As I read a lot on this site, many people have the same problem you have. Some buy a set just for winter. There is an entire forum dedicated to tires. And many threads are repleat with the same problem you have.

I have opted to wear my current stock tires out, and only then get better ones for all season. I can do that because I do not have to drive to work. Most are not so fortunate. I gather most buy new tires.

I believe in other areas of this club you can find relatively inexpesive options from tirerack.com that get you some wheels you can use during the winter months.

I have actually heard first hand from someone who put 245 tires on his 8, and he never ever had a problem when it snowed.

 

yah i have seen and i am thinking i'm going to do the same for this winter as i can easily get rides to work i was just voicing my experience with the stock tires. however thanks for the tips! and if i might ask what do you do from home?

 

Hey welcome to the Olathe RX-8 club. So when ya gonna start messing with it like the rest of us? I'll admit, I was never a car person til I had my RX-8. Now I put on clear corners, a CF Seibon TS hood, Authentic MazdaSpeed spoiler, and some rotary accents. I still want to do something with the exhaust and eventually something for my sound system.

 

Just curious if the one your talking about is me. Funky? Bad-*** is the correct word. Haha. BTW, mine aint lowered either, altho for some reason everyone thinks it. Oh wells. Just curious if its me or not ya see. I live on 157th and Ridgeview roughly so I am all over Olathe.

 

I program computers for a living and for fun. I have the 8 for a hobby that gets me out of the house

 

nice sounds like a good gig olathe8 and gameguy i would like to do some strakes and clear corners so i might have to enlist your expertise though i don't see it as being complicated. I am like you i really didn't get into cars untill my contour, and now even more so w/ the 8. but my plans are doing clear corners, strakes, a mesh grill as i don't like the black plastic stock one, and i wish i could get the mazda speed spoiler because the stock spoiler doesn't look quite right imo.

 

Yeah I could help either in person or just give ya tips by email or phone. I suck at car work and I did my strakes, hood, and clear corners by myself (hood I had a friend help support it)

 

did you have to take off the front bumper for the clear corners?

 

no way.

If you look in the wheel well there by the yellow corner, you will see about 2 or 3 plastic clips with phillips heads. Pop those out, and peal back the plastic wheel well insert about an inch. The yellow corner is then held in by a 8mm screw bolted up into the lip of the fender. You would take that out. The unit is then held in by a kindof clip thing ( I really do not know of a better way to describe it, so if someone can do better, or perhaps point to a picture, that would help.) that you have to push forward toward the front of the car, pull out the yellow corner away from the fender about a quarter or 8th of an inch, and then slide the whole yellow corner back towards the wheel.

Once it comes out a little bit, the light will be attached. Use your fingers to twist the light slightly to detach it from the yellow corner socket. The short wires to this light socket will not give you much room to pull the yellow corner away from the fender.

Then reverse the whole procedure to put the clear corner back in.

RotaryFan04 showed me how to do it. And he was absolutely right, it was easy and painless. The tricky part for me was learning out who get those darn plastic clips out of the plastic inner fender skirt.

 

bah darn you! you convinced me to buy all the stuff, now the only question is what kinda bulbs should i get that don't show yellow behind the clear corner, and do the bulbs have to be "amber" to be on the side or can they be white?

 

Hey all, first post on these forums, although I've been watching it every day for the last month or so now. I bought my Nordic Green '04 Manual with 48k this last April or May (From Bob Sight Mazda, 135th and State Line)... up to 62k on it now, and I'm very happy with my purchase. Its a GT, and stock so far (no appearance package), but I have purchased the front air dam and plan on putting that on maybe this weekend, and eventually want to get the MS side skirts. Beyond that, I don't know what I want to do with it, since I've always favored the 'clean' look.

Frollo, don't let anyone tell you that the stock tires don't make a difference for winter/snow driving. I just put a full set of the Dunlop WinterSport M3's on my stock 18's, and have had absolutely no problem getting around with the snow we've had for the last few weeks, including in unplowed streets. Funny thing is, I went to my dealership's maintenance shop (used to be Bob Sight, now its Steve Oliver, I think) in October and told them I needed all-seasons and had to be able to get around in snow, and one of the senior mechanics, Glen, I believe, told me that the BFG KDW summer tire would do well, due to its 'large tread depth'. First slight snow, I couldn't go anywhere. I had to have my carpool buddy get out and push me into a parking lot and have someone else come pick us up. Now, with my winter tires, my car does better in snow then my friend's front wheel drive Civic. So, tires matter.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm just glad to see the KC RX-8 community is actually active.

 

another solution is to do what i did. rather than buy tires and risk driving on the snow, i bought a $500 car on craigslist. now i don't have to drive in the snow, or when there is alot of sand and salt on the roads. when i swapped exhausts with chris (rotaryfan04) he was amazed at how clean my car was underneath. it does make a huge difference. just a suggestion.

hopefully the warmer weather will stick around, and we can get a meet soon.

 

thanks for the tire help vamp and kcvandal that would be a smart idea however i dont' really have to drive if i don't have something pressing at work, and i have a friend / coworker that drives past my house so the additional money / insurance / taxes tags title fees and stuff isn't all that appealing to me. The next vehicle for me will probably be a sport bike

 

Hey bud.

OK. First off, I am he worst car mechanic, ever. I deserve a trophy. However, I was able to do Clear Corners and the strakes and all that myself. It's super easy. Once you do one side, the other side might take at MOST 5 minutes.

Now, here's the tricky part on clear corners. First off, you will want to buy stealth bulbs. These bulbs show clear when not in use, but obviously give the amber glow when in use. The tricky part is as far as I know these clear corners come with reflectors. The general opinion of the forum is the car looks better WITHOUT the reflector. It is an extreme pain in the rear removing them since they are bigger then the bulb hole itself so you gotta curl it, bend it, play with it til it comes out WITHOUT scratching up the cover itself. Good times.

If you ever wanted someone to just come over and watch ya do it so you know your doing it right just lemme know. I'm sure you'd prefer to do that work yourself since its a bit more gratifying.

The other piece of advice I have is look at the DIY forums. Even look at stuff you dont plan on doing. The pictures and explanations are do detailed that you will really get to know and understand how your RX-8 is built and how it works.

Cya around Olathe.

 

thanks game yah i was just looking at that lame reflector thing yesterday before i bought my clear corners strakes and accent pieces! so hopefully they will be here soon and i can get started. Thanks for all the help and i might just have to throw some accent piece car get together thing