I am picking up my new 8 on Monday and I am having Dunlop M3's put on for snow tires on the factory rims. The dealer is saying that if I do that, the warranty will not cover problems as a result. I explained to him the main problem I think will be the Tire Pressure Sensor light staying on and he said "well if it wont turn off in spring or anything else goes wrong, Mazda will not be responsible"

Does anyone know if he is right?

If he is right, is this a big deal? What problems may result?

He said I will need to sign something saying that I will not hold the dealership or Mazda responsible.

He also said that Mazda does not have a solution for snow tires and does not recommend putting them on. From reading these posts, it looks to me like snow tires are an absolute must. It is snowing as I type.

Any help on this would be appreciated as I am picking it up Monday. Thanks.

 

You probably shouldn't have mentioned that to the dealer, but it is too late now.

The only thing I would say is if you have to bring your car in for service during the winter, but the stock rims back on. That way he has no proof that you ever ran anything but stock rims.

I don't think there is too much of a problem to worry about. I would be much more concerned with the damage you would do to your car if you tried driving in the snow with OEM rubber.

Snow tires are a must, just don't let your dealer see them if that is their stance.

 

I am using the factory rims. Really cant hide the tires from him cuz they purchased them for me at cost. Guess maybe I shouldnt have brought it up to them, but I wanted them installed when I picked it up. Are the rims the problem, or the rubber on the rims?

 

it doesn't matter what tire you put on- what wheel are you putting on? if the dealership puts them on then they should make sure they work with your car. period. tell him to look at tirerack for wheels that accept the tpms sensor.

 

My wife works for a company next to a reputable tire dealer here. He told me that I could run the Dunlops on the rims that come with the car and then just change them out in spring and put back on the high performance tires. The tire pressure sensors will not work, and the light will be on, but I think I can tolerate that til it warms up (usually in March or so)

 

sorry- you are have different tires put on the stock wheels. what possible warrenty could that void? there won't be any tpms problem so tel them to shove it and don't sign anything.

edit:why won't the tpms work? you haven't changed wheels. why wouldn't it work with this rubber?

 

Ask him to take one of the 8's on the lot for a drive once you get a reasonable amount of snow on the ground. When he calls in to have the car towed back in, ask him how the summer tires worked out for him. Make sure he signs a release saying he won't hold Bridgestone responsible if "anything else goes wrong" for driving on summer tires before he heads out. Considering the number of cars that use snow tires, it ought to end his static right then.

 

anyone else out there know differently? I thought I read here once that if you change tires (and leave the stock rims) the TPS will not work. ANyone know anything else?

 

No dude...if you change WHEELS, meaning TIRES & RIMS, then the TPMS gets emotional. The factory rims already have the sensors mounted in there. Assuming you are running at about 32 PSI cold, they will not know the difference.

 

Zeqs is correct. If you are running the factory rims, than the TPMS should work fine. You will probably want to run a higher pressure in your snow tires. You can actually have your dealer reprogram the TPMS to accept this higher pressure. The range at which the light comes on is completely adjustable.

 

so you are pretty much all sayin that he is full of it and there should be no problems? Is there a way to prove this with Mazda so I can tell him Im not signing anything? Thanks for all the info. this forum is great.

 

YES! he is full of it. and the tpms high point is like 46 psi so you might not even have to reprogram the high mark.

 

oh and have them call the mazda techline and get the answer from them.

 

Call Corporate Mazda. Let them know which dealer you went to and which manager you spoke with. Ask them what the real deal is. For them to tell you that you may not use snow tires of the right sizes on your factory rims is absurd.

 

hey guy's I got this response from Mazda direct. no mention of sensors.

Thank you for contacting Mazda North American Operations. I appreciate
the opportunity to respond to you.

In regards to your inquiry, please refer to page 4-9 through 4-10 of
your Owner's Manual for information about winter driving with your
RX-8. The information there is specifically designed to address winter
driving. For example, this Owner's Manual section advises information
about using snow tires, if conditions require.

Some suggestions for snow tires include: (18 INCH TIRES)Potenza RE040
225/45R18, Blizzak LM-22 with Uni-T 225/45R18, SP Winter Sport
M2/M3225/45R18

(16 INCH TIRES)

Potenza RE040 225/55R16
Blizzak WS-50 with Uni-T 225/55R16
Blizzak LM-22 with Uni-T 225/55R16
SP Winter Sport M2/M3 225/55R16
SP Winter Sport M2/M3 225/55R16
ContiWinterContact TS790 225/55R16
Pilot Alpin 225/55R16
Pilot Alpin 225/55R16
Pilot Alpin PA2 225/55R16
Arctic Alpin 225/55R16

There are no "vehicle trade" programs that are designed for placing a
customer into a different MAZDA vehicle. This is a transaction
facilitated by a Mazda dealership, as a sales process. Discuss any
vehicle trades or sales directly with an independent Mazda dealership,
if you do not want to consider keeping your RX-8.

Again, thank you for contacting Mazda. It has been my pleasure to
assist you. Please feel free to reply to this message with any further
questions or comments.

