Winter Driving on Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s
 

Swapped out the stock Michelin HPs for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's about two weeks ago. I liked the HP's, they where fun to drive on and the fuel efficiency was wonderful. But, I've read that they are not the best choice for Winter driving. Since my FRS is my daily driver, I wanted something more appropriate for Winter, but I didn't want to be swapping-out dedicated Winter and Summer tires.

So far, I find the PS A/S 3's to be very sticky in dry and wet conditions, but I've yet to try them in snow. That'll happen tomorrow as we are expected to get a few inches in the Maryland area.

Fully realizing that A/S's are not as good as dedicated snow tires in the snow, and for those that own Pilot Sport A/S 3's, what has been your experiences with your FRS in the snow?

Following this thread. I'm looking for a DD tire that can get me out of a pinch if I get caught in a snow storm. I mostly drive around down South but still need to visit the fiance in Ohio.

billyk, will you please update with your experience in the snow?

From my personal experience:

DO NOT USE THE PRIMACY HPs in the SNOW - EVER

Please excuse this public service announcement: Now please return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Sure - I plan to.

Here's an interesting comparison of snow, A/S and Summer tires...

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2wTg0l3_wI"]Winter Snow Tires vs All-Season Tires vs Summer Tires testing on Ice - YouTube[/ame]

A/S's are definitely an improvement over Summer tires, but they are also limited in snow. I've always owned A/S's on my cars and I know what to expect with FWD cars. But the RWD aspect of the FRS introduces a new variable for me. I am hoping that with careful driving, the Pilot Sports A/S 3's are usable in Winter weather on the FRS.

Yup - I got this message loud and clear here on this forum!!
Hence, the new A/Ss after just 4 weeks on the HPs.

I personally don't even mess with A/S tires as in Maine they are 3 season tires. From looking at the tread design I expect them to be marginally okay if you deal with small inclines.

My first set of winter tires were a Dunlop wintersport. Those did great until I had to go up steeper hills at lower speeds. I switched to a dedicated snow tire after they didn't cut it where my old fwd car could pull through without a problem.

I think you need to take into consideration how much snow you expect, how often it will snow, and how long you expect it to be on the roads/surfaces you will be driving on. For a place like MD, I don't expect you to get as much snow, nor it to stay on the roads or snow often as it does here in OH. You may be able to get away with the A/S tires, as long as you drive carefully!

What Hunter said.
I have drove many a RWd car on all seasons through all kind of snow/ice conditions. The ASs are usually fine for smaller amounts of snow or even brief periods in deeper snow. Snows are only essential if you are going to spend longer periods in deeper snow or extreme ice conditions.
With RWD cars in the winter how you drive is much more critical then what you drive on for tires.

Sage advice guys.
Thanks!

@billyk I'm in Baltimore area and have been using pilot sport a/s 3 since last winter. It's been OKAY so far except when we had 5-6 inches of snow sometime last year and I had hard time trying to get out of the snow spot. I was going to home from work, just to clarify I didn't drive just to fool around. It can't go up the hills on snow road at all. My tires are wearing to the bars now, so I bought a pair of those Autosock in case of emergency. As others said, drive with HIGH caution and try to avoid snow covered road.

Geez - you've worn out your PS A/S 3's in one year? Yikes!

haha I know right? I've been going to track and back roads a lot this summer and tried to learn how to drift, so this tire went through a lot.

I did exactly what you did and for the same reasons last year. Live in the NJ area but I change the HPs to Michelin Primacy MXM4 All Seasons.


Was disappointed on how the BRZ handled in the snow with the All Seasons. Was all over the road and even when not moving if there was a crown in the road the car would just slide to the side!


My other cars with All Season tires did much much better. I concluded that the low profile nature of the tires just don't allow for much grip in the snow.


As you know, tomorrow will be our first snow (expecting 1 inch). I'd be curious how the Pilot Sports work out for you. Hopefully better than the MXM4s did for me!

Well the commute into work this AM in the Baltimore area was 2 hours long instead of the usual 30 minutes. We are on our way to having 3-4 inches of snow. The timing of the snow this AM really made the roads dangerous in my rural area, as nothing was cleared or salted yet.

I've got a relatively long/steep drive followed by a similarly steep hill up my small rural street. Reverse up the drive slipped a bit and 1st going up the street also slipped for a moment. In both cases, traction control kicked-in and I started to move. 2nd gear was good for getting up the hill. When my wife tried the same path a hour later with her Accord she couldn't get up the street at all. She returned home. Although we did not have much accumulation, there appeared to be ice under the snow in plenty of areas making travel really dicey for all cars. Everyone was going very slowly on the side roads.

My Beltway commute was in a couple inches of snow or slush and the PS A/S 3's did well. I shutter to think what the HP's would have been like. Again, the roads were deceivingly slippery - I watched a Camaro spin right in front of me and off the side of the Beltway. My FRS sped by just fine.

I felt that driving really carefully was the ticket, as I could have lost contact with the road at any point if I pushed it. The PS A/S 3s functioned predictably, and with caution, they felt safe. The FRS with these tires felt like cars I drove when I was a teenager prior to FWD popularity - not at all like the AWD SUV's I've driven more recently - but definitely capable.

As Tcoat said:
"With RWD cars in the winter how you drive is much more critical then what you drive on for tires."

Commuted home on mostly dry roads, except for my rural neighborhood. There, my road was total slush and packed snow going down a pretty steep hill and a long steep drive. Again, my FRS acted predictably and it was capable of handling these conditions with careful driving. I had to go back out from home after work and climbing that hill caused some fishtailing on start, but it climbed the hill easily.

So, the PS A/S 3's seem to be usable in the 4" of snow we got today. It'll stay on course if I drive carefully. When we get a foot of snow, I'll just stay home from work. :)

We got 2 inch in Jersey today and my all season's felt like last year...ok, not great, and telling me not to make any quick moves. Just as you, reminds me of driving rear wheel cars as a kid!

Here's a vote of confidence in the PS A/S 3's...

This AM the interstate road conditions in Northern MD were wet, temps were 24 degrees. Definitely conditions that require some awareness. I needed to make an emergency full stop from 55mph in a short distance as traffic unexpectedly halted up ahead. The Michelins gripped 100% just as if it were a dry Summer day. I was fully expecting some amount of slip given the temp, the water on the road and not to mention the possibility of icing.

I have Pilot Sport A/S 3's but use Blizzaks for the winter. There are places that I have to drive where all seasons that are good for an inch or two of dry snow may not get me home. My Pilots that I put on last Feb are almost at the wear bars so they aren't safe for winter use anyway.

How many miles have you gotten from the Pilot Sport A/S 3s?

Around 21,000 miles and 4 track days. The tires probably have a couple of thousand miles left in them but they are getting slippery in the rain.

My A/S 3 were not happy with cold wet road this morning. Even slight acceleration on turn makes tail swing. Probably have about few thousand miles left..

Damn! Just 21K on your tires? Can you use your 45k warranty to replace them?

How many miles on yours?

Not sure exactly, but I think I've used it for about... 23,000 miles? Wore faster than expected.

Wow - plenty of reports of these tires not getting anywhere near the 45k that they are warrantied for.

I probably could but I won't try. I push the car a lot and drive on a lot of shitty roads so i never get the full mileage out of any tires that grip well. The track days and the fact that I'm not great about rotating them doesn't help either.

The Tire rack tests do say that pushing these tires does make them wear quickly BTW.

I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

You woudlnt be able to get them claimed under warranty anyways, unless you could show there was a defect in all four tires. Otherwise, its just considered "normal wear and tear"