I decided to turn a bit sharper than normal, to test the grip

it was a public road

- and you have lost confidence in your tyres?

When you test something, you might expect that the test will provide a result, you had obviously decided you knew what the result would be. Guess what? You were wrong.

I didn't think I was doing anything dangerous

turns out you were.

I see quite a lot of post like this, roundabouts get oil and all sort on them then i rains and complain there tyres are no good.

Wet road pose hidden issue, that nee to be taken into consideration.

I have done 60K miles in this car, almost all on other tyres. Only when I bought these tyres did I start having issues. Since I bought them cornering has not felt right. I had one potentially very dangerous skid a few weeks ago, and I was not driving unwisely, unless everyone down here is a loony. I did think it was a diesel spill or similar. Now I am convinced these tyres have poor transverse grip.

It would have made sense to tack this onto your earlier dashcam thread.

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=109189

The problem with this forum is that threads are hard to use when the get long, particularly on an ipad, hence the new thread.

from 30MPH you managed to do a complete 360 degree spin?

I'm not sure I would be so quick to condemn the tyres, they might not be michelins, but khumo tyres are still bound to the same safety regulations, there are many other factors that determine how well your car holds the road, tyre pressures, shock absorbers, weight, road surface, driving style, etc etc etc, and as mentioned roandabouts and sharp corners can be notorious for oil/diesel spills,

Lots of cars thesedays have undertrays fitted underneath the engine, any oil or fuel leaks are usually caught by the undertray, as soon as the car turns a sharp corner the whole lot spills out to one side.

And that is why it is a stupid idea to try and get your knee down round a bend on a motorbike on a public road!

Edited by old-school-tech on 29/05/2015 at 16:59

Not the first person to complain about Kumho tyres, but equally many people on here incuding me have used them without complaint and they are fitted as OEM onto many makes including Mercedes.

As with all manufacturers, they make good and bad models (just look at Which? test results for electronics), so whilst these tyres may be poor, the Ecstas(?) I used to use were excellent.

The road surface was moist, it'd been raining moderately for about half an hour, but nothing unduly wet.

I have zero confidence in these Kumho KH27 tyres, they are dangerous.

You may well be right about the Kumho tyres. But maybe it was raining after a couple of dry weeks, which may have contributed? On top of a diesel spill on a roundabout?

You might be right, but as stated earlier, this is not the first skid. It is the second skid in a month, with no skids at all in the previous 3 years. I am a fairly sedate driver, far from perfect, like most of us.

I used to drive a Jag XJ8 on Kumhos like I stole it - they were far, far better than the OE Pirellis - as I've stated earlier - Kumhos are not budget tyres - the company is huge - so are its R&D facilities - they are premium tyres for mid-range prices - purely becasue they do not have an established Brand presence.

Once again, Ordovices, when you write something - especially on a public forum - THINK OF THE READER.

Leif - I'd still be inclined to suspect either a fuel spillage or the first rain after a few dry days as the cause of the skid, rather than the tyres, as my experience of Kumhos (on the Z3 I used to have) was very good. But I appreciate that to be on the safe side you'll want to change.

I would agree with that assessment, especially as the damp road conditions are similar to that of a skin pan (not as bad admitedly). I've driven my car (Mazda 3 mk1 1.6 petrol) with (in my view) poor Bridgsetone ER30s (last a long time, but poor wet grip and very noisy/rough ride), having a similar hairy moment on a wet roundabout off the Bedford bypass 3 years ago, whilst my current Dunlop SP Sport fastresponses are much better (not brilliant, but good and great value) in similar conditions.

I did drive another Mazda 3 mk1 once (a work pool car, around the same time as I had the incident on the Bridgestones) with Khumo tyres on and they felt fine, though admitedly this was in the dry. As far as I knew, no colleagues had any incidents with them in wet conditions. Maybe some tyre and car combinations just don't work well together.

Did you have the wheel alingment and tracking retested after the incident - they possibly could've been fitted incorrectly (they don't appear to be directional/asymmetrical tyres)? Anyway, if you're not comfortable with a set (as you said, it wasn't just one incident), then best to change them. Maybe you could sell them on Ebay - they may work fine on another make/model of car, just tell the truth if they ask why you're selling them.

