First drive today with the new snow tires on just a dusting of snow. I think the rear gears may make this winter interesting. I spun the tires with very little throttle starting out. I may have to start exclusively in 2nd gear now. Time will tell how this works out once we get a real snow storm...

 

Well, I am still waiting for a good snow storm to test out these new snow tires. We got a couple of inches the other day but I didn't make it out before the plows. (DOH!) Since these new rear gears and soft snow tires amazingly allow me to break the tires loose in the 1st 5 gears (!?!) I think this could be interesting. I have a bad feeling that with the new rear gears the new snow tires will now work about as good as really clapped out snow tires. I really hope I am wrong about this.

 

I think you're worries are unfounded. We have to deal with twice the annual snowfall you get, but then I don't drive mine in the winter as much as you, so it's hard to compare with forum comments.

Be gentle with the throttle, and you'll be OK.

 

Well, that sounds boring.

 

That's true. But now that you've got a little one in your life, there's a whole new consideration to winter stunts. Stay safe.

I still don't think you answered the question about wheel hop with your snows on dry pavement. Kind of curious. My guess is you'll be hop-less, and the summer hop is those high-end summer tires.

 

I think the grip plays a part. When I was swapping tires and it was very cold (ie. summer tires were hard as rocks and not much grip) there did seem to be a bit less wheel hop.

 

The last time I had my car on the lift I sprayed some rust proofing underneath in anticipation of all the salt it will see this winter. I was surprised by how much surface rust was on the rear subframe, drain holes in front of the rear wheels, and jack points that got scuffed up again by being up on the lift multiple times this year. I sprayed some rust proofing on the jack points, but I am not sure how well that will hold up. It will probably get rubbed off the next time the car gets lifted.

 

I was at Advance Auto Parts today and picked up some free (coupons) Sea Foam. Has anyone tried this stuff? The guy there swears by it. He said the next time I change my oil I should put 1/2 a can in the oil, let it idle for 10 min. and then drain it. He said I would be surprised by how much gunk it pulls out of the engine. Anyone try that? It will be a while before I need an oil change, but I will probably be down to 1/2 a tank of gas and dump in the Sea Foam in a couple of weeks. I am curious to see if it makes any difference. I used Lucas Oil Injector cleaner a couple of times before and that seemed to help slightly.

 

Sea Foam is amazing. Used it on several vehicles.

 

I used it once about 80k miles ago ..its wasn't bad, the smoke show was quite short though, but definitely seems to burn something off...might be because I kept up on regular maintenance anyways...I have one sitting in the garage and have been meaning to run it through sometime soon but I've been too busy ...I'm assuming it might have a greater effect now that I'm at a much higher mileage...i almost feel like its a good way to check for exhaust leaks at the very least so worth it
w
haven't tired the Lucas injector cleaner but have tried the redline equivalent twice in the last 30k miles...didn't really notice a difference...I have a bottle of Techron in the car I keep forgetting to dump in too

 

I ran Seafoam through the upper engine on my old Maxima. The billowing white smoke that filled the neighborhood... that was epic. Didn't make my car run any better or worse afterwards, and truth is it was running fine when I did it. At the time, there were a number of Seafoam conversations going online, and I got looped into doing it. I think conversations like that are typical in an group discussing an 8 year old car.

I didn't do the oil mix, however. I'm interested in reading what you do here.

 

Well that's interesting. Did you guys get a ton of smoke after you put sea foam in the gas tank?

 

IIRC, it was 2/3 sucked into the upper engine, and 1/3 in the tank. The smoke was all from the intake.

 

Hmm... how did you go about dumping it into the intake?

 

I had to really step back and think about this. It was a while ago.

The Maxima has a Variable Air Intake System. To support the VIAS, there was a vacuum connection off the intake used to actuate a large butterfly valve separating the two-shelf, aluminum upper intake manifold (UIM). I ran a section of hose from there to the driver seat, where I could meter how much Seafoam I was sucking in, while also maintaining some throttle pressure so it wouldn't stall.