[Closed] Anyone tried changing their own car tyres?

molgrips - Member

It's £300/year or thereabouts to swap winter and summer tyres

They charge you that to SWAP them, I mean for SWAPPING them.

You may aswell just go in, drop your keks and bend right over next time.

Yes.. damn handy getting the caravan out of muddy sites.

Also, loads of damp greasy mud on the roads this time of year.

Never mind everyone telling him hes
a)an idiot for wanting to swop tyres
b)paying too much
c)moaning at him for wrong tyre choice

Lets tell him its easy, all he needs are a set of meter long tyre levers and arms like a Russian shotputter.

The we can sit back smugly and enjoy the thought of him sweating all weekend in his garage only to come round to agreeing with a,b and c above.

You don't go to that place out of Harry and Paul for your car stuff do you?

[img] [/img]

The last couple of years I've run the Winter tyres over the Summer on roads considerably hotter than you get in the UK. Wear rate hasn't been catastrophic and the loss of grip is nothing like the loss of grip when driving on a wet road on Summer tyres. If you change more than twice in the life of the tyres I reckon it's cheaper to keep Winter tyres on.

You live in the UK and swap tyres depending on the season? Seriously? Do you live in a really remote location?

Would you like to buy some magic beans? 🙂

Naff off.

EDIT have you ever been away from home for work when it snows and you need to get home?

This guy does it in 50sec a wheel.

Get on with it.

Well, he's half right- swapping tyres is a good idea but it's not essential, I was very happy running the Focus on its winter tyres all year round- made a lot more sense than going through winter without them.

Could you not just have a summer and a winter car?

EDIT have you ever been away from home for work when it snows and you need to get home?

Yes, I started the engine, engaged a gearm, lifted the clutch and proceeded with caution. Same as I do every other night.

Only time I've ever been stranded by snow it's because of all the other ****wits in the way.

Nice set of 16" Merc alloys on eBay for the Passat (5x112 16")
£140 delivered. But once you have them it's free to swap your wheels so they will pay for themselves in a year or so.

(Plus a couple of quid for some spigot rings)

easy

[edit] darn you edit mode.

EDIT have you ever been away from home for work when it snows and you need to get home?

Not work but an important journey yes. I made sure to leave the car at home and get on the train then walk the remainder.

The journey took me 4 hours.

The people who drove turned around as the roads were paralysed by people crashing, sliding and generally going about 2mph. RWD cars were performing particuarly impressive ice dance in Cheltenham town centre.

The journey home (a car) took 6 hours.

The Passat wheel size is (ignoring the diameter as they will all fit over your brake calipers): PCD - 5x112; Offset - 35 to 45; Bore - 57.1
Therefore I think any passat/A4/A6/A8 wheels should fit and golf mk5 onwards (plus all the other golf off shoots - A3, Octavia, Leon etc) should fit plus the Superb and the people carriers etc. There is plenty of them on ebay.
I don't know anything about compatable Toyotas for the other car, but you get the idea.
You don't have to get the identicle wheels as came on the car.

The 'winter tyres only really work if everyone has them' argument is quite compelling.

Hence, one assumes, them being mandatory in contries with less clement winter weather.

wwaswas - Member

The 'winter tyres only really work if everyone has them' argument is quite compelling.

Well, kinda- depends where you are. Cities and commuter orbits will gridlock when the snow starts, that's inevitable, but not everyone lives or drives in those conditions. I wouldn't bother with them if I wasn't driving outside of the city tbh, for exactly this reason.

But also, when you get slightly more prolonged snow, many people park up and the roads empty out again. My fastest commutes ever were on snow-covered roads because just about nobody else was using them

Thing is... I have decent tyres on my car, because nothing else matters much if you have no grip. When I bought it, it had 4 ditchfinders, they were quickly replaced as they were very poor and inconsistent in the wet. I don't think many people would have an issue with this approach?

But if we get a proper winter, my good quality all-season tyres will perform less well than those ditchfinders did in summer.

