wheels Archive

Studded or not studded?

Winter weather is just around the corner and having the proper tires is a must. Driving in snow requires either snow tires or all season tires but you’re better off with winter tires if your in a heavily snowed up area. Now if you live in a place where you have lots of ice and snow then getting snow tires with studs is a must and will really help you out when driving.

For the area where I live we get lots of rain but only a bit of snow so snow tires are not really needed, but since I have them I might as well put them on my Honda Civic for winter driving. Studs are helpful in snow and ice but since we get more rain then snow here, I decided to mount the tires on my Honda Civic but pull the studs. Here in BC your only allowed to run studded tires from mid Oct to April so pulling the studs will allow be to drive longer and will also bring down the road noise which is a good thing. If I lived in an area with more snow I would leave the studs in but for my local driving here it’s fine to pull them out.

Here is a good article from Tirerack about studs. Click Here for link.

Below are three pictures of one my tires with studs, me pulling the studs out and the same tires with studs pulled out.

Friday morning driving to work it was so warm and sunny I decided that I would do my wheel swap some time this weekend. When I swapped the steel wheels on my car last fall, I did it to save my 15″ mags and tires from winter carnage of salt and grime.

So yesterday after work I pulled out the 15″ mags and swapped them over. I didn’t touch my rear coil over height but I did adjust the front ones about 1 turn. This should lower it down a bit but still give it enough ground clearance for uneven roads.

The swap went really well with no hickups but I did notice that my passenger drive shaft was spitting grease  on the inside of my steel wheel. The CV boot is not broken but I guess the clip holding the CV boot to the drive shaft is not really tight and grease slings out at high speeds. Looking at the steel wheel it looks like it hasn’t happened for a while because the grease is really dry. When I get a chance I will swap that drive shaft for a spare one or replace the clip holding the boot.

Once the swap was done I was really impressed by how much the car looks better with these nice looking rims.

Front view of my Civic and the headlights

Here are my wheels and tires waiting to me put onto my 1993 Civic

Pulling of the old 13″ tires and putting on the 15″ Mags with Low Pro’s

Coilover still looking good and my super helper the battery powered MasterCraft impact wrench

Old ugly winter 13″ tire and my wicked looking 15″ Mags with Low Pro’s

Corner picture of my Civic before and after wheel swap

Another 2 pictures of my 15″ Mags and engine bay.

My VTEC logo that will soon be polished up. Damn my car looks so much better with wheels.

So while working to lower the car I looked at the rear drums and noticed they are really rusted and ugly. Being so rusted they defeat the point of having nice looking wheels because they kill the look.

So I bought some Hi-Temperture caliper/drum paint and new drums as they were really cheap and it wasn’t worth the time to wirewheel the old ones. I painted the rear drums red and man do they ever look good now the red drum and new wheels really compliment each other. And lets just say i’ve gotten more then a few people saying it makes the car look a lot better.

Next task when I get a chance will be to paint the front calipers and part of the rotors.