Just discovered this forum, expect a lot from me!
I have an R reg Omega MV6, 35k miles, bought with 23k on. It is a wonderful drive, fast, comfortable etc etc but has one niggling bad habit which is that it finds ruts and lumps in the road and tries to drive along them, or leap around them. It is very pronounced and can be quite unnerving sometimes. People say"That'll be your low profile tyres". Are they right, or should I be checking something? My Vauxhall dealer changed a front wheel bearing at the last service, but I think they did this because I was expecting to spend some money...it made no difference.
It's almost due new tyres, it has Pirelli P7000s on at present (original?). Would a change of brand be likely to make a difference? And...are cheaper (I don't mean dirt cheap) tyres likely to be less effective/wear more?
Anyone got suggestions for a cheap source of tyres? (Berkshire) The first quote for the P7000s was £165 + balancing etc per tyre. I found somewhere that will do all four for £410 all in but it still seems a lot.
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This 'characteristic' is known as 'tramlining'
It is often felt on cars with oversize wheels - often making for a dangerous drive unless your hands are kept firmly on the wheel.
This condition is often found on boy-racers cars with huge 17 or 18 inch rims - the drive is often filling looseningly dangerous!
David
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It is noticable that over the last few years the minimal road maintenance has resulted in "tram-lines" or ruts forming on roads which never had them before.
Concrete roads rarely suffer to an appreciable extent because for tramlines to form the surface must actually be worn away, which takes a long time!
Tar-Macadam roads, however, deform when subjected to heavy loading, with the material being pressed away from the load-bearing areas and forced upwards on the unloaded area. Result: tramlines.
Not only do these deflect the steering, but the ruts fill up with water when it rains, increasing the risk of aquaplaning.
Both tyre profile and pressure affect the response of vehicles driven along affected roads.
Until a reasonable proportion of the taxation extracted from motorists is returned to the road system in the form of new roads (to reduce wear on existing ones) or a proper repair/rebuilding programme is instigated the problem can only get worse.
There are some figures somewhere which show that at the present rate of expenditure it would take decades to bring the existing roads back to an acceptable state, even if no further wear and twear took place.
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THE UK is falling into the same trap as Germany did saving money by cutting the road building and repair budget,the result is that just about every bit of autobahn has now to be rebuilt at far greater cost.The bridge rebuilds are the fault of Neil Kinnock who told all the eu to strengthen all bridges for bigger trucks and then back pedaled stopped the trucks but not the bridge work.The result all over Europe bridges and viaducts are being refurbished at a cost of billions for trucks we can not have.Labour policy transferred to the eu at its best
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The tracking can affect this. Suggest you have this checked. Having little or no toe-in can amplify this effect in my experience.
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The lower the profile of the tyre you use, the more suceptable to camber changes, and geometry misalignment the car will be. I would suggest you get a good garage or tyres specialist like Michledever tyres to do a full fourwheel alignment on you car.
I do not think it is fair to say that low profile tyres cause tramling. Tramlining is often a combinatin of many other factors. People dont complain Porsche 911's tramline and they have very low profile tyres. When boy racers fit oversize wheels to their car they experience problems for a number of reasons. For example many fit wheels with a differnt ofset and wider rims and tyres. The problem is not neccessarily the wheels or the tyres but the inability of the suspension to accurately track camber and castor etc over its travel. Touring cars only use such wide tyres because they are able to run them at very low pressure. Remember the size of the contact patch is related to the wieght of the vehicle over the tyre pressure. So wider tyres mean a shorter but wider contact patch, and therefore less feed back.
If you are lucky the problems may be due to the garage not correctly adjusting the camber after fitting the new wheel bearing. I woul dhave this checked first.
Ben
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