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My Girlfriend owns a 2008 Kia Optima. After Ive been on the road working for 3 months straight I come home and discover the original tires are completely worn out all the way around. So I went on Tire Rack and ordered some Blizzak's for her car. (Minnesota winters and we live out in the country were it takes two days to get plowed out). We got the tires and I notice they are "XL" 's (Xtra Load) rated. The car comes out to 4,255lbs according to the door (I'm not sure if that's dry weight or not if its is with fluids and girlfriend and all of her stuff more like 4,800lbs). The tires are rated for 1,521 each or a total of 6,084. Will this cause a problem or not? My second question is according to the car manual it says "Snow tires should carry 4psi more than whats recommended for standard tires on door jam or up to maximum pressure on side wall of new tire, whichever is less" The door jam calls for 32psi and the Blizzaks call for 50psi. So by the book I am suppose to put 36psi in the tires? Is this correct and safe. Ive always filled tires to the psi on the side of the tire and this wants me to put it at 36psi which is 14psi under what the side wall calls for. I'm kinda leary about this and would like a few peoples opinions about this before I do anything. Ill ask the mechanic when I take it in to get the tires put on but Ive always liked having a few peoples opinions on things i don't know about. Thanks in advance.
The pressure on the sidewall is the maximum you would want to put in it. Go by what the manufacturer says and you should be fine. The weight should be fine, again that is the maximum load the tires can handle safely.
One other thing, if you do run it at the maximum pressure you will probaby wear it out faster and the vehicle will ride rougher and handle differently than it was designed for.
That should be fine. You might run 40 psi rear and 42 psi ft. The door sticker is more about comfort. The higher psi will get you longer lasting tires and better preformance, maybe save a tad of gas. These tires are close to light truck tires rated for that air.
My Girlfriend owns a 2008 Kia Optima. After Ive been on the road working for 3 months straight I come home and discover the original tires are completely worn out all the way around. So I went on Tire Rack and ordered some Blizzak's for her car. (Minnesota winters and we live out in the country were it takes two days to get plowed out). We got the tires and I notice they are "XL" 's (Xtra Load) rated. The car comes out to 4,255lbs according to the door (I'm not sure if that's dry weight or not if its is with fluids and girlfriend and all of her stuff more like 4,800lbs). The tires are rated for 1,521 each or a total of 6,084. Will this cause a problem or not? My second question is according to the car manual it says "Snow tires should carry 4psi more than whats recommended for standard tires on door jam or up to maximum pressure on side wall of new tire, whichever is less" The door jam calls for 32psi and the Blizzaks call for 50psi. So by the book I am suppose to put 36psi in the tires? Is this correct and safe. Ive always filled tires to the psi on the side of the tire and this wants me to put it at 36psi which is 14psi under what the side wall calls for. I'm kinda leary about this and would like a few peoples opinions about this before I do anything. Ill ask the mechanic when I take it in to get the tires put on but Ive always liked having a few peoples opinions on things i don't know about. Thanks in advance.
I've had three Kias and none of the tires made 30K. If I buy a KIA I expect to replace the tires at 25K. Cost of doing business
I understand your concern for a winter driving tire, but ...
Blizzak's aren't exactly known for good tire life to begin with. In dry weather, you'll wear these out fairly quickly before you ever see winter driving conditions.
You might want to consider a summer set of wheels/tires and keep the originals for the winter months.
I do that. I have summer tires on a set of mags and winter tires on a set of steel wheels. Works great. NH gets real winter, and the snows are thin, and studded to place all the weight on a narrow patch.
Tire wear on vehicals can be a situation of it is what it is, but in large the tires that come as stock on a new vehical are trash.
Same thing on most Bikes. The oem tires are just junk worthy of the show room floor.
Other items like saws come this way too with a for crap blade on an other wise ok tool.
Kia is a cousin to Hyundai and I had to replace 2 tires after 20k and 1 tire blew in one week after i bought the car new. i was told the tires were damaged from the sun i bought the car in az
I understand your concern for a winter driving tire, but ...
Blizzak's aren't exactly known for good tire life to begin with. In dry weather, you'll wear these out fairly quickly before you ever see winter driving conditions.
You might want to consider a summer set of wheels/tires and keep the originals for the winter months.
Ive never dealt with Blizzaks or car tires in general before this. Ive been a pickup man all my life and all I run on them are mud tires due to the nature of my job and I'm used to them wearing out very fast. I did notice on the lugs on the Blizzaks they have every lug cut into thin pieces. If I got bored enough I could probably peel the lugs off by hand on piece at a time. Once I saw that I knew they were not gonna last long during summer.
I did consider buying a second set of rims to have a winter/summer set but I have no idea how long these blizzaks will last. I guess if they wear out fast (which Im sure they will) I will invest in a set of 2nd rims. I would have done it now but I am only home for a week and I am heading back out onto the road for work for probably the rest of the year so I figure I might as well get her the snow tires now while I'm here. (shes not mechanically inclined...at all, otherwise I would have her deal with it when in gone)
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