Anybody's tires freeze?

Z3papa

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Well I'm about to become persona non grata but this thread is so full of disinformation I have to post. The OE tires can easily be driven below 50 degrees, just not as aggressively and provided it is no snow, ice or below 35. Second, I've read that RE71R's are dangerous below 50. BS -- you may not want to press 10/10's and it may affect the tires' rebound performance the next Spring but the RE71R's can easily be run into freezing temps. It's just not good for the compound. Buy yourself some dedicated winter tires. Understand they are formulated to be a greater performance at cold temps than other tires, but that no tire fully thrives at -10.
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Unless you can swap tires without cost, that isn't exactly true. You are either buying more wheels or paying to swap tires. But I agree with the premise that having two sets of tires is better if you live where it gets cold.
Agreed. Tire mounting/dismouting about $120 around me if needed but I’m hoarding up 7-8 sets of wheels for the CTR for testing and review purposes which is different story.

I’ve used plane Jane black steelies on some of cars in winters because who cares, it’s winter and gets dirty. They’re $50 a pop so a small investment if you don’t want real wheels.
 

ctrmofo

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Well I'm about to become persona non grata but this thread is so full of disinformation I have to post. The OE tires can easily be driven below 50 degrees, just not as aggressively and provided it is no snow, ice or below 35. Second, I've read that RE71R's are dangerous below 50. BS -- you may not want to press 10/10's and it may affect the tires' rebound performance the next Spring but the RE71R's can easily be run into freezing temps. It's just not good for the compound. Buy yourself some dedicated winter tires. Understand they are formulated to be a greater performance at cold temps than other tires, but that no tire fully thrives at -10.
Come to Columbus and will give you personal drive in both RE71Rs under light throttle at say 20F and see how it behaves. Also, yes, winter tire compounds are made to work well below zero temp so it’s a false statement to say “no tire full thrives at -10”. We just went through a spell of -15 and windchill of -25 to -30 with plenty of ice. The X-Ice worked wonderfully on those days.

So no, it’s not BS re. RE71Rs below 50F...never said dangerous. I said they don’t grip well vs true winter tires designed for those temps and below. Happy to give back to back rides on both sets ;-)
 

Z3papa

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Columbus is no colder than Bloomington, IL. We has the same "cold spell" where lows where in -20 range and high of -8. I drive on dedicated winter tires during the months of mid-November to mid-March, but have driven to and competed in many events on RE71R's at or near freezing temps in rwd car which has 414 hp, so I know what they can or can't do. I go through 2-3 sets of competition tires a year. Dedicated winter/snow tires don't work "well", but work better or much better than UHP or max summer tires. I gather you view yourself as having superior knowledge on this front and won't try to win the internet argument with you.
 
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LongRun

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@LongRun
From tirerack.com if you look at the description. Was not a misreading of literature.
@CincyTypeR

Yes, I believe tirerack.com is wrong and have posted about this before. See here and here.

The first warnings about summer tires cracking came from GM and the tires they warned about could be damaged at 20ÂșF (-7ÂșC), and Tire Rack put that warning on the website. However, the Continental SportContact 6 are a later generation of tire, and both the Continental Technical Manual (page 106) and the Honda 2017 Civic Owners Manual (page 596) specify -20ÂșC (-4ÂșF) as the temperature where the tires may become brittle and subject to cracking.

However, the Continental manual does not give any temperatures in Fahrenheit, and the most critical sentence omits the "C" designation and separates the minus sign from the digits "20" by enough space that it can be interpreted as a dash, not a minus sign. That, combined with the earlier GM warning, is what makes me thing TireRack just misread the Continental documentation. Of course, maybe they didn't read it at all and just went with the safe numbers from before.

The accumulated testimonials in this thread confirm that the tires are not damaged at 20ÂșF, though I think we all agree they do not perform well enough at that temperature to consider them safe to drive on.
 
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tinyman392

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@CincyTypeR

Yes, I believe tirerack.com is wrong and have posted about this before. See here and here.

The first warnings about summer tires cracking came from GM and the tires they warned about could be damaged at 20ÂșF (-7ÂșC), and Tire Rack put that warning on the website. However, the Continental SportContact 6 are a later generation of tire, and both the Continental Technical Manual (page 106) and the Honda 2017 Civic Owners Manual (page 596) specify -20ÂșC (-4ÂșF) as the temperature where the tires may become brittle and subject to cracking.

However, the Continental manual does not give any temperatures in Fahrenheit, and the most critical sentence omits the "C" designation and separates the minus sign from the digits "20" by enough space that it can be interpreted as a dash, not a minus sign. That, combined with the earlier GM warning, is what makes me thing TireRack just misread the Continental documentation. Of course, maybe they didn't read it at all and just went with the safe numbers from before.

The accumulated testimonials in this thread confirm that the tires are not damaged at 20ÂșF, though I think we all agree they do not perform well enough at that temperature to consider them safe to drive on.
The Type R owners manual quote the 40 degrees F number as damaging. It's highly likely that they overstate the numbers to avoid any responsibility if anything goes wrong.
 
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The Type R owners manual quote the 40 degrees F number as damaging. It's highly likely that they overstate the numbers to avoid any responsibility if anything goes wrong.
No, the Type R owners manual (well, the 2017 Civic Hatch manual, which is what came with my Type R) never mentions 40 degrees F. It says "Use of Summer Only tires or Ultra High Performance tires at temperatures below 45°F (7°C) may lead to a loss of performance and control, which could result in a crash, serious injury or death" and "If the vehicle is operated with Summer Only tires or UHP tires at temperatures below –4°F (–20°C), the tire tread may lose their elasticity and become brittle, resulting in permanent damage to the tread."
 

