The Benefits of Winter Tires: A London, Ontario Guide to Getting Your Car Ready for Winter

London averages roughly 194 cm of snow a year, spread across about 60 days of snowfall, and that is before you count the mornings where the road is simply cold and greasy rather than white. Winter tires are the single biggest safety upgrade you can make to a vehicle in southwestern Ontario, and they are the one that people put off the longest.

Here is what winter tires actually do, when to install them, how the Ontario insurance discount works, and what else is worth checking on your vehicle before the first storm rolls off Lake Huron.

Why winter tires work: it starts at 7°C

The number that matters is not the snowfall total, it is 7 degrees Celsius. Below roughly that temperature the rubber compound in an all-season tire begins to stiffen. A stiff tire cannot conform to the texture of the road surface, and grip comes from that conformity. This happens on clear, dry pavement. You do not need snow on the ground to be driving on a tire that is past its useful temperature range.

Winter tires are built around three things all-seasons are not:

• A soft compound that stays pliable in the cold. Silica-rich winter rubber keeps working down to temperatures where an all-season has gone hard.
• Deep, open tread blocks that bite into snow and clear slush instead of packing solid and skating over it.
• Siping — hundreds of fine slits across each block. Every sipe is another biting edge on ice, and they help pull the thin water film off the ice surface that causes most slides.

The Tire and Rubber Association of Canada cites research showing that at temperatures just below freezing, stopping distances on winter tires can be up to 30 percent shorter than on all-seasons. At 50 km/h in traffic on Wellington Road, 30 percent is the difference between stopping behind the car ahead and stopping inside it.

Winter vs. all-season vs. all-weather

The labels get used loosely, so here is the practical difference:

• All-season tires carry an M+S marking on the sidewall. That marking is not a cold-weather certification. It describes the tread pattern, and it is essentially self-declared by the manufacturer. An all-season is a three-season tire in this climate.
• Winter tires carry the three-peak mountain snowflake symbol (3PMSF), which means the tire passed a standardised snow traction test. This is the symbol your insurer looks for, and the one worth checking before you buy anything advertised as a snow tire.
• All-weather tires also carry the 3PMSF symbol and are designed to run year-round. They are a genuine step up from an all-season and they qualify for the insurance discount. On ice and packed snow, a dedicated winter tire still stops shorter.

If you commute to Toronto, tow, drive a rear-wheel-drive car, or share the road with a new driver in the family, buy the dedicated winter set. If you drive city kilometres inside London and have nowhere to store a second set of tires, all-weather is a defensible compromise. We will tell you honestly which one fits when you come in.

What a London, Ontario winter actually throws at your car

This region is harder on vehicles than the provincial average, for reasons that stack on top of each other:

• Lake effect squalls. Cold air crossing Lake Huron dumps snow on the corridor northwest of the city with almost no warning. Roads go from bare to covered in minutes.
• Freeze-thaw swings. London crosses the freezing point repeatedly through the winter. Melt, refreeze, black ice at dawn.
• Heavy salting and sand. Effective for traction, corrosive for everything underneath your vehicle, and abrasive against your paint and wheels.
• Highway kilometres. The 401 and 402 mean sustained speed in conditions that change every few kilometres, and rural stretches that get treated later than city streets.
• A long season. Measurable snow in November through March is normal here, with April not off the table.

When to install winter tires in Ontario

Go by temperature, not by the first snowfall. Once daytime highs settle around 7°C and overnight lows are dipping below it, your all-seasons are already working outside their range. In London that is typically mid to late October.

There is a practical argument for booking early too. Every shop in the city fills up the week the first storm is forecast, and that is the week you are least able to be without your car. Book in October and you pick the date.

Take them off in the spring once highs are consistently above 7°C, usually somewhere in April. Running a soft winter compound through a warm spring wears it out quickly and lengthens your braking distances on hot pavement.

The Ontario winter tire insurance discount

Since 2016, auto insurers in Ontario have been required to offer a discount to drivers who run winter tires. The savings are generally a few percent of your premium, and the exact figure varies by company.

What insurers typically ask for:

• Four matching tires, not two.
• The three-peak mountain snowflake symbol on the sidewall. M+S all-seasons do not qualify.
• Installation inside their stated window, commonly around the start of November through to somewhere in April.
• Proof on request, usually the installation invoice or a photo of the tires on the vehicle.

The dates and the proof requirements differ between companies, so confirm yours with your broker before you take the tires off in the spring. We provide an itemised installation invoice with every changeover so you have the paperwork if it is asked for.

Why it has to be all four

Fitting two winter tires is worse than it sounds, because it makes the car behave unpredictably rather than simply less grippy.

