Winter tires

[Rapid Red]

So I had an interesting experience at the dealer today. I went in to have winter tires put on the stock rims. That went ok. On the test drive however, at some point the engine shutdown kicked in when they were stopped, and it would not power back up. They had to tow the explorer back to the dealership. They tried for an hour to get it going, including disconnecting the battery, but no luck.

So now I have an escape loaner for the weekend. It’s good on gas.

I am happy this happened on their watch. But it has me really freaked out about the auto power down function, which I hate already. Might have to get a tune just to override that, and take the extra HP as a side benefit!

Will know more Monday when they get in into the shop.

I hope others fare better than me. Given that the vehicle is red, and the hatch opened a couple of times when wandwashing it the other night, I think I am going to name it Christine. I hope no mechanics lose any fingers fixing it!

 

[blwnsmoke]

Auto Start/Stop or it stalled and wouldn't restart lol. I'm going with the 2nd one..

 

[Rapid Red]

Auto Start/Stop or it stalled and wouldn't restart lol. I'm going with the 2nd one..

Wish I had been there to see it live. What do you think would cause it to stall out? The car is a week in service 180 miles on the odometer...

 

[blwnsmoke]

Wish I had been there to see it live. What do you think would cause it to stall out? The car is a week in service 180 miles on the odometer...

The fact that it wouldn't restart tells me that something else is going on.. has nothing to do with Auto S/S.

Could be something simple/electronic (well, ok... electronics area rarely ever simple).

 

[Rapid Red]

The fact that it wouldn't restart tells me that something else is going on.. has nothing to do with Auto S/S.

Could be something simple/electronic (well, ok... electronics area rarely ever simple).

Even though the restart would not happen (at least this is what i was told) after the auto S/S had shut down the vehicle. I don’t know which scenario is more concerning then.

Oh well i guess with a redesign there are bound to be some kinks to get worked out. Although in this case all that took place was, presumably, wheels taken off, rubber swapped, then reinstalled. So as far as electronics that could get impacted, it would likely just be the TPMS.

Oh well, i will update once i know more. In the meantime back to the winter tire suggestions and experiences, and hopefully the solution to my unlucky situation will be useful to someone else if they experience the same issue.

Silver lining, the escape is not a bad little vehicle - pretty peppy little thing for the engine size.

 

[Rapid Red]

So i hopefully get my ST back tomorrow after 4 days at the dealer. They want to keep it one more day to do some more test runs to make sure the problem is solved. They traced the vehicle problems to a poor ground wire connection. So blwnsmoke it looks like your prediction was bang on. Well done.

I likely will be able to report back in a week or two (once we get some proper snow) as to how the Kumho Wintercraft Tire’s that i had put on the stock rims perform. Have had blizzaks, nokians, and Toyo winter tires in the past but never Kumho. So fingers crossed they perform well.

 

[peterk9]

I may be getting the Aviator Reserve (II) later today and due to the high cost of steel wheels for this vehicle, I am looking at putting Winter tires on the stock wheels for the first time. Possibly the Bridgestone DM-V2.

Peter

 

[blwnsmoke]

I may be getting the Aviator Reserve (II) later today and due to the high cost of steel wheels for this vehicle, I am looking at putting Winter tires on the stock wheels for the first time. Possibly the Bridgestone DM-V2.

Peter

Consider the cost of mounting/balancing twice a year ($20 per tire roughly so $160 a year swapping them) plus the increased cost in getting 20-22" snow tires.

If you keep it for 4 years, that $650 in mounting/balancing plus several hundred more in the larger snow tire size. I'd go with aftermarket 18s and protect those nicer rims from the winter elements.

 

[peterk9]

Chances are the dealer will come calling after 3 years on 4 year lease. I still had a year left on the Platinum.

Peter

 

[blwnsmoke]

Chances are the dealer will come calling after 3 years on 4 year lease. I still had a year left on the Platinum.

Peter

Yes but you can still reuse them on your 2023 lol.

 

[Rapid Red]

Something to consider on those Blizzaks - just run them all year round. I actually did that with a set of 22s on my Denali XL and the durability was off the charts. I then proceeded to transfer the 22s over to another vehicle and I tried for 3 more years to burn them off so I could get some new winters. Still had a fair bit of tread left when I finally had them replaced.

Not sure where you live in Canada (I live in Edmonton), but if the summers are as short as they are here, you don’t have too many hot weather months to worry about, and you are covered when it snowstorms in May or September. And saves a ton in tire wear through mounting and remounting.

 

[Rapid Red]

Ps I got into my blizzaks at Costco. Think they were around 1600 installed about 8 years ago, so not sure how it has changed, but they were about 400 cheaper than all the local tire shops.

