Snow wheel / tire install notes
 

Howdy! So I meant to install my snow tires while the weather was nice, probably just before a snow storm showed up. However, I spent the last 2 days home from work sick as a dog, and now the snow-pocalypse is upon us!

So I had a couple of questions for folks. I got the tires and wheels from tire rack, and that's lovely. They've already been assembled and balanced, but they don't have the TPMS junk in them.

So my questions are:

1) How should I set the tire pressure? Should I go based on the OEM recommendations in the door, or with the tire mfg recommendations?

2) I'm not going to need some damned hub-centric spacer thing to make this work, am I?

3) I probably won't need an alignment, will I? The new wheels are 16" but the tires are higher profile and the circumference should be very nearly spot on.

4) Should I put anything on the studs to inhibit corrosion, or just bolt those bad boys up and go?

Thanks guys, you're some real pals <3

1. Ill defer since you swapped sizes but the pressure on the tire is probably just fine.

2. They aren't required but may smooth out vibrations if not lined up perfectly.

3. You don't need an alignment for wheels and tires only. Not changing suspension.

4. I always just bolt them up and get moving. If you have something laying around, it wouldn't hurt.

Have fun and be safe!

I'd be careful about the hub centric spacer. I think someone else complained that their car was vibrating at certain speeds due to this (lack of). Can not recall if this ended up causing any damage or not, such as a snapped stud or something.

Any tire/wheel combo from Tirerack should include the necessary hubcentric rings assuming you had your car configured on their site when you placed the order.

SCORE!

Thanks :) That's precisely what I did, was ask for 16" wheels that'll fit an FR-S. I'm glad they include that stuff.

Are they steels? If so, I believe those are lug-centric. I don't think they make hub-centric rings for steels. If this is, in fact, the case, then just be sure to tighten them using the star pattern on the lugs.

Yep, plain old black steelies. I didn't even bother with hub caps... they cost enough as is.

Great news either way - As long as I don't end up with all my wheels off on my only car, and some random part that NOBODY WILL HAVE IN STOCK. I'm happy as could be.

Does anyone here know if Tire Rack ships their tires aired up if you get mount + balance? That would be super convenient.

Last time I had a set shipped out to me, they were ready to bolt on. This was back in '97 or so. I doubt they would've changed their practices. Each wheel/tire arrived with round cardboard covering the sides, with nylon straps securing the cardboard to each wheel/tire. Lugs/Rings were in a baggie taped on to the inside of one of the cardboard circles.

Cut the straps, toss the cardboard, use the supplied hardware, mount to car, good to go.

Yeah that's precisely what they do now, too :) I've got a stack of tire / cardboard sandwiches in the corner of the garage.