I have an '11 Accord and am living in the Kansas City area. If I feel the car needs better traction this winter, will snow tires on just the front drivers work or does it need same on all four? If I get separate wheels for winter tire mounting can I omit the pressure sensors.

Thanks for your help. I enjoy the forum.

 

unless you have your own tire mounting equipment, ask your tire store.
they may quote a state regulation (?) requiring them to mount on all 4 wheels... $.02

 

Generally, snow tires should be on all four for best traction. You do not need to mount the TPMS sensors onto the separate winter wheels; however, the TPMS light will be triggered and then the VSA will stay enabled.

There may be a few (very few) circumstances where it would be better for VSA to be off for traction purposes.

If you were to get separate TPMS sensor for the winter wheels, then the ECM/PCM needs to be reprogrammed each time you switch back to the other set of wheels.

 

Quicksilver,

I've heard a couple of things related to winter tires. They say if you have only two winter tires, put them on the back. Why? Weight. Front of the engine will help with its weight when it comes to slippage. The rear would be supported with the winter tires. My opinion? Go with 4 winter tires. I have them right now on my Accord, and it feels like a beast. Just keep in mind when you're driving with winter tires to not get cocky.

As for rims, look at it this way. I switch from all-seasons to winter with the same rims. That means I need to get the all-season tire off the rims/wheel and the snow-tire ones on. I can't do this at home, and local shops charge about $15-$20 per tire to do this. So that can be $60-$80 every time you switch. You also have to go back to all-season when the winter goes bad. So that's an additional $60-$80 following winter. Are the rims worth it? They are if you hope to keep the same car for a long time (5+ years) and the same size tires. Once you initially get the tires mounted on, you can take the entire wheel off before and after winter to put the rims on. Just use a jack and jackstand in your garage, and store the all-season tires on the old rims in the garage somewhere.

 

I'm not sure what the new systems are like, but I know in the past I have installed normal steel rims, then took out the spare tire and put the 4 sensors from the other rims in there, then set it to the required pressure for the oem tires. Obvious disadvantage of this is you can't use your spare, however it should keep the light off. Just an idea.

 

There's no need to take out the spare. You would need to build a pressurized container to keep the 4 sensors, like some people have done with PVC pipe etc. and then set it to the required pressure. You would keep the container somewhere in the car. However, you lose any actual tire pressure monitoring if they really are low, as you are just fooling the TPMS system.

 

Thanks for your informative reply. I am especially attuned to the math. At $60 -80 twice yearly, I could swap using the same set of wheels for four years or more before breaking even with buying separate wheels. And that doesn't even include messing the the TPMS sensors. There is also the possibility of doing lesser charge deal when buying the tires.