[Norm Peterson]

Runflats have stiffer sidewalls, those being necessary to at least attempt to support its share of the car weight when inflation pressure inside it has been lost. This comes at some cost in "mechanical grip". as the higher vertical stiffness means that the tire will not conform as readily to the small pavement non-uniformities that are always present.


Norm

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by JAM32

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but its getting cold where I live so I started thinking about this issue. I could really use some feed back here guys. I always appreciate the input from this forum.

Backstory:
I live in New Mexico. It doesn't get NE or midwest cold, but in the winters it gets down to the 20, teens over night. Light Snow occasionally. I leave for work early enough for it to still be in the teens.

I had a '17 1ss, recently traded in for an SS 1LE with many less miles.
Both have been my one and only daily driving car. I got through 2 winters with the 1SS and can't remember any issues, certainly nothing like what OP experienced. I did swap out the original F1s for Firestone Indy 500s after about 12k miles. But certainly the goodyear runflats were fine the first winter. I bought the car in November '16.

So is the 1LE rubber that much different? If i leave the house at 530 one am, and its 13 degree outside, are my tires just going to disintegrate, or am I gonna spin out on the uphill on ramp i take?

BIG CAVEAT
I broke the bank with this purchase boys. we can talk about my unwise financial decisions later. But I DO NOT have the scratch to get extra tires a rims. So just leave it out. Hell for 1.5k i might as well just get a beater at an auction and drive that for a few months. idk.
I could potentially do extra tires, but I'm not finding many all season options that even fit 1LE rims. and its still around $1k. which for a lowly public defender, is a significant amount of money.

thanks for the feedback all. Wonder if anyone else from the mid southwest has driven an 1LE through a winter.

If you can manage to not drive if it's <20 F or if there is any snow on the roads you should be ok.

It's not recommended to drive on the tires <40F as they lose a lot of traction but they won't be damaged until temps are <20F.

The tires will be ok <20F if you don't roll the car, if they are exposed to lower temps wait until they return to above freezing to roll them.

Or do what I did... look for deals and/or go to Discount Tire and get a 1-yr 0-interest payment plan. However, in Albuquerque, if you can just not drive or take an Uber it would probably work out fine. There aren't that many snow days there. My parents used to live in the area...

Above all, pay attention to the OP, the car will be a sled in the snow with very little ability to stop or change direction. You can slide sideways right off the road if the road has a decent crown. You can hurt other people and it'll be entirely your fault. It's a big deal imo, please be careful.

[JamesNoBrakes]

Originally Posted by TJay74

The tires will not crack from just driving in cold weather, I drove on my stock 1LE tires last winter. Granted the lowest was 25°-30°, but they never cracked.

Thanks for adding nothing to the discussion.

The bulletin put out by GM specifically states that driving below 40 not recommended, driving at 20 and under can lead to cracks and make the tires unsafe. If you aren't driving at 20 and under, it's irrelevant if yours didn't crack.

[JAM32]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess my best bet is to get a payment plan from discount, or maybe go to an auction for a beater. Even though itll only be maybe December thru February, its gonna be unsafe possibly damaging to drive on these tires. Something i wish i considered before making the swap.

I should have added that i live in an apartment, no garage. So storing the summer gear will be difficult, but i can figure that out.

[Bad Anvil Garage]

Originally Posted by JAM32

Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess my best bet is to get a payment plan from discount, or maybe go to an auction for a beater. Even though itll only be maybe December thru February, its gonna be unsafe possibly damaging to drive on these tires. Something i wish i considered before making the swap.

I should have added that i live in an apartment, no garage. So storing the summer gear will be difficult, but i can figure that out.

Get a set of black OE wheels with a set of all season tires. Yes, they WILL fit over the big calipers! That's what I use on my 1LE in the winter. Discount Tire can store your summer wheels for you in a temp controlled warehouse for a small fee.

[JAM32]

OE wheels are not an option. Out of my price range. But thanks.

[DaveC113]

Check my thread on Tire Rack old stock tires. I got 265/40/19 Michelin PA4 N-Spec (directional Porsche-spec) for $550 delivered with an $80 rebate. The tires are old but look fine. Normal price is well over $300 per tire.

You could go with any 19x9.5 20mm offset wheel and be just fine. I got MRR flow forged wheels on their 40% off sale and went with 10"wide 30mm offset using 7mm spacers and .5" longer arp wheel studs in the front to maintain stock wheel spacing but with 20mm and 9.5s the rears will only stick out about 5mm more than stock, fronts will be about the same as stock. I got the wheels using Discount Tire's 0% promo. Got some splined lugs and tmps sensors used from someone on here. Total was <$2k. Could have been $1500 with cheaper wheels w/o tpms.

[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by JAM32

OE wheels are not an option. Out of my price range. But thanks.

If you follow ebay long enough, a set of wheels will show up. I got a set of 5-spoke wheels for my SS with less than 100 miles for < $800 shipped. There are plenty of people swapping out their wheels on brand new Camaros.