blueMT6

Had the dealer mount sixteen inch wheels on the rear of the manual 6 speed with the TPMS units and snow tires. Works great on dry roads and will soon test in snow. The Alpine tires feel good and will take cables if required to chain up. Will order the cables today. There seems to be no problem with TPMS or the ABS with the new wheels.

h0rde

so you've got 18"s on the front and 16"s in the back?

Gord96BRG

What a treacherous combination. Be very, very cautious when you try that on snow - you will find that you can get moving just fine, but your car won't turn on snow worth a damn and it won't stop either. Turning and braking require traction from the front wheels, not the back, and the OEM tires just don't have any traction on snow or ice.

Regards,
Gordon

blueMT6

Yes, the stock 18 up front and the 16 for the rear. Will try it out in snow tomorrow in a giant parking lot if the snow lasts that long.
It is nice having a spare tire too. Only one would fit in the trunk.

Ned M

iTrader: (2)

The only serious ditch incident I ever had in snow was while fooling around on a snow-covered road in my AWD Eagle Talon one afternoon. The rear tires were worn much more than the rears, and I couldn't get the car back once it started rotating. Luckily I only damaged the front valance.

4 brand new tires the next day and the car had a totally different personality.

That's a lot of words to say I don't think your Alpine rear OE front combo is a very good idea.

rx8daniel

I agree on the bad idea posters. You need snows at all 4 corners, period. Probably more important than getting moving in snow is turning and stopping. I can show/prove it with my AWD Subaru. My question is: what size tire did you install, and did you try 16" rims on the front? And brand of wheel? I'm convinced the TPMS is not an issue, but the brakes are my concern.

rx8cited

hi rx8daniel,

Fact: 16" wheels will not fit on the front of a manual transmission due to the brake rotor size.

blueMT6 - if you could post a picture, I'm curious what the 18"/16" combo looks like. Also, what part of the world do you live in (ie how much snowfall do you get)?. I'd agree with the others that you should have the snow tires on all four.

regards,
rx8cited

blueMT6

No digital camera but my guess is that the rear wheels would look the same as the automatic transmission wheels. Located in Washington state where at times you must have chains to cross mountain passes. Presently getting a bit of ice and snow so I will test this weekend. Portland is hit hard and they are requiring chains there.

blueMT6

Tire size was 225/55/16 for the rear wheels.

blueMT6

Just finished a test drive in snow with just the sixteen inch snow tires in rear. Car said it was 27F and the snow was above toe of boot about 5 inches of snow. Have ordered cables for the rear but not here yet. When up and down a hill doing a turn into a parking lot each way and then did figure eigths in the lot. I was a bit paranoid after reading replies so I kept speed under 30 mph and little traffic so ideal test conditions. I got some drift in turns in the figure eights during accelleration. Major improvement over stock but would like snow tires for the front to help in traffic or with black ice.

blueMT6

Chain worked on rear wheel today in a parking lot in sunshine. It is the heavy duty Z-chain model ZP 555 that has the steel hoop on the inside which cleared the control arms just fine. Drove a figure eight with no damage to the wheel well. Not recommended by Mazda and it was a tight fit and speed must be under 30 mph.
They are really cables not chains. Just something to get you home. Plan to modify the 16 rear 18 front wheels to 16 rear and 17 front wheels to get winter tread all around and hope to improve handling since the present setup is strange above 60 mph.

blueMT6

Got the 17 inch wheels for the front which are the Mille Miglia HT3 that is shown in other posts with pirelli 210 snow sport tires. This has corrected the oversteer problem at least to 80 mph in my test. That is as fast as I need to go on winter tires. So the 16 inch rear wheels and winter tires work with cables and the new 17 inch front tires have fixed the oversteer. TPMS units work in all 4 wheels too.