Winter tires recommendations.

[triangles]

Looking for the following recommendations for winter tires:
- 2 front winter tires vs all 4 wheels.
- Brand/model experiences (both good and bad)
- Studable vs studless. I don't plan to use studs but I've seen attractive pricing on some tires designed for studs. Is there a performance difference or is it just that the studable tires can take studs?

 

[Pearl]

I've been using Bridgestone Blizzaks on my 3 Fords every winter so far. All four, at each wheel. Compared to the Michelin Energy Saver LRR tire, it's a night and day difference for Snow/Slush here in Cleveland. I've got two sets on Steelies, while a third (for my Focus) on OE 16" Focus Alloys I found at a junkyard for less than new Steelies.
They are really barely louder than the OE tire, and I cannot say that I can attribute any range loss to the tire itself, as it's more likely cold weather related.

 

[EVA]

Totally agree with Pearl. Blizzaks. All four wheels. Go to Tire Rack and read up on why you want all four corners the same.

There actually is another reason for all four - speed sensors with the brakes. You will drive the car crazy trying to stop. The winters will be a larger diameter than the other tires. It will drive the ABS crazy, and you'll have super strange nasty braking (as in really harsh). I ran into that problem with our most recent FFE. Somebody put a brand new junk tire on to fix a flat before they turned the car in from their lease. The new tire was just enough different from the other three that the car acted crazy while braking. It felt like the brakes wanted to grab all the time. Couldn't ever stop smoothly. All new tires, the problem went away.

And I wouldn't even bother trying to find a better price, just do the full set from Tire Rack. They ship quickly to your house, completely mounted and balanced, ready to put on the car.

Not sure why you want winter tires, but that's OK, your choice. I personally hate the whole nonsense with storing four tires and changing them twice a year. It is irritation for not a lot of better handling in the snow anyway.

 

[EVA]

Oh forgot - I switched to Michelin Ice-X and hated them. This was on the Focus Titanium ICE. Not the FFE.

 

[Pearl]

And I wouldn't even bother trying to find a better price, just do the full set from Tire Rack. They ship quickly to your house, completely mounted and balanced, ready to put on the car.

I tend to agree, as two of my three sets were purchased that way. The third set, for the Focus, I kinda fell into a great deal, as I found a set of like new Blizzaks on LetGo for $100, then did some searching and found a set of the Focus Alloys for $200 (with TPMS). So I paid < $400 for to whole setup.

 

[triangles]

Thanks for all the input.

Not sure why you want winter tires, but that's OK, your choice. I personally hate the whole nonsense with storing four tires and changing them twice a year. It is irritation for not a lot of better handling in the snow anyway.

My FFE will be my primary winter vehicle. The OEM tires are marginal in winter especially after 4 winters. I'm trying to decide what to do for next winter. The OEM tires have at least 1/2 their life left so it seems a waste to just junk them. I've never had winter tires and thought maybe I'd see what the big deal is with winter tires. I was thinking of going with smaller wheels and narrower tires to reduce rotating mass and better winter traction. I can get 16 inch Focus wheels for about $120 for a set of 4 but I would probably need to find 15" for the tires to be cheap enough to offset the wheel cost. Also to get the revs per mile right, the tires on a 15" wheel are almost as wide as the OEM tires which kind of defeats part of the whole purpose of smaller wheels. Which then brings me full circle to also not wanting to store 4 more wheels. I'm probably just going to pick up a decent set of all season tires for the OEM wheels.

 

[Twinstangs]

Never put just two winter tires on a car, it will throw off the handling and braking. We don't have winter tires on the FFE, but on my daily driver Hyundai I do since I was driving 300 miles some days for work (yes, including to and from Toledo!). I found a set of used Blizzaks on used OEM wheels on Craigslist, and when the Blizzaks wore out I bought new Firestone Winterforce 2s. Much better than the OEM all seasons in winter. In my opinion finding used wheels for the winter tires is a good idea - your original factory wheels don't get road salt rash, and if you get another set you can make your money back on a few seasons of paying for taking the winter tire off, putting the summer tire on, balancing them, then swapping back in November and paying again. You have six months to find a good deal on a set before winter. There is a set of Subaru tires with winter tires for $450 on Craiglist in the Detroit area that might work except for TPMS compatibility. Good luck!

 

[triangles]

I was originally thinking of just doing winter tires year round since between my TM3 and motorcycles, My poor FFE doesn't get much use 3 out of 4 seasons. Also I don't care about tpms. Warning light is easily fixed by black tape.... Kind of a moot point anyway since I think I'm just going to get some decent all-season tires and call it a day. Anyone want OE tires with about 20k on them with about 1/2 tread left?

