Winter Car Prep
 

Still a little while away but I plan on ramping up on preparations for my first winter with this car. I live in Toronto and have a decent commute so I was hoping to get some tips from fellow drivers who may or may not have had experience last winter with this car. So far I know I'm doing the following things:

Winter tires (undecided make, X-ice has been good for me in the past)
Weathertech mats
Rust proofing
Reprogramming windows from dealer to stop the auto roll down/roll up when opening doors.
Possibly adding some sort of lubrication around the seals to avoid damage. (mainly worried about window seals since I had a bad time with my only frost with this car)
Possibly adding some weight in the back

Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks,

sounds good so far, in for answers too

Ordered my winter tires from pmctires in Quebec. They ship free to Ontario. For 1156cnd I got Yokohama iceguard 205/55r16 91T FN's on RTX Fuji 16x6.5 5x100 wheels mounted and balanced taxes included. Ordered them on Wednesday they were on my doorstep Friday before noon. hope that helps.

Im leaning towards just mounting winter tires on the stock rims because I plan on getting slightly wider rims next year to mount summer tires onto. Anyone have experience or comments with that?

My winter prep is kicking the tires and making an approving "hmm" noise.

i was running with the same idea...

We got a lot of snow in Southern ON last year. I am a big fan of the Bridgestone Blizzak WS series of tires. I ran a set of the WS-60s last winter and they served me well...very well. I have a bit of country driving though, so being from T.O., you may like the LM series better. The WS is an all-out snow tire and gives up some handling and dry road ability to achieve this. The LM is a little more performance oriented.
You could go with the X-ice, as they're a good tire. If we have snow like last year though, they may not be enough for you.
WeatherTech mats are a good idea...the OEM Scion rubber ones don't really cut it.
Rust proofing...I've been using Rust Check for about 20 years on various vehicles, and it works great! Crown is good too.
Reprogramming the windows... I didn't know they could do that. It would save me having to reset the window every time it gets some ice on it. I should look into that. Do you have a link to this, 'cause I'm pretty sure my dealer isn't aware of it.
Lubricating seals... I'm not big on Armor All, but products like that work well for keeping the door and window seals clean and stick-free. I have been using Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care. You can get it at Canadian Tire.
You shouldn't need to add weight. This car works really well in the snow. Just leave the nannies (traction/stability control) on, and have at 'er. I say leave them on because this car is very lively in the snow, but the nannies do a really good job of keeping things pointed in the right direction.

Edit: I meant to mention sizes as well... I went with a 16" winter tire for a couple of reasons. 16" tires are less money than a 17. Steel wheels are cheap. I think mine were about $50 each, but others were talking like $40 at Costco. You could get more than that for your nice clean stock wheels, then put that towards your choice of aftermarket wheels for spring. A 16" tire of the same O.D. at the stock size will flex more and help bite in the snow. If you consider this, the closest size to the stock O.D. is a 205/55/16. If you don't, I wouldn't blame you, they're kind of fugly. Functional, but fugly.

lol wut winter?

I have some of this gonna use it see if it helps at all with the sticking window

http://handa-accessories.com/shin.jpg

What kind of areas were you driving if you dont mind me asking. Reason being is I work east of the city, about 40km east of Oshawa so I get some country driving as well. Did the car ever have any issues like getting stuck in decent snow fall last year?

Also I heard that the window thing could be done but I have to find out exactly how. If I find out I will post back here as well.

I live in Prince Edward County, south of the Belleville/Trenton area. Mostly two lane 80KPH type roads, and some in town driving. About 35-40KM one way to work. Surprisingly, I didn't get stuck at all last year, and there were a couple of times I was pushing snow with the bottom of the front bumper on some of the city streets. Sometimes you may need to shut the traction control off to get started in the deep stuff. The traction control won't allow enough wheel speed to gain any forward momentum. this doesn't happen often though, as I only needed to do this a couple of times last year.

FT86 is already rust proof, and you might want to read below thread before you proceed with that. :(

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44681

Not An Option - Reprogramming Windows to Stop Auto Roll Down/Roll Up
 

As you put it, just add some sort of lubrication around the seals to avoid damage

Well mine freeze once in a while in winter and they don't hit the body work even though they don't go down.