that the tire pressure is low, or the TPMS isn't working. But don't worry about it. Just check your tire pressure once a week like people did for a hundred years before TPMS was invented, and you - and you car - will be fine. Been doing that on other cars for years, it's not a problem.

 

On that note, it appears that the light doesn't come on unless you drive a certain distance in miles. Most of my driving is around town, 1-3 miles, 8-15 minutes at a time. I never see the light unless I drive further than that.

 

Hi and welcome

I'll try to help as best I can:

1. Can I buy used rims from a junk yard to mount my winter tires on? Yes - I bought 4 old steelies which camne from a 2001 Avensis. I did some research online and the PCD, Offset and size matched (i wanted to go from a 16" to a 16" for my winter tyres)

Does it matter what type of rim it is or is making sure the rim size is correct the only concern? Not really. Correct size, offset & stud pattern as well as centre bore are the important factors

2. My understanding is that a new sensor has to be put into the new rims if you get your winter tires mounted on a separate set of rims. But that the sensor is optional? I'm not sure I understand what the sensor is for exactly. Is it fine to run the winter tires without it? I don't have sensors on my Gen 2 but I know that people just ignore the fault that it throws up on the screen when they sun their tyres with no sensor

3. If I do not get the sensors in the winter tire rims, it will still be in the summer/all season tire rims right? and when I swap the tires in the summer there will be no issue getting the sensors up and running again? I'll let someone else answer that

4. Will dealerships mount tires without the sensors? - If it was me, I'd take it to an independent tyre guy

 

Skinny (narrow) winter tires are better than wide winter tires

SPH-L710 ?

 

Our Canadian 'Touring" model also has the 17" rims/tires. There were no issues switching over to 15" (steel) rims and 195/65R15 snows. See my post #5 above.