• Winters on the front only: the front end grips and the rear does not. Lift off mid-corner and the back steps out. This is the classic way a front-wheel-drive car ends up backwards in a ditch.
• Winters on the rear only: the back holds and the front pushes wide. You turn the wheel and the car keeps going straight toward the intersection.

Either way you have built a vehicle with two different levels of grip at each end, and the transition between them arrives without warning. Four matching tires keep the car balanced and predictable, which is the entire point.

Put them on their own wheels

You can run winter tires on your existing rims and have them mounted and balanced twice a year. Most of our customers move to a dedicated winter wheel package after a season or two, and the reasons are straightforward:

• The changeover is faster and cheaper. A wheel swap is a fraction of the labour of dismounting, remounting and rebalancing four tires.
• Less wear on the tires. Every mount and dismount stresses the bead. Fewer cycles means longer tire life.
• Your summer alloys stay out of the salt. Brine pits and corrodes polished and machined finishes, and refinishing a set of wheels costs far more than a set of winter rims.
• You keep your TPMS sorted. A second set of sensors, programmed once, means no relearn hassle every season.

A steel wheel package is the budget route and there is nothing wrong with it. Plenty of customers instead pick an inexpensive black alloy so the car still looks right through the winter. We can price both against your fitment on our custom wheels page, or spec a full winter package on the tires page.

Getting your car ready for winter: the full checklist

Tires are the first item, not the only one. Work through the rest of this before the first storm.

1. Tire pressure

Air contracts as it cools. You lose roughly 1 psi for every 5 degrees the temperature drops, so a tire set correctly in September can be meaningfully underinflated by November. Check pressures monthly through the winter, always when the tires are cold, and set them to the number on the driver's door jamb sticker rather than the number on the sidewall.

2. Tread depth

Ontario's legal minimum is 1.5 mm, but winter performance falls off long before that. If your winter tires are down around 4 to 5 mm, they will still pass a safety inspection and will still slide. Measure them now, not in January.

3. Battery

Cold does two things at once: it reduces the chemical output of the battery and thickens the oil the starter has to turn. A battery that has been marginal all summer is the one that fails on the first genuinely cold morning. If yours is over three years old, have it load tested before the temperature drops.

4. Wipers and washer fluid

Replace blades that chatter or streak. Fill with a winter washer fluid rated to at least -40°C, because summer fluid freezes in the lines and on the glass exactly when a salt truck passes you. Carry a spare jug.

5. Fluids and coolant

Have the coolant strength checked, top up oil, and if you are near an oil change interval do it before winter rather than after.

6. Brakes

Winter driving means more braking on poor surfaces, and salt accelerates corrosion on rotors and calipers. If you heard anything from the brakes at the end of last winter, deal with it now.

7. Lights and visibility

Dark at 5pm, snow on the plates, salt film on every lens. Check every bulb, clean the headlight lenses, and keep a proper snow brush with an ice scraper in the car rather than in the garage.

8. Protect the paint and glass

Brine finds every chip. This is the time of year paint protection film earns its cost on the front bumper and hood, and a quality ceramic window tint keeps interior heat in on cold mornings while cutting the low winter sun glare that sits right at eye level in December. Wash the underbody regularly through the season, including a rinse after every salted drive you can manage.

9. Emergency kit

Booster cables or a lithium jump pack, a shovel, traction aid, blanket, flashlight, phone charger and some food. A closed 401 in a squall is not a rare event here.

Common winter tire mistakes we see

• Waiting for snow. The compound is already underperforming at 5°C on dry pavement.
• Buying two. Covered above. It creates a handling imbalance rather than half a solution.
• Mixing brands or tread patterns across an axle. Different compounds and patterns behave differently under braking.
• Assuming AWD replaces winter tires. All-wheel drive distributes power. It does not shorten a stopping distance.
• Storing tires badly. Stack them flat, clean and dry, out of direct sun and away from ozone sources like an electric motor or furnace. Mounted sets can be stacked; unmounted tires are better stored upright.
• Running them into a fourth or fifth summer. Rubber hardens with age regardless of tread. Check the four-digit date code on the sidewall.

Booking winter tires in London

Southwest Wheels and Custom supplies and installs winter tires at Unit 1, 647 Wilton Grove Road in London, Ontario, serving drivers in London, St. Thomas, Strathroy, Dorchester, Ingersoll, Woodstock, Komoka and Mount Brydges. We carry winter tires from the major brands, we can build a complete winter wheel and tire package for your fitment, and we handle mounting, balancing, TPMS and seasonal changeovers.

Tell us your year, make, model and the size on your door jamb and we will come back with options and pricing. Send us your vehicle details or call the shop.

Frequently asked questions about winter tires