I got into my 21 inch Kumho Wintercrafts for 1650 installed at the dealer last Friday. I don’t plan to run them year round as I want to find something nice to put in the stock rubber since those seem like decent tires.

 

[CDW6212R]

Something to consider on those Blizzaks - just run them all year round. I actually did that with a set of 22s on my Denali XL and the durability was off the charts. I then proceeded to transfer the 22s over to another vehicle and I tried for 3 more years to burn them off so I could get some new winters. Still had a fair bit of tread left when I finally had them replaced.

Not sure where you live in Canada (I live in Edmonton), but if the summers are as short as they are here, you don’t have too many hot weather months to worry about, and you are covered when it snowstorms in May or September. And saves a ton in tire wear through mounting and remounting.

That is interesting, since I have a set of Blizzak's which are about ten years old. I have to use them up, and I've loved them in the snow, but driving them much on pavement has bothered me.

 

[Rapid Red]

That is interesting, since I have a set of Blizzak's which are about ten years old. I have to use them up, and I've loved them in the snow, but driving them much on pavement has bothered me.

View attachment 175204

When you say it bothered you driving them on the pavement, do you mean the handling, or just that you felt like you were going to burn them up too quickly?

I know when it was first suggested to me to run them year-round, i was thought it was a crazy idea, but when i started doing the math around the cost of extra rims, changeover, and tire storage costs, vs the cost of a new set of tires every 3 or 4 years, and the aggravation of having to wait for hours in tire shops during changeover season, I decided to give it a shot. I was surprised by how long the blizzards lasted through both summer and winter driving.

 

[themishmosh]

So you want the best winter performance and get winter tires but are OK with poor wet/dry performance in the other 3 seasons? I don't get it. Unless your province requires winter tires, I think I'd just use all seasons if I were being cheap.

 

[blwnsmoke]

When you say it bothered you driving them on the pavement, do you mean the handling, or just that you felt like you were going to burn them up too quickly?

I know when it was first suggested to me to run them year-round, i was thought it was a crazy idea, but when i started doing the math around the cost of extra rims, changeover, and tire storage costs, vs the cost of a new set of tires every 3 or 4 years, and the aggravation of having to wait for hours in tire shops during changeover season, I decided to give it a shot. I was surprised by how long the blizzards lasted through both summer and winter driving.

Why would you wait 3-4 hours? I jack up the vehicle and it takes 30 minutes to swap them over myself in the garage twice a year.

 

[Rapid Red]

So you want the best winter performance and get winter tires but are OK with poor wet/dry performance in the other 3 seasons? I don't get it. Unless your province requires winter tires, I think I'd just use all seasons if I were being cheap.

That is an option too. Where i live it is winter far more than summer, and we can get snow in June and September, so i tend to want the snow tires for winter, and leave them on for longer periods. My thing in recent years has been to put snow tires on the stock, then buy custom wheels for the summer.

 

[Rapid Red]

Why would you wait 3-4 hours? I jack up the vehicle and it takes 30 minutes to swap them over myself in the garage twice a year.

Two things:

1. I’m not the handiest when it comes to all things mechanical. So i could see buggering things up.
2. Don’t have room in the garage to store winter tires for three vehicles, so have an arrangement where i store them offsite for $50/season. I would rather do that than endure the ride to the dealer with the tires shifting back and forth in the back of the vehicle.
3. Three actually. I’m getting old and don’t like lugging the tires around.

 

[peterk9]

Two things:

1. I’m not the handiest when it comes to all things mechanical. So i could see buggering things up.
2. Don’t have room in the garage to store winter tires for three vehicles, so have an arrangement where i store them offsite for $50/season. I would rather do that than endure the ride to the dealer with the tires shifting back and forth in the back of the vehicle.
3. Three actually. I’m getting old and don’t like lugging the tires around.

My dealer charges $39.95 to store the tires. That way they have them handy when I want to get them swapped. I also have no room for them in the garage and because of age etc.find them getting a bit too much to handle. In my younger days, I used to do the switchovers myself.

Peter

 

[Rapid Red]

My dealer charges $39.95 to store the tires. That way they have them handy when I want to get them swapped. I also have no room for them in the garage and because of age etc.find them getting a bit too much to handle. In my younger days, I used to do the switchovers myself.

Peter

That is a really great deal! Mine started at 75, then went to 100. Then i asked for 50 because of the number of new sales i have given them in the past 5 years, and they agreed.

I’m a little nervous now that they may rescind the 50 offer because i saved 10,000 on my ST at a new dealer vs their ridiculous combo offer on my trade/purchase ST deal. Hopefully not because they are 5 minutes away, and the new dealer 1/2 hour.