[Closed] not happy with new car tires??... anything i can do?

TJ - I spent a few years working as a parcel courier doing 300-400 miles per day 6 days a week. The average day for my current line of work which i've been doing for 4 years or so is 300ish, if not more. Doesn't take much to skew it.

Still absolutely nowhere near a million miles. Not even close. And I don't believe either figure anyway. Max daily mileage perhaps but not average. Keeping to speed limits unless you spend all your time on motorways you will be lucky to average 50mph. Do that for 8 hrs driving thats 400miles maximum - every day - nope.

TJ - I do wish you would stop calling me a liar. I know what mileage I have done, you dont.

for the original question of this thread...u need to buy the correct tires for your car...check they r on the right way etc...cars have increadibly complicated suspenion these days and tires are designed to work with them...etc etc etc...

Not a liar - a fantasist. What you say you have driven when pressed does not add up to anything like the million miles you claim. Impossible -Simples.

Whatever you say batman.

Bit rich complaining that someone is calling you a liar Goan when you have been accusing everyone else of the same when talking about their or their wives driving.

Diesel - not always easy to spot. Not even on a motorbike when I am watching the road like a hawk. At least you get to smell it on the bike (though by then it is usually waaaay to late to do anything other than try to make no sudden movements, which can be tricky when you tense up!)

See above.

Are the tyres on the right way? (i.e. there is 'outside' written on the sidewall- if you cant read it/find it on both tyres....

I had some tyres on an MX5- they were utterly evil, greasy little ****ers. Snapped out on me just once and really snapped out but just caught it. Turns out they were too hard a compound. i.e. when its cold here they stayed hard and didnt grip. Even though they were less than 2 weeks old (dealer fitted them allround as part of his PDQ) I binned them and bought Toyo's instead.

I wouldnt **** around. Get the two rears taken off ASAP and two of your old faves put back on. Don't let your wife or yourself drive on them for value-sake.

All the best. Stop arguing folks 😉

It was diesel, not the tyres.....

Mwahahahahaha. 😉

I'm a lorry driver and I bet I come close to the 60000 mile mark.

TJ - Goan still doesnt do as many miles in his car as you on the bike though. 😉

Rich - Member
It was diesel, not the tyres.....

my car has continentals on the front and crappy things on the back...never had the back step out unless the handbrake was on or thier was exsesive amounts of muck on the road. my rear wheels do as they do on a bike and follow the front without question...so dont no why urs does although its a different car

TBC - I have been caught out with hyperbole on that for sure. I did accept it was hyperbole tho when the numbers were pointed out.

according to american tv, i should eat more yogurt

you are correct mate, the tires are flexier than what i replaced and as my wife wasnt used to it(first time she had drove the car since new tires fitted) she was caught out by a combo of both tires and road conditions.

goan seems to think my wife cant drive though???

As suspected then - a diesel issue rather than a tyre one..

Like I mentioned earlier - I'd have been surprised if Yokohama manufactured such a senstive tyre (particularly in such a mainstream size)..

diesel is just shockingly slippy. Don't care who is behind the wheel - if you try to corner at anything approaching a normal speed and encounter a spill you are in trouble.

Can TYRE be spelt correctly??

To spin a front wheel drive car on a round about is a pretty good achievement, and to be honest crap tyres, diesel or just bad driving is pretty good going!

If you hit a patch of diesel in a fwd the car will just understeer out, unless your wife went to correct this with the handbrake and over compensated.... or when the car started oversteering she poo'd herself and applied too much steering lock and then when the car left the patch of oil the fronts dug in, un weighting the rear and spinning it round?

Yes oil can be very slippy, but if you dont panic, and react incorrectly its hsould be too much of a problem ( if your not going too quick initially )

If it was me I would 1. Take the car some where quite and drive it like a loon to see if the tyres really do let go stupid early (which I doubt they will) 2. Get the wife some skid pan lessons. 3. Tell her to drive more carefully with kids in the car. 4. Learn to spell tyre 🙂

I drive a car with crap tyres. Well, I assume they're crap, because like a good consumer i always buy the second cheapest ones.

I've never spun or skidded the car.

Why? Because I drive cautiously.

I don't want to cast aspersions on the OP's wife's driving in this particular instance, but there seems to be a lot of talk in this thread about 'the limits' of particular tyres.

Frankly, I don't think anyone should be testing the limits of their tyres on a public road - it betrays a pretty serious disregard for other people.

