XC90 Winter Tyres Q's

[OU813]

Hello from a newbie!

Whilst waiting for my first ever Volvo to arrive I thought Id do a little bit of advance planning which is proving to be more difficult than Id imagined

If anyone else is running a current XC90 D5 Inscription on winters then Id love to hear from you

Now being a big fan of winters in the UK I have run them on and off for 10y and its always been pretty easy to find out what each manufacturer recommends, until I discovered Volvo........ Kind of ironic as Sweden is pretty "winter" dont you think?

Anyway the online manual says ask your dealer which has been pretty frustrating to say the least.

The Inscription comes on 20's and ideally Id like to run 18" tyres on a slightly narrower rim but obviously keep the same rolling circumference.

The manual also states that any winter wheel change needs to be followed by a dealer visit to reset software - WTF? - and is a bit vague about TPMS which I have interpreted as being done via the ABS unlike my current BMW and so there should be a simple button to reset things.

TL: DR

Where can I find Volvo recommendations for winter tyre sizes?
What if anything is anyone else running on a current Inscription?
Do I really need to see a dealer if I swap the wheels myself?
Wheres a good place to look for spare OEM 18 or 19" rims? (BMW dealers have loads from upgraders they happily sell at modest cost).

Cheers

[HDAV]

Try here: https://www.volvocars.com/uk/accesso...k&pageNumber=1

Plenty of 18” options 235/60 R18

[OU813]

Thanks for that, it confirms I need active TPMS and to see a dealer afterwards for a speedo recalibration, really???

And thats on top of paying a significant premium too just for the wheels

The same tyres are £720 fitted locally if I had the rims and my favoured Wintrac Extremes only a little more in that size

Hmmmmm, is this mark up representative of all Volvo dealer interactions?

[gaby]

It may help if the MY of your car is mentioned.
I wonder why you are interested in tyres for a D5 Inscription only?

[Lexman8]

I have a MY17 XC90 Momentum and fit these wheels (with the Conti tyres) in winter: https://www.volvocars.com/uk/accesso...=acc_wheels_uk

Early XC90s have direct TPMS and therefore the pressure sensors have to swapped when you change wheels. From MY17, XC90s have indirect TPMS (using the ABS sensors) so lack the in-wheel sensors and therefore swapping to winter wheels is easy. I do it myself in under an hour. After swapping the wheels you simply hit the re-calibrate button in Sensus.

So, assuming your car is new, you can fit 18", 19" or 20" wheels. Note that you cannot fit 18" wheels to T8 models as they have larger front calipers and the 18" wheels won't fit.

[AWM]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

So, assuming your car is new, you can fit 18", 19" or 20" wheels. Note that you cannot fit 18" wheels to T8 models as they have larger front calipers and the 18" wheels won't fit.

My XC60 will come with a set of Winter Tyres, as my employer swaps all the lease car fleet's tyres over in the Autumn, 2WD or 4WD.

I'll let you know what the Winter tyres are when I get them.

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by AWM

Not sure about that, my T8 Momentum order spec. here in NL says it comes with 18" wheels, which is also as per the online configurator here.

Not sure what to make of this. In the UK, 18" wheels are not available as standard on an XC90 and the only winter ones are those I referenced above.

The notes below, copied from the accessory website, clearly state that 18" wheels are unsuitable for a T8.

Notes
When changing to another approved tyre dimension, the application for steering deflection limiter and/or speedometer may be needed. Contact your local Volvo dealer for more information.
Not suitable for Twin Engine.
This accessory might not be available in all countries. Please contact your local Volvo dealership for more information.

The only other thing I can think of is that different, and compatible, 18" wheels are available in NL.

[Deman77]

I had three winters swapping tyres only onto original rims - exact same size of tyre as my summers. I use conti 850ps which is a winters benchmark for many years and they do fantastically well especially in positive temperatures on wet which is most of our winter. My dealer kindly stores them and gets their local tyre shop to swap them and passes the cost. My dealer moans that it’s no good for tyres walls to swap them but Continental told me it’s not true and only correct storage is important (correct and different storage is important for tyres on rims too). This will be fourth and probably last season on these as the rubber compound degrades after about four years but they have not suffered from any issues. I also always have my car on original wheels.

NB. Continental also recommends as wide a contact patch for winter tyres as possible. Narrow tyres for cutting through deep snow needs to be proper narrow (like 175) and they only outperform wider tyre in very deep snow but lose out on any other surface.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

I have a MY17 XC90 Momentum and fit these wheels (with the Conti tyres) in winter: https://www.volvocars.com/uk/accesso...=acc_wheels_uk

Early XC90s have direct TPMS and therefore the pressure sensors have to swapped when you change wheels. From MY17, XC90s have indirect TPMS (using the ABS sensors) so lack the in-wheel sensors and therefore swapping to winter wheels is easy. I do it myself in under an hour. After swapping the wheels you simply hit the re-calibrate button in Sensus.

So, assuming your car is new, you can fit 18", 19" or 20" wheels. Note that you cannot fit 18" wheels to T8 models as they have larger front calipers and the 18" wheels won't fit.

Hi Lexman

I am contemplating buying my lease T8 at the end of the lease and then I am also contemplating about running it with winter tyres.

Mine has the original system with the sensors in each wheel.

If I bought wheels with the sensors in them (or bought the sensors and fitted them to my new wheels) for my second set, do you know if it would be a straight swap and the car would recognise the new sensors or do you think that they would have to coded to the car each wheel swap? I guess I could always just run without TPMS during the winter, but I reckon the constant errors would probably drive me up the wall.

p.s. Your link does not appear to work, I just get a 404 error.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by Deman77

I had three winters swapping tyres only onto original rims - exact same size of tyre as my summers. I use conti 850ps which is a winters benchmark for many years and they do fantastically well especially in positive temperatures on wet which is most of our winter.

Second that. I had conti 850 on my A6 and they were great. Replaced it with another A6 and ran that one with Wintrac Extreme and they were awful in just a couple of inches of snow. Really surprised me.