On Friday night I experienced summer tire in cold temp FAIL!

Fortunately the result was only embarrassment and not an accident.

It was about 35 degrees...I had just washed the S so the tires were a bit wet still...went to pull out of the parking lot in 1st...gave it a normal get up and go acceleration (without hitting VTEC) and to my surprise the back end came around and I found myself 45 degrees sideways which I quickly corrected by letting off the throttle a bit. Could not believe how easy it broke loose. Even once the tires had dried I still found them to be very slippery at 35 degrees!

Anyone in cool or cold climates still running summer tires? I think it's time to swap my winterforce tire wheels on!

PS: I'm running 245/45/16 Hankook RS2's and the rears have about 70% tread left

 

i got into a pretty big accident while running summer tires in cold temps. road was fine, if a little salty, shifted gears in the middle of an onramp and spun around 90degrees and ended up in the grass. $4k in repairs later...

needless to say i'm running winter tires (dunlop m3's) this winter.

 

If the temps drop below 45-50 degrees, summer tires are scary. I swap for my winter tires come early November in Chicago.

The rubber compounds don't behave well when it gets cold.

 

Ouch! shifting mid corner, ftl! It would suck to wreck because of my tires because I've been too lazy to swap my other set of rims and snow tires on yet!

 

but i'd taken this onramp a million times before at much higher speeds with no problem. the difference was it was cold...

 

Yep! I now know how much of a difference the temp makes on these tires!

 

I don't know if any of you remember, there was that huge winter storm ripping through the northeast during Christmas of 2002.

I was in college at the time, me and 3 buddies of mine hopped into my Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V the morning of the storm. The car had summer performance tires on. We were heading towards California for a wedding (leaving from about 20 minutes north of New York City).

The storm was so bad that the entire highway was empty for about 6 hours. Not a single other car. We were going about 20-40 mph for the first day. At night the snow was so heavy that we had to turn our headlights off. With them on it reflected the snow and it created a wall of snow you couldn't see past...used hazard lights only.

Next entire day was very icy, and the snow levels had dropped, but we were picking up so much ice/snow in the wheels that we had to stop every hour because the wheel balance would get thrown off and shake like crazy.

Of course, we get to California and are crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains and they threaten to ticket us if we didn't put on snow chains because there was a light dusting of snow on the ground.

edited slightly for grammar

 

[QUOTE=JLUDE,Dec 16 2008, 02:18 PM]On Friday night I experienced summer tire in cold temp FAIL!

 

Be careful when its cold, you never know. I have had my fair share of fun when the tires are cold and you feel the need to slide around.

 

The same feature of the tire compound that makes it get softer and stickier as it warms up works the opposite way as the compound gets colder. It makes the tires hard and slippery. In addition, when you involve snow or slush--pretty much any amount at all, the treads have no mechanism for ejecting it. The narrow grooves in the tire immediately pack up with snow/slush/ice and turns your already slippery but grooved tires into slicks with no tread relief.

It makes it rather hard to drive. Ask my wife who slid completely off the driveway in 1/4 inch of snow. She couldn't deal with the curve and incline of the driveway.