Once again, Ordovices, when you write something - especially on a public forum - THINK OF THE READER.

I did, that's why I wrote it.

Leif - I'd still be inclined to suspect either a fuel spillage or the first rain after a few dry days as the cause of the skid, rather than the tyres, as my experience of Kumhos (on the Z3 I used to have) was very good.

As I said a few days ago, I would be surprised if light rainfall after a dry spell, on top of a slight spill on a roundabout (quite possible) was not the main cause here. The new tyres may well have helped (or not).

A similar thing happened to me last year while driving a familiar reverse curve in my normal manner - not too fast, nor too slow. The conditions were as just described, and I performed a 180° coming to rest against the Armco. Very unsettling.

Leif, sorry just realised i spelled your name wrong in a previous post.

There is nothing at all wrong with your driving in that or the clip in the previous thread, if it was a fuel splill then the red Aldi would be struggling too.

What tyres are you running on the front of the car?, not suggesting you swap them round or you'll have the unenviable situation of ploughing straight on instead, but the front shows no signs of going it's own way.

You're made of stronger stuff than me, i order new tyres the second they don't perform, i certainly wouldn't still be driving on those things.

I've never bought the make concerned and won't be allowing any of my family to either.

The German ADAC didn't see any problems with these tyres.

www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/...4

Today I bought a pair of Kuhmo ECSTA HS 51 s for my BMW 530.

My usual tyre dealer who I have used for many years advised me to fit these new tyres which could be the relacement for the ones mentioned in the thread.

Perhaps Kuhmo have reacted to the adverse comments and introduced a new tread pattern. The HS vrints are the same price as the V versions.

Has anyone had any experience of these new variants?

The OP Check the tyre preasure at a garage. That's not a good check. I have a Michelin programmable gauge which I always use to validate proessures. I have always found when using garage air pumps large variations, often 10-20% out.

As stated, in one or other thread, tyres were checked with my own VW supplied pump and with the garage pump. They were in good agreement, allowing for an extra 1-2 PSI when the tyres were warm/hot.

However, given that my tyres were within the recommended values by VW (unloaded and loaded), I struggle to believe that a decent tyre should become dangerous at these pressures. After all, many people will surely pump up tyres to the loaded value, as they often carry loads, but do not let down the tyres when travelling alone.Also most people will not use super duper gauges, but the pumps in garages and at home. Were 4 PSI extra to be dangerous, the roads would be littered with crashed cars.

I think this is a combination of a greasy roundabouts, a tyre with not so good wet grip (as confirmed by various tests cited online) and a light car. Whether or not there is variation between batches of tyre, or a fault in the ones I have, I have no idea at all. I also have no idea if there is a fault with the car, but the springs are not bouncey, and the steering is straight when I take my hands off the wheel (suggesting tracking is okay).

An overinflated tyre will run cooler - a tyre running below its optimum temperature will grip less and may potentially wear quicker (particularly at high speeds as the tyre "slip ratio" will increase.) so the 0.something mpg increase you are getting thanks to reduced rolling resistance will be eaten up by increased tyre wear - not to mention the increased stopping distances and reduced cornering grip which may cost you rather more than a few pence at the pumps.

Learning how to drive properly (ie anticipating the road ahead and not braking unneccesarily) will save you more money than over-inflating your tyres ever could (if it did at all.)

Edited by SteveLee on 05/06/2015 at 17:30

There's something wrong leif! To get any car to start sliding on a dry road with warm tyres you'd have to travelling at silly race/rally speeds! Modern cars and tyres have enormous reserves of grip. There's a rural roundabout near me which is comfortable at 30 to 35, feels a bit quick at 40 and can be taken at 50mph in our standard 1.6 Focus in the dry, probably more but beyond my skills. All of this drama free and nowhere near grip limits--- on Hankook Ecos by the way! I would get those tyres changed, simply to see if the handling improves, as we are all fascinated to know! They are the right size fitted on the rims aren't they? Just a thought, as the flexing feeling might be explained by that.