So why is it weird to change for one, but not the other?

Do you remember the thread on here from someone who told his insurance company that he had swapped to winter tyres, expecting a discount but actually was charged a premium as they weren't standard kit.

How much would they want to put up moley's premium when they hear that, not only is he using winter tyres, but he had bodged them onto the rims himself, with possible dubious balancing ?

Molgrips, stop being so grumpy!

You can tell me to jeff off you know...

Yes, I started the engine, engaged a gearm, lifted the clutch and proceeded with caution. Same as I do every other night.

Don't give me that 'I know how to drive in snow I'm such a hero' crap.

I live at the bottom of a fairly steep hill which is not negotiable in either of our cars on packed snow and thawed re-frozen ice. You may continue to enjoy thinking you could do it if it makes you happy, since you will never have to do it.

The Prius is pants in snow, I had to take the astonishing expensive car with 4wd (&softtop) to get to the station last year..

I
Feel
U r
Wheel nuts

What edukator says

Just try breaking a bead on your spare tyre, molgrips. If you get that far there's a good chance you have the strength and patience to do the rest.

and why bother changing?

I have done it with manual tools and it is pretty hard work with the right equipment

I reckon £40 for the set to do is about right personally

Winter tyres FFS get a grip 😉

I was quoted 60 quid to swap tyres on 2 vehicles and balance 4 of them as I was selling one and wanted its good tyres on the other .I ended up taking two wheels to the garage and getting them swapped and 2 balanced for 16 quid

I used to do it with my dad, big muscle and ye olde proper job 15"x2" real metal tyre levers and jemmys, also managed to inflate tubless car tyres with a foot pump (strap, ratcheted round middle of tyre to force beads and pump like b****ry, joys of living in the middleof nowhere....

I may be missing something

But srap dealer will let you have steel rims for next to no money

We use to change 1200 R 20 on our Lorry for a trans Africa trip

First time I thought it was impossible. But with tubes and slpit rimes I got quite slick.

Sledge hammer edgof split rim. Pull out lock ring, edge of rim comes off...

But smaller rims withno split ring. Looks tricky...

Are you planning to do it with the engine still running, or has that been fixed now?

Friend I knew used these [url= http://http://www.autosock.co.uk/ ]Auto sock[/url]

Friend I knew used these Auto sock

Depends what on.
I have done more than a few Landrover tyres using several 18" levers and a jack to break the bead. Its actually no big deal although not as easy as taking them to the garage. W
hy not just get a second set of wheels? I bet steels would be cheap second hand and to be honest would look nicer than those stupid great silver alloys.

But srap dealer will let you have steel rims for next to no money

Yours might, all the ones I went to had nothing useful.

Why not just get a second set of wheels?

Why not read the rest of the thread? 🙂

But srap dealer will let you have steel rims for next to no money

I'm going to file this alongside bike mechanics doing a full service for a jaffa cake, in my list of things I have never encountered, but a high proportionate of STW'ers seem to.

molgrips

is that because they didn't have the correct size. Or they didn't have any rims?

(a) Chains and socks are no replacement for winter tyres. They are aimed at getting you moving or keeping you going in snow. Winter tyres improve the grip on cold, wet, icy tarmac (where chains cannot be used) - but also offer better grip in snow too.

(b) Is it noticeable? Yes. After years of struggling (carefully) in poorer conditions the difference in grip of a proper winter tyre is amazing.

(c) How often do you actually need them? Lots. If you only get a few sub-zero days per year, I guess you can decide to stay at home. Personally, I still like to get out and about in relative safety.

(d) I'd love to be able to fit them myself. I used to do motorcycle tyres no problem. However, modern, low-profile tyres on alloy rims??? Not a a chance.

is that because they didn't have the correct size. Or they didn't have any rims?

They had next to no wheels when I went in there. Too lucrative selling them on ebay or something, I dunno.

Winter tyres improve the grip on cold, wet, icy tarmac (where chains cannot be used) - but also offer better grip in snow too.

