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Chicago? Never been there but I've heard it gets very cold- I'd go with Continental DWS06. Coincidentally the 01 I just got has them installed, they're rated for snow (when not very worn, there's indicators molded into the rubber to let you know when they're not good for snow anymore), and they tested very well for wet weather grip.
My other car is a 2018 Civic Si, I went with BF Goodrich Comp2 AS+ for that and the steering feel seems to be a bit better, but they're not offered in the rear size you're looking for. I think if you went to a 275/40R18 it would work, the diameter is only 0.4" larger. Haven't driven the Boxster enough on wet roads to really tell you which is better overall.
Thank you for the feedback and suggestion. Greatly appreciated! Do you by chance know where I can look up tires using the parts numbers, as found on the invoice above? I couldn't find any sites that search by parts number, only by vehicle.
Tirerack and Discount Tire let you search by size or by vehicle. I like Tirerack better because they have detailed tests of multiple tires in different performance categories, and with enough detail to actually show braking distance, skidpad, fuel economy etc on the same car. I've bought several sets of tires from each depending on which is cheaper, but sometimes I even buy on eBay. I wouldn't recommend that unless you can install them yourself though, unless you have a local shop that would be comfortable with it.
I mount and balance my own tires, if you have the room for a spin balancer you start saving money after maybe ten sets, and if you have a daily driver with a spare set of wheels for snow tires, that happens faster than you might think.
Thank you for the feedback and suggestion. Greatly appreciated! Do you by chance know where I can look up tires using the parts numbers, as found on the invoice above? I couldn't find any sites that search by parts number, only by vehicle.
Those look like random part numbers. You would need to ask your dealer they actually would be.
I thought it would show up with the proper sizes when I posted the link, but I guess it didn't work. I entered your vehicle info and it allowed me to select between your sizes and a 19" combination. That gave a list of available tires in the proper sizes, and then I went to the 'category' menu on the left and selected ultra high performance all season, which gave four different options for tire model. Entering sizes instead of vehicle info gives me the same list of tires.
But if these are for winter use, the high performance aspect might be less important than the snow/ice performance. (Said as one who totaled his first Boxster because he had the wrong kind of tires on for unexpected conditions the day after Thanksgiving.)
Do you have a set of wheels you will put these tires on? If not the mount/unmount costs can add up. Have a place to store the not being used tires? Or are you abandoning the current set of tires?
My assumption was that if someone is looking for all season tires, rather than snow tires, they'll be running them year round instead of just during the winter. Especially since OP says the dealer will handle the mounting for free. OP, if you're going to do a lot of driving in snow, you'd be better off having a spare set of wheels with dedicated snows mounted. That's what I do with my Civic, and the last three daily driver cars I've had- and I don't have anywhere near the bad weather you probably do.
For me it's not really needed, but I usually don't like factory wheels, so it's a good excuse to run summer or high performance tires on wider aftermarket wheels and skinnier snows on the stock set. I even bought a lower trim level Fit several years ago because I didn't like the alloys on the EX and the LX steelies were better sized for snow tires. I haven't had a chance to drive the DWS 06 in snow yet, but no matter how good they are for high performance tires, I can't imagine they'll be as good as Blizzaks. On which point, if you run Blizzaks in warm weather, they'll wear like chewing gum.
Thank you for the replies and sharing your insight - greatly appreciated. We went with the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS 235/45ZR18 XL and 265/40ZR18 101Y XL tires.
Does anyone know of a good step-by-step resource explaining how to unmount/mount tires and what all that entails?
I'm torn here, mounting tires is not a hugely complicated thing, but it's not easy without a bunch of equipment. If the dealer was going to cover mounting/balancing for this set as you mentioned in your first post, best to go with that and figure out if you want to take it on for the next set. That being said, I don't have a mounting/dismounting machine. If you watch the guys working at a Discount Tire or other shop, they clamp the wheel onto a machine that breaks the bead loose, and then turns the wheel to force the tire off. Something like this-
I use tire spoons, which by comparison take a lot of time, sweat, and swearing. Wheels have a depression inside the barrel shaped part, you force the bead down into that on one side, and use a spoon to lever it over on the other side, and then use alternating spoons to pull the bead over bit by bit on the rest of the tire. If you use plastic guards, you won't scratch alloy wheels. It's a lot of work, and if I had space in the garage for a tire machine, I'd get one. These are spoons-
The bigger problem is balancing. Not because it's more difficult, but because it doesn't matter how long it takes me to get a tire mounted, my labor is free, but because you can't get an out of balance tire fixed by just trying harder. I started out using a bubble level balancer, which worked surprisingly well for a while. Then my kid messed with it and bent something out of alignment, and it wouldn't work. It takes a somewhat delicate touch, if you don't get the wheel centered just right you'll never get it balanced.
I went to an electronic spin balancer, which works very well. It also costs a lot and takes a lot of room. Mine is a now out of production hand spin version of this, saved me a few hundred and works just as well-
After typing all that, I looked at the link for the workspace, and they mention a tire machine. If they have a balancer too, then the easiest thing would be to ask them to walk you through it. I'd look for some youtube videos, but the controls might be different and having experienced help is always better than a video.
Thank you for the replies and sharing your insight - greatly appreciated. We went with the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS 235/45ZR18 XL and 265/40ZR18 101Y XL tires.
Does anyone know of a good step-by-step resource explaining how to unmount/mount tires and what all that entails?
Assuming that this place has tire machines, have the staff there train you on their correct use. It is pretty easy to make an expensive mistake (think bent wheel) with a one.
Whoa intense - I didn't even realize balancing was part of the process. I am having the dealership handle the swap of Summer to All-Season but am hoping to perform the process come Spring 2023. Yeah, if I can't access all necessary equipment along with some guidance I will definitely take the car back to the Porsche dealership for unmounting/mounting.
Does anyone have recommendations for proper storage of the tires (summer)? Will keep them in storage above at the proper temp or higher but wondered if placement is of concern, i.e do not stack them or always keep them upright?
11-23-2022, 03:46 AM
2005 Boxster S - Tires