I was first on the scene of a very nasty RTA last year and I've seen 2 more this year. All three were caused by idiots driving too fast (at the limit of the performance of their tyres). I dare say all 3 male (2 teenage) drivers thought they were perfectly in control... until they weren't.

To me th epoint of have tyres that grip well and have hight limits is so that in the event of needing to avoid anything i have cofidance in my tyres.

I always resaerch my tyres before i buy them and base my purchase on what the manufacure fits and what is rated by the magazine test (mainly auto express) as they can tset them properly.

It is easy to spin a fwd car when hitting anything slippery as the back of th ecar is light and can just step out. I think that the skid pan should be part of the driver training just as it is in scandinavian countries.

Frankly, I don't think anyone should be testing the limits of their tyres on a public road - it betrays a pretty serious disregard for other people.

Indeed.

Does FWD mean four wheel drive or front wheel drive?

FWD - front wheel drive
RWD - rear wheel drive
AWD - 4 wheel drive

rightplacerighttime

Just about any accident could be considered to be due to testing tyres to their limit, just the same as pretty much all deaths are due to asphyxiation. It's not the testing of the tyres performance that's the problem, it's the choice of location and time at which it's done. Of course teenage (particularly boys, but I've seen a many girls driving the same so it would be unfair to generalise) drivers are more likely to cause damage, they're inexperienced in both car control and road conditions. While roads are not a playground, they can be quite easily used to the limits of a cars tyres out of busy periods, away from pedestrians and with good visibility. That's part of judging speed for the road, if there's risk to anyone else you slow down (assuming you dont mind the risk to yourself).

From an observational point of view, having been in a few accidents/near accidents as a teenager with others driving, it's the ones that never push the car, never have those moments of testing the tyres that are totally screwed when someone does something stupid in front of them or when they hit diesel. Two of them just closed their eyes. Someone with experience of accidents and handling a car sliding on both those occasions took control of the steering wheel and averted disaster. The problem is what damage is done getting to that point, the point above about skid pan training is a valid one. This is the reason I recommend anyone with new tyres or car goes to a large deserted car park and tests the car to its limits - you know how and when it is likely to go wrong, and how it reacts to input without risking others on the road.

As a side note, I can push my tyres to and past their limits at 20mph on a tight roundabout, it doesnt require high speeds. My estate with its poor tyres would spin its tyres at walking pace in the wet, while taking normal corners at the same speed as the rest of the traffic but with a little power fed in. It'd slip and become uncontrollable at half the speed limit of the roads on the way to my work, if I had to drive everywhere below their limits I'd be stuck at 25 any time it rained.

I don't think it's difficult to spin a FWD car if something to do with the set-up (like new tyres) has changed.
If the rears still had release compound on them, they would have been much slippier than the fronts - and a 'normal' speed around the roundabout may have been too much.

But, it would appear in this case it is diesel on the road.

I posted a while ago about the Vredestein Hi-Tracs I had fitted to my Fiesta taking about 750 miles before they bedded in. They felt absolute toilet up until a particular journey and then through the course of that journey I could feel them getting better & better. I'd had them before so had an expectation of how they should behave, but it took a lot longer for this particular pair to sort themselves out. Don't know why.

Renton, one thing you should check is the load rating of the tyres. You mention they are more flexy than the previous tyres? Perhaps the originals had a higher load rating than the new ones - I would expect this on a car such as the C-Max, particularly if it's a diesel.
My little Ibiza requires high load tyres - and I presume it's due to the diesel engine.....

Perhaps the originals had a higher load rating than the new ones - I would expect this on a car such as the C-Max, particularly if it's a diesel.

They should be the standard load tyre on this vehicle - 91 index.

It is quite possible the original Ford specified tyre is stiffer due to high demands that Ford impose on tyres with regards to handling expectations.
I am quite sure that the tyre could feel less direct & less confidence inspiring than the original but that is not linked I believe to the roundabout incident which was 'confirmed' as a diesel issue.

Any car I buy I always push it to its/my limits, and yes you can do this safely on some sections of road etc. To me I want to know what will happen when my car reaches its limit, so that in situations as above I dont panic and over react, or do some thing stupid as above which could cause an accident.

