Octavia vrs, Terrible understeer!

[t111bul]

Hi Guys,

 

I have winter tyres on my 06 VRS(225/45/17) which have been on for a month and the car now seems to have no front end grip! It spins the wheels all the time and pushes on around round abouts! I have had the tyre on the car before and it felt fine. This year it is dangerous!! I have the tyres pumped up to to 34psi on the front as usual. I just dont know whats wrong with the car. What other than tyres could be causing it to have no grip?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Tim

 

  

[KenONeill]

Have you changed anything other than the tyres? If not, then the issue must be with the tyres.

 

What make are the tyres? Continental use a hard substraight that rears its ugly head at about 3mm tread depth.

[t111bul]

The tyres are Nokian WR+ with about 6mm on them. I haven't changed anything else with the car. I also have a set of Dunlop M3 winter tyres on another set of wheels that i am going to try on the car tonight to see what happens. I hope the tyres aren't worn out already!

Edited 2 December, 2013 by t111bul

[rob_e]

I put my winters on over the weekend. First proper drive in them to get to work this morning and they felt less grippy than the summers i've just taken off.

A few reasons why this might be the case:

- they've been sat in my garage for 8 months so the top surface of the tyre will have started to age/dry out/harden. A few miles on them should scrubb off that surface and put "fresh" rubber in contact with road.

- the temperature this morning was between 7 and 8 degress as i drove in to the office. the winters will work better when the temps are colder than that.

- the roads this morning were damp and very greasy (no heavy rain recently to wash the surface clean) so are very slippy, so i'm comparing the car with my last drive on summers which was on a dry day.

Just drive within the available grip you have and you'll be fine. There is always a period when it's marginal as to which tyre is best - once the weather gets properly colder then the winters will be bar far the better option.

HTH.

[t111bul]

Hi,

 

I drove th car today on dry roads its its like a totally diffrent car, its back to normal . It must of been the greasy roads. Thanks for the help guys.

[Bcc212]

Christ. Good job you didn't have summer tyres on! Could have been in a ditch

[Flying]

Roads that were salted earlier in the week are very slippery now - had lots of front wheelspin under acceleration today