And on slimy mud on the road, leaves, muddy fields and in heavy rain.

Junkyard - Member

Winter tyres FFS get a grip

That is the idea, yes

[i]And on slimy mud on the road, leaves, muddy fields and in heavy rain.[/i]

But....sorry, disagreeing again.... How is this different from a grim autumn day, or a grim spring day, or a grim summers day?

We live in a temperate climate. The kind of temperature differences we see over a year are relatively small, as are the differences in rainfall.

Is it really necessary? (Honest, not having a go question...)

Crikey - I'll admit to poo-pooing this a couple of years back. We got winter tyres for Mrs druidhs car as she has to visit needy clients as part of her job. I was truly amazed at the difference. I've known days where we were the only folk to get out of our street.

Because I already own the tyres!

It's £300/year or thereabouts to swap winter and summer tyres. Spare wheels for both cars would cost £450 or so and then I'd need the tyres fitted to those for £150, which is a big outlay.

What the hell?

Most sensible choice is buy some spare alloys.

Next is shop around, my local tyre place will do a set of 4 for £30 cash but for one set of alloys I have to go to a different place as they don't have a hole in the middle so need a special mount for balancing, they charge me £40.

When I was a student I considered fitting my own winter tyres. I realised I was being silly and got them done properly.

I would seriously get a spare set of wheels and drop them down to a tyre place as they can do them at their leisure and then you can fit them at home. Try a place that does trucks etc as well as cars or a place that does performance cars etc as they will be more used to people bringing tyres and wheel into them (eg for track days etc).

As for DIY:

1. break the bead. Easiest way is drop a car onto the deflated tyre side wall.

2. Lever off the tyre and remove

3. clean up the bead and apply some tyre soap

4. get the new tyre on

5. use a compressor to seat the bead

6. balance

That just about covers it I think. Think tubless bike tyres but about 20x heavier and much stiffer.

Is it really necessary? (Honest, not having a go question...)

For me, yes.

I am a community nurse covering Kirklees (which is a biggish lump of land) and will be travelling all over it pretty much whatever weather comes.

My patients are extremely vulnerable and often function poorly without our teams support, hence I will do my utmost to get to them. This includes fitting winter tyres, carrying loads of winter gear and driving as close as possible before walking in.

I know it's mainly conurbation but there are some difficult to get to places in winter - I can have visits in Holmfirth in the morning, Marsden at lunchtime and Denby Dale in the afternoon.

Even if we are not talking snow, I still feel I benefit from the added grip when it's cold and horrible.

Also, I have recently bought a Transit and many of the commercial lads swear by winter tyres so it's not just a STW thing.

Oh and winter tyres as simply amazing. I have a set of discontinued Nokian WR-G2 which are designed for climates like the UK and they really do make driving in winter much nicer.

But....sorry, disagreeing again.... How is this different from a grim autumn day, or a grim spring day, or a grim summers day?

Tarmac is warmer.

Mud is less likely in summer because it dries out a lot faster, and farmers tend not to be ploughing their fields as much.

Is it really necessary?

The difference isn't trivial. Near our house there's a motorway junction roundabout that I go around many times a week. The last corner before the sliproad is pretty sharp and sort of off-camber and the tarmac is a mess. It's all rumpled up and crumbling at the same time.

As winter draws on the Prius in particular gets more and more prone to skittering towards the outside of the corner. The rubber feels harder, and the ride is worse too. When I put winters on, it's amazing how firmly it sticks to the road. The ride is better too, the rubber stays much softer.

Sidewalls are fragile things. Just in case Molgrips hasn't already Google-imaged "car tyre bead breaker" for a hundred and one good ideas and tools I'd like to suggest dropping a car on the bead is a bad idea.

Edit to add: I've got one of these and I'm just about strong enough to break a bead with it:
[img] http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=10307&stc=1&d=1248379770 [/img]

2nd edit: and thinking about it it would be useless with the width of tyre on my current car.