Snow Tires

Since Rachelle has a pretty decent commute every morning and 490 is rarely plowed at 6:45am, I thought it was a good idea to get snow tires for her Accord. After shopping around a little and having my dad do some research I decided to get 4 Bridgestone Blizzak Revo 1 tires mounted on their own set of steel wheels. Tirerack.com had a pretty decent deal going on them so I bought a set.

They arrived this past Wednesday and were on the car Thursday afternoon. That evening we drove to Walmart and bought some wheel covers since the lug nuts that came with the snows were open ended and I wanted to keep the corrosion down.

Friday afternoon I got a call from Rachelle on her way home saying that both her front tires were flat! So I had to pack my car with two of the original tires, my jack, torque wrench, a stool and a tarp and drive out to the RAC in Perinton. It wasn't very fun changing the tires. Since both front tires were completely flat, I couldn't get my jack under the car to jack it up. I had to use the stupid little scissor jack that came with the car. It took like 10 minutes to get the car up high enough to get my jack under. After that it wasn't so bad; it was like 10°f and snowing like The Day After Tomorrow.

I think the reason the tires went flat was because of the wheel covers. I had to put this wire ring around the inside of the wheel covers to make them fit snuggly. I think the ring pressed against the stem and caused air to leak out. My dad said that if the stems were installed correctly, it shouldn't have mattered, but since tirerack didn't charge me for the mounting and balancing I'm sure they'd tell me to go screw my self if I complain.

This weekend I filled the tires back up to about 30 psi and right they're reading just below 30. Since it's about 5-10 degrees colder out there now that is just about right. I think the tires will be fine if I leave the wheel covers off, but I'll wait until it isn't Rachelle's week to drive in the carpool before putting them back.