robbyn

Although my Z is my daily driver, I will not be driving it in the snow because I am just not interested in getting snow tires and we only get about 4 snow days a year in DC. But now I am concerned that I may also not be able to drive it in the cold. Driving back from Pittsburgh on Sunday -- on completely dry roads -- I noticed a little bit of slippage (I was not turning) when the outside temp was 36 degrees. The slippage was just that once and I did not think that much about it. About an hour later -- again when the outside temp had dropped back to 36 degrees -- the TCS kicked in while I was driving straight (I do not have VDC). So, both times when the temp dropped to 36 my wheels slipped -- they did not slip any other times and those were the only two times on the 500 mile round trip that the temp got as low as 36 degrees. Now, I don't know the first thing about "summer" tires, I have never had them before, is 36 degrees some magic number where the rubber gets too cold and causes the tires to lose traction, or was this just a coincidence. More importantly, do I only have to park my car when there is snow on the ground, or do I also need to park it whenever the temp is around freezing or below, even if the roads are completely dry?

BTW, one final piece of information, both times I was doing about 80 and I was on a bascially straight stretch of freeway but I was up in the "mountains," at least what they call mountains on the East Coast.

S8ER95Z

It may have to do with the tires you have on. From experience none of my 245/50R16 series tires like cold at all..and any amount of throttle at relatively any amount of throttle likes to trip the ASR system.
Personal Experience:

Goodyear Eagle GSCs seem to do ok... No way can you put power down without sliding though.

Bridgestone Potenza RE730s.. SUCK period. They slid in 80 degree weather.

Firestone Firehawk FTX.. rarely slipped, 2.1 60fts, overall very nice (Discontinued though)

So I may try out the SZ250 series from Firestone..

I would say its just becuase of the general compound of the tires. I know my tires are pretty hard so when its cold out they just spin badly... maybe softer tires would work out better? Or Winter tires (I know you don't want to go that route)

In short.. you shouldn't have any major problems winter driving as long as the snow stays off the ground.

Cheers

robbyn

You are probably right, but I still am a little concerned that the TCS kicked in when driving a straight line on a dry road.

flynnibus

Last 3 days have been pretty cold in northern VA.. 32-40 degrees when I'm driving.

I haven't had any problems with traction or slipping driving my daily commute of about 13 miles each way.

No way I'm driving it if they are calling for freezing conditions though.. I've heard enough horror stories about these tires.. and I can't afford to blow a grand on tires before they wear out.