It's that time again - winter tire advice!
 

I have read the TONS of winter tire posts and I see that people are mounting either:

225/45/18R Front
245/45/18R Rear
Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22s

OR

225/50/17R Front
235/50/17R Rear
Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22s

Question:

What are the potention problems with runnin:

225/45/18R on all 4 stock 18"x8" performance wheels???

225/50/17R on 4 aftermarket 17" wheels?


I would rather run the WS-50 instead of the LM-22. Anyone have experience with WS-50? Main reason is they are $50 cheaaper

Bump for an update.

I found someone who has (4) 225/50/17Rs

Will that mess up my VDC really bad? PLEASE help :)

This is what I bought through Tire rack:

225/50/17R Front
225/55/17R Rear

I asked about the same size for all 4 corners and Tire Rack suggested otherwise as from the factory, the Z comes with rear wheels with a larger diameter. I'm guessing it could mess up VDC because I think VDC compares rotation of front versus rear in figuring out what's going on... so the ratios would be messed up.

As for WS-50s vs LM-22s. WS-50's have a larger thread depth and a softer compound = Better traction on snow & ice... not as good of performance... similar tread life. Where I am, I've got 6 months of winter... the WS-50's are still Q-rated and I can't see myself doing over 100mph in the snow.

I've researched it and apparently some people take the same equal sized tires to the track. I don't see myself doing anything crazy during the winter so I think:

(4) 225/50/17R Blizzak WS-50s mounted on some 17x7.5" wheels will do the trick

I'm gonna check this out and hopefully it won't wreck havoc on the VDC.

I just read on the thread originated by Discount tire that the rear wheels should be 0.50" to 0.75" larger than front, otherwise it'll "anger the vdc". Good luck on whatever you choose.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=73898

What's curious about that is:

225/17/50/17
225/17/55/17 (what you have)
Difference = 0.88"

225/50/17
235/50/17 (stock 17")
Difference = 0.39"

225/45/18
245/45/18 (stock 18")
Difference = 0.71"

The stock 17" don't fall within 0.5"-0.75" and neither does your configuration. Hopefully the 0.5"-0.75" is just a general rule of thumb and I can get away with 0.0".

I am just as close to 0.39" with 0.0" as you are with 0.88"

Oh well maybe I'd decide to stop being cheap and go for the LM-22s in the correct sizes. I mean I buy a nice sports car and I'm going to put it on marshmellows for the winter?

Best advice I can give is to move down south so you don't need them!

i run equal sized tires on all four corners during the winter

16s for that matter :D (and damn proud of 'em lol)

VDC *does* freak out a little bit... but in a good way... it just causes it to trigger sooner and prevent excess power from going to the wheels... which i find actually HELPS me because of the terrible slippery roads here in Toronto in the winter and because my lead foot doens't know when to ease off ;)

so coming from experience, my advice is to go ahead and order the same sizes

If that's the case, I'd go same size too... then you can swap them front-to-rear when you've got more wear... that'll teach me for listening to the "experts"!!!