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Columbus is no colder than Bloomington, IL. We has the same "cold spell" where lows where in -20 range and high of -8. I drive on dedicated winter tires during the months of mid-November to mid-March, but have driven to and competed in many events on RE71R's at or near freezing temps in rwd car which has 414 hp, so I know what they can or can't do. I go through 2-3 sets of competition tires a year. Dedicated winter/snow tires don't work "well", but work better or much better than UHP or max summer tires. I gather you view yourself as having superior knowledge on this front and won't try to win the internet argument with you.
well since you're now a web keyboard track star commando, sure let's look at what you're suggesting. you're comparing a rwd car with re71r under track conditions to a fwd car street conditions. please tell me this is apples vs. oranges. so re71r's optimal (by bridgestone engineers) tire temp of 120-130f for best grip and up to 160f is safe. so you're telling me that just because you track so many times on a rwd car near freezing temp on a track whereby you may be able to generate at least 90f tire temp where grip really begins for the compound of the re71r - that you're going to generate that much temp on regular streets at same near freezing temp???

lol you've got to be kidding me! if you drive that way on street with re71r on a 32f day, please let us all know so we won't be in harm's way or you're heading to jail. no one drives re71r on street at or around 32f enough - especially on fwd car - to even get the tires' temp to grip temp range above.

we're talking winter safety and giving ppl pragmatic advice so they don't go killing their cars and in a ditch or a wreck. no one is tracking on the streets in the winter here so your point is moot. thanks, but i don't have superior knowledge...just practical knowledge and enough testing to know. btw...this is worth mentioning...

"Performance-tuned for dry and damp conditions, the Potenza RE-71R, like all Extreme Performance Summer tires, are not intended to be serviced, stored or driven in near- and below-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice."
 

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@CincyTypeR

Yes, I believe tirerack.com is wrong and have posted about this before. See here and here.

The first warnings about summer tires cracking came from GM and the tires they warned about could be damaged at 20ÂșF (-7ÂșC), and Tire Rack put that warning on the website. However, the Continental SportContact 6 are a later generation of tire, and both the Continental Technical Manual (page 106) and the Honda 2017 Civic Owners Manual (page 596) specify -20ÂșC (-4ÂșF) as the temperature where the tires may become brittle and subject to cracking.

However, the Continental manual does not give any temperatures in Fahrenheit, and the most critical sentence omits the "C" designation and separates the minus sign from the digits "20" by enough space that it can be interpreted as a dash, not a minus sign. That, combined with the earlier GM warning, is what makes me thing TireRack just misread the Continental documentation. Of course, maybe they didn't read it at all and just went with the safe numbers from before.

The accumulated testimonials in this thread confirm that the tires are not damaged at 20ÂșF, though I think we all agree they do not perform well enough at that temperature to consider them safe to drive on.
Thank you, this is good information to know!
 

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I get that there is less torque that is transferred once you are in gear. I guess what you guys are saying is that it is easier to slowly let the clutch in in 2nd to avoid wheelspin than it is in 1st. What I'm still struggling with is how a 2 second clutch release to idle in 2nd is better than 1st. More torque is being applied to the ground over the same period of time in that situation.
I drive truck for a living. We always start out in 2nd gear, unless we are carrying a full load
 


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Drove my new 2019 home this last Tuesday. Here was a recap:

"CTR #24184 has finally made it home! Through the slushy partially frozen streets at 15f degrees. The tires didn't break open into pieces and I didn't fall into a wheel-killing pothole. What sux is I couldn't let it get into boost, yet."

In addition the only time I slipped a wheel was during a u-turn to get heading the right direction. Hard left on to some frozen snow/ice in the outer lane. Was no big deal, feather the throttle and completed the turn. Didn't drive over 40 mph as all in town. I felt secure and in control even down the slope into the circle where we live which was hard pack snow covered. Would not prefer driving in a blizzard, but it wasn't terrible.
 
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With the lows in parts of the lower 48 of the US dipping below -40Âș F, maybe we can clear up some confusion about the OEM tires on the CTR, albeit as the sad expense of some damaged tires.

Has anyone seen cracking, fracturing, or other tire damage due to the cold weather?

Some reports said the tires would freeze and become brittle at temperatures as high as 20ÂșF = -7Âș C. I believe that was a misreading of the literature. What literature I could find was somewhat ambiguous, but I believe it intended to say that the tires freeze at -20Âș C which is -4Âș F.

So, I'd like to hear stories from people whose tires got hit with temperatures in the range -20Âș F to +20ÂșF to know how they fared.
Here in Quebec province we have a law that requires us to put winter tires (mud+snow) between december and march. These are the best tires you could use for freezing temps. Since the rubber of summer and winter tires doesnt have the same compression properties, I guess the summer tires could wear out very fast if they are used in -20C. The stopping distances also are increased when you run summer tires in cold weather and the opposite is right, running winter tires during summer is not a clever idea.
 

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you'll have a flat spot for sure when you next use it or move it in the spring. will take a while for the flat spot go away but you'll start driving and here loud "thud thud" as the tire rotates.
Car was stored from October 15th until now so 4.9 Months. Coldest temp was -28c but not for more than one or two nights.

After a visual inspection for any cracks and a drive today at +7c on flat dry road I can say there are no flat spots visible to the eye or felt when riding in any mode on the type r.
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