 

[Hokus]

I have been doing a lot of research on tires since the OE suck for traction, even with a little rain. I just purchased a set of Nokian WR G3 All-Weather tires at Discount. They have to order them but supposedly they work well in all weather. There is a true difference in all-weather and all-season tires. Hopefully it will solve the immediate summer problem and be a good tire for winter driving here in Western Washington. We don't get a lot of snow so since we don't really need a great snow tire, not having to change tires will be great. We'll just have to see how well they do and how well they last.

https://www.nokiantires.com/all-weather-tires/nokian-wr-g3/

 

[triangles]

I've heard too many negatives about dedicated winter tires and since they are so good at clearing the roads here I usually have no more than 10 days a year actually driving in snow, I am just going to find an A/S tire that is good in snow. I am buying these Falken ZIEX ZE950 tires I had their ZIEX ZE912 (discontinued) on a previous car and they were hands down the best tires I've ever had on cold wet roads but they sucked in snow and wore out too quickly. The new ZE950 supposedly corrects that. I guess I will find out. My experience is that amount of grip a tire has on wet roads is directly proportional to how quickly it wears out.

 

[triangles]

I found some 15" volvo wheels on Craig's List and have decided to go with an all season tire that has decent snow/wet traction. Falken ZIEX ZE950 in 215/65R15. I reduced rotating mass by 12.5 lbs. as the Volvo wheels/tires weigh 40 lb. 15 oz. vs the OEM wheel/tire at 44 lb. 1 oz. I wouldn't expect this difference to be measurable but it's a step in the right direction. I also have the tires inflated to 51 PSI to minimize rolling resistance. I may back this down a little as the ride is noticeably more harsh. These are 65K mile tires that I will be happy if I get 45K out of considering my heavy right foot and how quickly my last Falken tires wore out. There is about 1/4" to 5/16" clearance between the wheel and caliper.

Not the best pictures but you get the idea. I found some cheap 64mm center caps and OEM looking Ford logoto replace the Volvo centercaps. I also foundthese transformer center cap logosthat I may try to make work even though they are only 56mm. If they don't work I am only out less than $2. Here's more pictures:


I must have also switched the TPMS in Focccus to use the ABS sensors to detect a flat when I enabled global open/close because I did not get any complaints from the car about not having TPMS sensors in the wheels. These new tires also confirmed what I suspected about the OEM tires. It's not that they are crappy tires it's just the lack of weight up front and instant torque of the motor that makes it so easy to spin the tires on wet pavement. Granted these tires do grip significantly better but I would expect brand new tires to grip much better than half wore out 4.5 year old tires.

 

[triangles]

So I spoke too soon about the TPMS. Odd that it took several days/charges to figure out it had no sensors.

Time to break out Focccus and see if I can make it go away. according to the following link it's parameter 101 that I need to change. http://capitalstclub.org/?p=130

 

[triangles]

So I fixed my lack of TPMS sensors. For anyone that's curious you can choose "Without monitoring system" to completely disable TPMS or you can choose "Deflation Detection System" which supposedly looks at the ABS sensor counts and will trigger a fault when one wheel start spinning faster because the tire is flat. I do not know if this works but it is what I have mine set to and I do not get a pesky TPMS error because my new wheels have no sensors.

I got rid of the Volvo center caps. I wouldn't want someone to confuse my FFE for a Volvo! :lol:

I also found some nice Ford logo centercap logos from aliexpress which I'm certain are fully licensed Chinese Ford emblems. <sarcasm> Same place I got the Autobot logos that were practically free. The Ford blue looks a bit off because of the poor lighting but they do actually look very nice. I'll put them on when the Autobot logos fall apart or I get bored of them.

I kind of like the way the new wheels/tires look. I think they look kind of funny on this car with such a tall side wall. As far as rolling resistance goes I was somewhat disappointed to see that over a 50mi trip mostly at 57ish mph my Wh/mi was up in the 290s. I wish I had paid attention to what it has been before switching the tires but vaguely remember getting around 250ish Wh/mi under similar conditions. Hopefully it was just the cooler fall temps and the fact that I was driving into a slight headwind. Oh I do have the tires inflated to 50PSI, they are rated 51psi max.

 

[elec2017]

Thanks for sharing the info. I have Forscan, I'll see if I can figure out where the same setting is.

Also do you know how to put the 2017 FFE into TPMS learning mode? I tried turning on the car then pressing hazard light button 6 times but it didn't do anything.

 

[triangles]

I do not know. I think it is in the owners manual. If not look on the focus fanatics in the Mk3 section. I'd be shocked if the answer wasn't there.

 

[elec2017]

I do not know. I think it is in the owners manual. If not look on the focus fanatics in the Mk3 section. I'd be shocked if the answer wasn't there.

Thanks, I found it.

Still haven't figured out how to disable tpms in forscan yet. Tried focccus program but couldn't get it working, keeps getting error about can't insert security into ECU. Oh well, just have to live with the annoying light for now.

Update on focccus: It looks like it doesn't support any 2016+ focus.