I cant imagine the sidewall rating would have much of an effect on an everyday car such as a Ford. Getting the geometry and the tyre pressures set up correctly will have much more of an impact on the handling than buying a tyre with too firm/soft a side wall. Oh and sidewalls have the opposite affect. Stiff sidewalls encourage quicker slip, softer make it more progresive.

Any car I buy I always push it to its/my limits, and yes you can do this safely on some sections of road etc

That's a slightly concerning statement unless you have a 1 litre Toyota Aygo, or the balls of a pre-pubescent teen? I would say the vast majority of cars cannot be driven at their limits safely on a public road. Full stop. I'm not saying that you can't drive them at their limits, but it's certainly not safe!

And Goan, you're a cock. 100%.

Goan-
"Are you a Taxi Driver or a sales rep?"
No he's a cock.
"When you put it at 160 miles per day, I would say that it is a bit low. Today, a quiet day I have driven 250 miles."
Driving or sat in the passenger seat "instructing".

I won't pay you for instruction, you sound like a total cock sir.
I just hope theres no one else about when you have your big accident. If your arrogance is reflected in your driving then its only a matter of time before you go backwords through the hedge.

"Any car I buy I always push it to its/my limits, and yes you can do this safely on some sections of road etc."

When someone says something like that, don't assume that they a doing 130mph around a school for deaf and blind. The point where grip starts to go can be found a very low speeds, knowing how where and when, is useful.

Pushing your self to your limits well, may be not.

I don't know if it's already been said but

1) Try the Trading Standards people.
2) If you're unhappy, buy some new ones anyway.

The point where grip starts to go can be found a very low speeds, knowing how where and when, is useful.

Agreed, but public roads are not the place to 'experiment' that's for car parks and industrial estates at night!

When I saw this car thread I knew that TrollingZooFighter would be baiting everyone.

🙂

Edit: double post...

Double post!

Goan - Member
renton - so someone else had been driving like a **** idiot... Spills are pretty damn easy to see.

POSTED 16 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST
nockmeister - Member
I totally disagree Groan, spills aren't THAT easy to see, especially on a roundabout!! Depends on road surface,weather (wet,dry etc),lighting conditions.

As I have said in a post quite recently - I was once in a car when its brake fluid reservoir unexpectedly exploded. It deposited fluid all over the tyres and the car went sideways around a roundabout. The trail of fluid on the road showed it went immediately before the roundabout so there was absolutely no warning whatsoever (such as dashboard lights). And it was a 6 month old car so absolutely no poor maintenance issues.

So no way could that have been expected and I would suggest a good candidate for a fourth way a car can spin unexpectedly.

christ this is getting a bit out of hand!!!

it was confirmed that the diesel was the cause of my wife spinning . although i sure with th old familiar tires fitted she could of caught the spin.

the tyres are still flexy, ive just done a trip up the m/way and round one of the high speed bends the car was all over the place and wouldn't settle at all.

im going to swap them to the front of the car and get something else for the back.

goan is still a cock though!!

this poor guy asked for advice and all you guys are doing is saying his wife cant drive and have a childish competition to see who drives the most miles? your ment to be adults rnt you?.

my advice is go to the ford garage...its thier car they have lists of recomended tyres for it.

goan is still a cock though!!

my advice is go to the ford garage...its thier car they have lists of recomended tyres for it.

Recommended tyres for the C-Max in this size are:
Pirelli P7
Bridgestone ER30
Conti Sport Contact2
Goodyear ENCT5
Michelin Primacy

BUT
those are just the brand names...
The challenge you would face is making sure you get the Ford spec tyre....

I am still surprised that the Yokohama tyres make it feel quite so bad.

according to american tv, i should eat more yogurt - Member

this poor guy asked for advice and all you guys are doing is saying his wife cant drive and have a childish competition to see who drives the most miles? your ment to be adults rnt you?.

Adults? On STW?

If it was diesel, how come nobody else spun their car? People need to take responsibility for their actions.

how come nobody else spun their car?

Perhaps they did. Apologies if the facts have been posted, but as far as I am aware this information isn't known to us.

What I mean is how come a whole line of cars in front of the car that spun managed to get round the roundabout without falling off the road. The OP says that his wife was following a family member - any time I see that it envolves the following car struggling to keep up and taking chances to do so.

Diesel on the road would not necessarily mean every car spinning as not every car would hit the spill (or hit it whilst taking an identical line). And we don't know if no other cars had spun either before the OP's wife got to the roundabout or after she had moved on (as far as I am aware).