Cool J

wtf....blah...stupid thing timed out and i lost my whole thing.....

ok, anyways...i was out early this morning and temperature was 32 degrees. i floored it and it was pulling but i didnt have traction for at least 50 feet. is this due to the cold tires or just because my tires suck? i have contintel touring contact as that were on the car when i bought it
http://www.conti-online.com/generato...enefit_en.html

front two tires are getting low but back two tires still have tread left. is it alright to just replaced front two tires or is it recommended i do them all at once even though the back tires are good. i am looking into getting some of those falken ziex 512 tires but for 4 tires of 215/55r16 it will run about 460 since the tires cost about $115 each. are there any other places that sell them cheaper?

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

cold temperature will slightly lower the tire pressure. Hot temperature will do the opposite. If you just have bad traction, its the tires.

Cool J

alright, these tires are going bye bye very soon. i am just gonna replace em all with falken ziex 512. can i fit a 225/55r on 16 inch stock se rims or do i need to get the recommended 215/55r tires

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

You might be able to but not 100% sure. Give tireshop a call. They should be able to tell you

Bman

Just to let you know, all non-snow/winter tires will have decreased traction when the temperature dips that low. It's just a function of how tire makers have to make the rubber compound so that it can (sort of) work in all 4 seasons. Cold temperature makes the rubber harder, so it has less grip.

The Falkens may or may not be an improvement, no one can tell you for sure. Keep in mind that it is supposed to be a high performance A/S tire, so that means it's design is biased slightly more towards handling and/or wet grip, and probably less for icy weather. I don't know for sure, that's just my best guess.

bigdo26

iTrader: (3)

ya rubber gets harder in the cold = less traction. i have the same problem. tires just love to spin in the cold. but the engine loves cold air huh?

Cool J

yeah....that 30 degree air was nice....it was pulling like made and my max is all stock right now. anyways...the falkens are v rated so i will be able to test out my max speed some time too

FloydMax

Your tires were cold and that is why they didn't grip well at first. Dragsters always heat up their tires before a run for that same reason. The TouringContact is a good tire for the car, but more designed for touring comfort than performance. The ContiExtremeContact is the performance tire by Continental and in between there is the ContiPremierContact for luxury car ride with high performance. As long as you keep the tire type (radial), size and overall characteristics close, you shouldn't have any significant problem with keeping the rear tires and replacing the fronts. Try to match the maximum inflation pressure of the new tires to the old if you can. However, many Maxima owners run the rears at lower pressures (I do) anyways, so if you get a 44psi max. tire for the front while having 35 psi max.tires on the rear, you might run at, say, 40 psi front and 34 psi rear with quite good results while economizing on your purchase. Check out www.tirerack.com surveys as well as 1010tires.com for the tires that best meet your needs.

Jaeger

Agreed. The problem has little to do with tire pressure and everything to do with the rubber compound in the tire. Below 7 degrees Centigrade (someone work out what the hell that is in Farenheit) snow tires will grip better than all seasons, and that advantage increases as the temperature decreases.

When the thermometer really drops, you can forget about tire pressure, tread design and tread wear of your all-seasons because you're basically driving on four hockey pucks. If winter happens where you live, 4 snows are the way to go. All season tires are a year-round compromise.

Cheers,

Jaeger

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

You know experts recommend deflating tire pressure so you get more grip on snow

Cool J

i don't get any snow where i am at...i live in the central valley of california so all seaon are still best for me

Bman

That's because it's supposed to increase tire compliance and contact patch (because it flattens out). While this trick may work well in snow, it's not going to do you any favours once the snow melts or gets cleared away. Also, I don't think it'd be a good idea if you're going to go from the snowy side streets up to roaring (cleared) highway speeds because if you've dropped the pressure too much, the tire would probably squirm so much it might overheat slightly. Anyway... I guess my point is to watch when you do this and don't deflate the tires too much.

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

Yea I was going to say, I don't think people in this Org are dumb enough to deflate the tire so much that they look like flat tires I was thinking 3-5 lbs max.

Stereodude

This is certainly is true of the Potenzas that come on some of the 5th gens.

I'm running 225/55/16 Continental ContiExtreme's (high performance all seasons) for my winter tires and they seem to be minimally effected by low temperature. I was pleasantly surprised. You might want to check them out. Tire Rack has them for under $100 a pop.

Bman

Heheh, hey you never know! Sometimes a tire will still look only just "a little low", even though when you go and actually stick a tire gauge on to it it might only read like 10 psi.