Please take a moment to give us your opinion about our e-mail service.
Click the link below to complete a brief, online survey.

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?...09GH3CPK39V6BD

Regards,

William Zdan
Specialist, Customer Assistance E-Business

 

I guess I will call them Monday morning and see whats up. It seems like there should be NO WAY that changing tires should do anything to the warranty!!!!

 

Here is my take on this... and I am only guessing here, so please don't take this as advice as to what you should do...

As I understand the new law, the tire pressure sensors are federally mandated in the U.S. after Nov. 1. Thus, I suspect you could sign anything, and it wouldn't relieve the person who puts the tires on rims without the sensors from liability -- if they deliver the car to you without the sensors, they are likely liable (at least partially, and perhaps completely) if the lack of sensors causes and accident and someone gets hurt or there is property damage. I suspect the same is true of a dealer in Canada or anywhere who arranges to ship tires to you in the U.S. without the sensors. This is no different than asking your dealer to deliver a car to you without seat belts. If they are stupid enough to do it, they're a fair target in a lawsuit.

This means, if I am right:
(1) your waiver of liability is void, particularly as to third parties (like your widow or orphaned children);
(2) they should not deliver the car to you without the sensors.

What will probably happen is that you will sign the waiver, nothing will happen, and no one will care. But we all need to start thinking of these sensors as what they are: a federally mandated safety feature of the car.

If I read the Mazda letter correctly, Mazda is telling you that you can put the particular tires mentioned on the car with the pressure sensors. Can't you put the Dunlops on with the sensors also? Is there a reason why you are not swapping the sensors? There is a technical bulletin that explains to the dealership how to do this.

My complaint: Mazda dealership are charging about $400 for an extra set of sensors -- I suspect that there is a healthy profit in that. If Mazda and other auto manufacturers wanted to do the right thing, they would announce that the sensors are available to buyers at cost and arrange for that to happen.

 

If the dealership was correct than there would be no seperate literature concerning tires included in your owners manual. Tires are not covered by Mazdas new vehicle warranty, they (tires) are covered by their own warrenty. Also the Magnuson-Moss warranty act states that the mfgr cannot specify that only their parts/service must be used in order to cover any warranty claims.

This is the same law that says the dealership/mfgr cannot void the warranty on your car just because either they did not do the oil change/service or you used a different brand other than what the dealership says you have to use. You can use any tire you want to as long as it meets mfgrs specs, Llikewise they cannot specify any specific brand.

 

Well, regarding my earlier post, it seems that it is more complicated than I first thought. The tire sensor law in the U.S. is only just now phasing in. Since the RX-8 shipped with the sensors, they may be mandated, but I am not sure of what responsibility those who put tires on rims without the sensors have when they know they will be used on a car that shipped with the sensors as standard equipment. Here is a link if anyone is interested in digging...

 

Maybe I was naive, but I had no idea that this car would perform so poorly in snow; it is literally life threatening to be caught in a snow storm with this car - if you are not aware of this. I had some idea only because I read the posts here and even then I assumed that I'd be ok if I took it slow. That's not the case; you just can't drive this car in snow. I believe that Mazda is seriously deficient in alerting its buyers to this fact; I read the owners manual after I bought the car and that section on snow tires seemed like a suggestion rather than a warning. They put two blaring notices on the sun visors about seat belts - which are really unnecessary - and neglect to tell me - warn me - that driving this car in the snow is very dangerous.
If they told me that I would void my warranty for putting snow tires on the car, I'd copy all of the posts from this site about winter tires and tell them to shove them...

 

No sports car, or any car, for that matter, with summer performance tires, is going to be any good in snow. And sports cars, in general, are not known for their driveability in nasty weather. This would hold true whether you bought a Z4, a Boxster, a 350Z, a Celica, or an Eclipse. The 8 isn't going to be any worse than any of them.

 

This is probably true, but I had no less than two people at two different Mazda dealerships (one salesman and another service person) tell me not to worry about snow tires. By that time, I had been reading Gordon's warnings and could tell that the dealerships were full of it. My plan was to leave the car parked when the snow is on the ground, but that's turning out to be tougher than I thought. We've had long-time plans to go to Milwaukee this weekend and I was really looking forward to driving... now it's minivan time

 

Do dealerships ever know anything though? And I'm not trying to be obnoxious to anyone, but it should be pretty common knowledge that driving a sports car in bad weather like snow isn't a good idea, especially with performance tires. It's just a given. We're leaving the 8 at home this weekend, and driving to DC this afternoon with the BMW, even though we just had a light dusting.

 

No offense taken, Elara, but I knew very little about sports cars when I bought my 8. Everything I knew essentially came from Mazda's materials, my dealership and reading this forum (in September/October). When the dealership tells you that the traction control is excellent and that spending $2000 on replacement rims/snow tires/pressure sensors is unnecessary, there is a tendency to want to believe it.

I think there are two options here: (1) park the car; (2) buy the tires.

 

I would complete agree

I'm parking the car, since I don't have an extra $1k and change lying around for new tires and wheels.