06 STI Tires and Wheels - bad for snow?

All-Wheel-Drive doesn't help much if none of your wheels has grip :). But coming from a guy who drove a FWD Corolla with nearly bald way wide compared to stock Nitto NeoGen's through Michigan winters... you can probably manage.

However, I wouldn't recommend it. The stock Bridgestones are definitely a summer oriented tire, and would you really want to risk bending one of those oh-so-expensive BBS wheels in a winter pothole? Or smashing up your brand new $30+ thousand dollar car?

IMO... spending $800 on some crappy wheels and good winter tires is cheap insurance and will make your winter driving a lot more enjoyable.

Adam Frankel wrote:

Thanks for the response. So do I need to replace the wheels and the tires now or just the tires?

Right now the cars have "low profile" tires (I don't know the specific make/model), could I go straight from those to these:

Thanks for helping me.

Low profile is bad on winter roads. You want a higher profile tire than the STi comes with stock.

Besides, the salt will KILL the stock rims. You'll be really sad if you don't pony up the $$$ for some winter rims. Plus, with rims and tires you don't have to go and get the tires re-mounted every spring and fall. You can just do it at home. Nothing sucks more than waiting too long for the tire changeover, and having to drive to the tire shop on your summer tires in the snow. Murphy's law says you'll rearend someone at a stop sign while the tires that would have gripped are in the trunk.

Get snows on rims. You'll never regret it.

He nneds to make sure that if he 'minus 1' sizes the wheels, they will clear the brakes.

I'm just a flatlander - but from everything I've read (and believe) the worst dedicated snow tires are better than the best all seasons even with AWD.

Carl

OK. Befiore you go nuts on wheels and tires, you can't use smaller wheels; they won't clear the brake calipers in the front. If you can, I would buy a set of 7"X17" with the correct offset for the winter. I use a narrower tire for the winter since it will give you better grip in snow. I use a

If you have to use the stock rims (which you can do, but will take a beating from salt and sand) you have to use 225/45R17.

The stock tires are summer tires only. Not only are they useless in snow, but they are not supposed to be used in lower temperatures (below about 40 degrees F). The tread compound is not designed to operate at low temps and will get hard causing severe loss of grip. People have crashed their brand new STi's because they got them in the winter and drove them on the OEM tires. I at least give your salesman credit for warning you not to use them in the winter, even if his info wasn't totally correct. As others have posted you can't use smaller wheels due to brake clearance but there are some aftermarket wheels that will fit. If you are in upstate NY you should get dedicated winter tires and not all seasons.

Besides the summer rubber you'd have the problem with 90W grease in the rear diff. It flows above 32F. Not sure what you could do aside from replacing it with 75W90 when temperature drops below 40F or something? I wonder if the diff would overheat if you forget to switch back to 90W when the temps get back up. The manual is mum regarding what to do in STI below 32F.

Thanks for all the responses. I used tirerack.com (recommended to me by the Subaru mechanic) and I am going to get a set of 4:

and

This will come to $720 for 4 of each.

ASX grip poorly on snow. If you absolutely have to get all seasons people claim ContiExtremeContacts work very well in most conditions. There is a RE-960 (successor?) to RE-950s that's been a very good all around tire. But for a high perf car like yours all seasons will be the weak link in a chain. If you can't afford two sets of rubber (dedicated max perf summers and perf/deep snow winters) I'd save $$$ and get a plain WRX instead.

I'd concur. The car is coming with summer tires. You're set for the non-winter months. If you're getting separate rims and tires, but winter tires on, not all season tires.

Very good advice. The STI is an incredible car, but the plain WRX is still lots of fun and more practical for your application.

My wife has used hers as a snow car in the Sierras for 2 seasons with zero problems and stock tires.

I don't do anything to the oil in the diff with no probs. We get down down to below -30 C here in winter and the car works fine.

Whoah! Do *NOT* drive the stock tires in winter conditions! Not only is there practically no snow-worthy grip, but the stock tires are rated only down to 4C!

You *will* slide through every turn, miss every stop, skid down hills, spin in place up hills, and generally look like a tool driving a car like the STi without winter or at least M+S tires.

The reason the salesman is suggesting a new set of wheels to go with new tires is twofold: 1. The BBS wheels are ridiculously expensive. Why risk them? 2. It hurts tires to be moved too many times around on wheels.

You don't necessarily have to get smaller wheels and bigger tires. Be mindful, though, of the fact that snow and ice that can accumulate in BBS-like ventilated wheels and STi wheel-wells. (My old 2002 WRX, driving through snowy conditions, needed frequent cleaning in the wheel wells with a long-handled scraper, without which the tire would rub horribly against polished ice/snow chunks tossed up there and compressed by normal driving.)

I spoke with some people at BBS. They seemed to think winter salt wouldn't hurt the wheels at all.

Note the poster ID---the info is totally bogus. ;-)

Nice to know. Do you have any autocross events in winter?

Looks like you are right. From what I googled 90W synthetic may flow okay even at 0F. Does anyone know if STI comes with synthetic or dino gear oil in the rear diff? Thanks!

We do indeed. I don't autocross myself, but several of my buddies with STIs do and no issues with the oil in the diff. When the car is cold, it is a bit stiff (but so is the tranny), but everything warms up in a few minutes of driving.

Mine (an 04) came with MOTUL synthetic