actually winter tires are pretty expensive....looking at at least $500 for all 4 tires....

I found these rims on ebay...but they definitely don't look winter rims at all:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/17-Bl...18#ht_5368wt_0

 

just 2 sets of track rims and 1 set of non track. Used rimes are cheap or you can do what I do and just change out the winters with the summer tires.

 

At Tire Rack, Michelin X-ice 2 215/50R17 tires are on sale for $104 each. I'm sure there are plenty of other deals out there, so just find them.

You're just not used to buying quality low-profile tires, if you think $100/tire is expensive -- personally I find it pleasantly inexpensive.

 

$100 per winter tire is a good deal, but the $400 tires + whatever rims I pick for the winter is still expensive to me as a whole because it only snows heavily 3 times a year in CT....so maybe ill skip buying the winter set and just save that money for summer rims...

 

Three days of snow? I wouldn't bother with snow tires for less than ten days of significant snow on the road (notice that I'm in Canada... at least the skiing's good, and I'll get to try out the Ralliart AWC/ACD SNOW setting for a few months, probably starting real soon :-)

 

Hey guys, I also want to get some all-season tires put onto my Ralliart. What are the stock sizes/ratios for the Ralliart, and where would one go to get the new wheels/tires? Based on my previous dealings with my dealership they seem a tad conservative, so Im thinking they would actively discourage me from trying to fit wider tires onto the car. I can deal with it, but would prefer to just side-step the BS altogether.

Forgive my ignorance on this issue, never really had to upgrade tires before.

 

Copied from this link

http://www.clubralliart.com/showthread.php?t=30

GTS and Ralliart is 18x7" with +46 Offset and 21mm hex.
Tire size is 215/45R18 89 load Index and V speed rating.

You can look up on tirerack 2008 lancer GTS models for the sizing and stuff for rims.

I went to the dealership today and took a look at the eclipse. That has some nice 18's on there. Wonder if they would fit the RA also.

 

hey aestival, what did you end up doing about the tire pressure monitoring system? did you put them on your winter wheels or did you decide to live with the warning lights on all the time>?

 

Not sure about the sizing but I recommend the Yokohama Avid tires. I was a repeat Yokohama ES100 buyer as these were the best I could find in size 14 for my car. Eventually I could not find the ES100 or they were discountinued in that size so I tried the Avid. Even though I went from a performance tire to a performance all season I didn't notice too much of a loss in sporty drive. I once tried some BF Goodrich all season tires (Traction T/A, I think) that were recommended by Discount Tire and I took them back the next day as the drive was sloppy. I think the sidewall was not as stiff as I liked but it felt like my lowered car all of a sudden developed excessive body roll.

 

I have TPMS in both sets of wheels -- Tire Rack installed my tires on top of Siemens TPMS before balancing. Very nice to get everything put together and to not have to worry about it again (TPMS should outlast the wheels). I'm not big fan of spending a fortune on a car and then trying to nickel and dime it to death -- the TPMS wasn't very expensive compared to the wheels and tires, and tires can go flat in Winter too, of course. My Mitsubishi dealer wanted more than twice as much for TPMS, and so far as I could tell, they were selling practically identical Siemens hardware.

Ironically, the dealer lent me a 2009 Gallant without TPMS while I was waiting for my Ralliart (sold my old car to someone through the dealer, to avoid sales tax -- it's a local thing). Hate leaving warning lights for simple repairs... I think the dealer hangs onto the stock wheels for the person who actually buys the car.

 

so if I dont install TPMS on my winter wheels the only side effect will be the warning light on the dashboard right?

and oh what offset did you get with your 17" wheels? I guess if you stick with the same wheel width (7" for Ralliart) then the offset should be the same (46mm) right?

 

I got 48 mm offset, and the wheels (17x7.5) look great. I strongly recommend sticking close to the factory offset if you stick with 215 tires, since they'll look virtually identical to the factory wheels+tires, and are very unlikely to hit anything, since the wheels are more than 8" wide anyway. I think the offset issue really only comes into play if you decide to go wider than 215, or if you're looking to change the overall look.

The wheels I got are Sport Edition F9's (to buy them from Tire Rack with the right TPMS, just pretend that you have a 2009 Lancer ES), and the 17" ones are on sale right now for $89, but you can definitely find nicer wheels out there. I'll post a photo sometime if it ever stops raining & snowing here