Arthur, Worry no more. You're in just the right place to help you. You've had 2 tyres fitted to offside rear and nearside rear. Yes? Reply, if not. Look at the sidewalls and tell me the sizes eg 185/65 HR15 or some such malarkey. Is that the same as you read on your unchanged front tyres, please?
Front tyres - 1 year and 9,000 miles old each:-
"Michelin Energy 195 / 60 R15"
Rear tyres - 1 week and 90 miles old each:-
"S-1031 195/60 R15 88H Radial"
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Good.
The tyres are OK. The right size, the right load rating.
Your front tyres are the best in the business. Michelins. Made in different factories, all over the world.
Your rears will be CE approved, but not as good.
Thrash them soundly. We are a bit slack in this country at present. Try them and be amazed. A bit noisier but very grippy. Check your pressures beforehand though. About 34psi from memory.
I think we've helped you here.
Well done, my friend.
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Good. The tyres are OK. The right size, the right load rating. Your front tyres are the best in the business. Michelins. Made in different factories, all over the world. Your rears will be CE approved, but not as good. Thrash them soundly. We are a bit slack in this country at present. Try them and be amazed. A bit noisier but very grippy. Check your pressures beforehand though. About 34psi from memory. I think we've helped you here. Well done, my friend.
The front tyres are solid.
The back ones are a bit flabby, so they may be low pressure, too dark tonight to check now. Will try in the morning.
Shouldn't the tyre place have put the right pressure to them?
Kwik Fit did the front ones at 3105 each. Car on a big ramp 5 foot up when they did this.
Tyre place jobbies - they just jacked upp the one tyre to fit, lower the jack, moved to other tyre and fitted that.
I didn't see them fit those metal wedge balancing things - would they have done that inside the garage on a machine? They said they did balance them, but I did not see them do this.
But low pressure seems the most likely culprit here, just checking the car manual ................
Looks like front and rear should both be 32 (under 100mph, load size irrelevant)
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That's £105 each at Kwik Fit!
Can I say this place is most helpful, unlike usenet.
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Made by Dunlop LOL
Thats' what the mechanic told me.
Still they look OK, I just hope that the standard of the tyre is better than the manufacturer's standard of English on those web sites!
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Check your pressures beforehand though. About 34psi from memory. I think we've helped you here. Well done, my friend.
Well the 2 fronts were 32, the 2 new rears were 28 - I have now blown these up to 32, will try them out later.
Still, 28 doesn't seem too bad, will it make the difference?
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Pump them all up to the pressures recommended in the manual for your particular model of car. Front tyres which are correct and back ones which are 4 psi under inflated will give you a floating feeling, especially so if the rear tyres are new.
You don't seem certain about pressures and procedures. Always do it cold. That means before you leave home, not at a filling station! (In any case, gauges at a filling stations can be wildly inaccurate.) It is the best practice to carry a pressure gauge in the car with you. If you don't then get one from a motor factors which states that is accurate, and of recommended quality - don't buy a cheap one. Then check it against a few others.
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Pump them all up to the pressures recommended in the manual for your particular model of car. Front tyres which are correct and back ones which are 4 psi under inflated will give you a floating feeling, especially so if the rear tyres are new. You don't seem certain about pressures and procedures. Always do it cold. That means before you leave home, not at a filling station! (In any case, gauges at a filling stations can be wildly inaccurate.) It is the best practice to carry a pressure gauge in the car with you. If you don't then get one from a motor factors which states that is accurate, and of recommended quality - don't buy a cheap one. Then check it against a few others.
I pumped them up using a pump that I plug into my cigarette lighter. I got this from Halfords many years ago.
But would going from 28 to 32 fix the problem?
The problem appears worse in the wet. When the mechanic tried the car (with me as passenger) the roads were dry.
When I lost it on a roundabout (it went to the right, so I steered to the left to fix it) the road was damp.
Problem is, I don't trust the car any more. And when that happens, it has to go. Hasn't it?
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The problem appears worse in the wet. When the mechanic tried the car (with me as passenger) the roads were dry.
