Buying winter rims and DIY install by bdub

10 minute read

So bought a set for my 2013 Focus ST. Thought I would share the whole experience with y'all.

-Bought the tires 12/5/16 for a pretty penny. I used their pre-bundled package, I originally built a package with steelies, but changed to regular rims for about $150 more. 

Shipment tracking says it should be here today 12/6/16. I live just outside of Detroit, MI.

They arrived around noon with a small old lady delivering, I went to help her carry the wheels. She had a whole truck full of rims/tire deliveries... weird if you ask me. Anyway here is the rims.

Brought them inside and started opened them up.

Came with lugs.

Now time to go out to the garage and put on some new shoes.

As she sits.

Starting with the basics, e-brake on, in gear, wood blocks if you want. Be smart, be safe.

Go underneath with flashlight and locate were you will be jacking and be putting your stand.

Its dirty in the pic but its the metal frame, its very easy to tell where the solid bits, and plastic bits are. Be careful or you'll crack some plastic. 

Touching the metal, its fairly dirty sorry.

Bring my jack and stand over and start loosing some lugs. They are 19mm.

Raise your ride up and remove your lugs and wheel.

Get your new tire ready, take the stickers off, grab some lugs, and put it on.

I always like to thread them in by hand, then use the breaker bar to tighten them a good amount. I tend to torque at the end.

Looks alright, however it seems my wheel weights were placed improperly. They rub on the caliper and surely will rip off with the first turn of the wheel. I have contacted tire rack and so far they have been very helpful. I sent in my pictures as well as this video. I will update as it proceeds.

I opened up the other wheels and thought I would give them a shot, so I moved over to the driver side.

Repeat the same procedure for drivers side.

Weights were on the inside of the rim.... my guess is the guy putting the weights on did the passenger side as both "rear" as the caliper is a lot smaller. Put it on without any issues so I continued.

Take off your stickers and apply rim.

Moving to the rear. The jack location is a little easier to see.

Loosen lugs, and replace that rim.

More stickers..

Put it on.

Now to the last tire, same deal, take your time.

They are all on! Now take your torque wrench and torque all lugs to 100 ft-lb as per manual

Pull it out, check, recheck, and check again so everything is good. Then took it for a little drive, 25 mph around the neighborhood. Did some sharper turns and accelerations looking for anything irregular. Then took it out on Woodward for some 45 mph. Overall everything works great. Pulled it back in the garage, and re-torqued all the lugs again.

Concerning the tire weights, I called tire rack and informed them about the rest of the experience. All other rims worked fine, I was rocking the car back in and forth in the garage to see if it would knock the weight off. It just ground it down very minimally and seems to be working just fine. Ill confirm tomorrow after highway driving.

Here is a good discussion about users experiences. 

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/wheels-tires/301692-how-reset-tpms-no-learning-tool.html

3-15-19
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Update: Been great ever since. Taken a few road trips with no problem. Actually helps make the ride a little softer with the extra inch of rubber.

4-15-20

Update: I sold my Focus during the 2019 summer and sold the winter rim and tires in fall. After spending $1,446 for the tires delivered, I was able to sell them for $450. I could have gotten more but the lady was nice and I had no use for them anymore. I drove 5-7k miles on them and had them for 3 years. 

Personally I thought it was a great deal, they worked perfectly the whole time of ownership, never need to get rebalanced or new rubber. I've know people who buy "cheap" wheels on craigslist and have had to waste a lot of time and money getting them rebalanced, buying new rubber, running into issues when trying to travel somewhere, finding there is a huge ding causing heavy vibration. NONE OF THAT, just slapped them on every winter, stored them for summer, and was able to get some money back as well knowing that someone with a Focus could enjoy them for a few winters like I did. Would highly recommend if your not a big tinkerer.