As previously mentioned further up this thread, new tyres have a substance on them called a "releasing agent" This is to aid removal from the mould when tyres are made. As you slipped in the wet, chances are this is what caused you to slip. Give the tyres a few miles to scrub themselves in (200+) and see if they're any better.
Problem is, I don't trust the car any more.
Take it to an supermarket carpark after they've closed (or other big open space) and give the car some welly to see if you can replicate the problem - after you've scrubbed them in a bit though ;o)
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It is true that some tyres are less grippy, especially in the wet, and it doesn't have to be a budget tyre to have that effect. I had Avon ZZ9 (I think) on my Omega and they were much worse when new that the worn B F Goodrich tyres which I was taking off.
And the Avons went out of shape after a few thousand miles, giving harsh noise (like wheel bearing), but I didn't realise they were the cause until I'd spent a lot of money changing everything else except the tyres, which still had half their life left.
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If front tyres are under pressure the effect will be one of understeer and, in the case of those at the rear, oversteer.
Garage forecourt guages are notoriously unreliable. Well worth buying a good quality guage and using it.
There should be an indication of the tyre pressues on the car (inside of the fuel filler cap?) or in the handbook.
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If front tyres are under pressure the effect will be one of understeer and, in the case of those at the rear, oversteer. Garage forecourt guages are notoriously unreliable. Well worth buying a good quality guage and using it. There should be an indication of the tyre pressues on the car (inside of the fuel filler cap?) or in the handbook.
If oversteer is the left rear wheel spinning outwards when going round a roundabout (so the car spinning clockwise), then upping the pressure from 28 to 32 may be the solution.
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>>upping the pressure from 28 to 32 may be the solution>>
Such a comparatively small difference in tyre pressures is very unlikely to be noticeable.
I used to know a Dunlop tyre representative, who once informed me that maintaining the correct ratio between the front and rear tyres was more important than if they were slightly higher or lower than they should be i.e. 30 - 28 or 32 - 30.
Tyres would have to have lost quite a lot of pressure before any effects can be felt at the steering wheel or in the handling - heavier steering effort would be one in the case of front tyres and, even then, power steering would probably mask it.
I always keep my tyre pressures three or four pounds higher than recommended; it saves having to adjust them when I go on motorways.
Ironically my VW Bora handbook states that with a full load of passengers etc the rear tyres should be raised to 40psi...:-)
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>>used to know a Dunlop tyre representative, who once informed me that maintaining the correct ratio between the front and rear tyres was more important than if they were slightly higher or lower than they should be i.e. 30 - 28 or 32 - 30.
Good point.
When checking pressures check all four, and then the spare. Use the same gauge for all of the tyres and then even if the gauge is slightly inaccurate the relationship of pressures will be maintained.
Don't rely on a gauge fitted to the pump. I have had two pumps with gauges and they have both been hopelessly wrong.
When you check your gauge do so against several gauges of different types. Who knows, one of them might be duff.
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Re the spare - I always keep mine at about 5psi over the highest tyre pressure required for those on the car (it also allows some leeway for gradual air loss).
Then, if you are unlucky enough to have a puncture, once you have replaced that tyre, you can reduce the spare's pressure to the required figure. It will also be accurate as the tyre will be cold.
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I had a very similar problem with Avons on my Golf - the OSR one went pear shaped (literally) obver the course of about 6 months. I never particularly liked them anyway - they seemed a bit snappy in the wet without any progressive feedback of what they were doing - so I found a brand which were basically rebranded Pirellis and had no more problems. I wish I could remember what they were..
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>>I think we\'ve helped you here.
>>Well done, my friend.
Sean, you\'re getting weird again. Please don\'t.
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Sean, you're getting weird again. Please don't.
I thought we had seen the last of him (and eMBe) after you had a little "falling out" with him a while back.
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Pumping the tyres from 28 to 32 has fixed the problem.
Or perhaps the grease off the new tyres has worn away.
Car is fine.
Never had this happen before.
Will avoid cheapo tyres in future.
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