I've searched for this but couldn't find anything.

 

Today, my first day of driving the car in heavy rain, I thought the engine had developed a stutter. Small, short but frequent losses (not complete) of power in gears 1 and 2, at low speeds, happening at constant revs and during gentle acceleration (The engine idled fine). This happened three times today, so I was starting to get quite concerned.

I took the car out tonight in the dry for a 50 mile blast to try and replicate the problem in all the gears, but to no avail, not even in first or second. I also did a DPF regen for good measure. I did notice that the TCS alert is lazy as **** though. It will allow the wheels to spin, then it will interfere, then it will flash the TCS light on the dash a second or so later (kinda slow, no?).

So I checked the reviews on these ^ tyres, which I’ve already questioned the ability of; Evergreen EU72's (came with the car)

 

And while they’re seemingly happy in the dry, they get really poor write ups for wet weather performance. They proved this today by spinning constantly when moving off from a standstill. So I’ve come to the conclusion that my tyres are ****ty, and the TCS was involved in the ‘stutter’ that I attributed to my engine. Interfering constantly in short bursts, but not long enough to throw the TCS light up on the dash, all while the tyres struggled in the heavy rain (but not enough to notice by feel due to low gear/revs)

Does that sound likely? Like, at all? It’s probably worth changing my front tyres anyway, but am I missing something obviously wrong with my engine that could lead to all this?

If you change the fronts to something decent & still have "evergreens" on the back then you'll risk the back end aquaplaning & wanting to overtake the front.

 

Your choices are either change the lot & try & flog the Evergreens off on eBay or gumtree

 

or

 

put up with them and try & wear all 4 out as quick as possible.

 

Are they really that hopeless in the wet?  (I guess they are).  Could it be improved slightly with changes to tyre pressures?

 

I have to admit I had some crap no-name tyres on a Nissan U13 and I added more grooves to them (possibly with an angle grinder but I can't remember).  Dodgy & illegal but it helped.  It's probably not a solution most people would entertain.

That sounds like mine on the Dunlops it came with; on hitting standing water the TC would stutter, I'd lift, and then sometimes the warning light would flash. So yes, I'd say the issue is the "Everspins". How much tread have they left?

I've had no issues with aquaplaning, just really poor traction. These Evergreens are silica based tyres so need to be at optimum temperature for max grip, and British rain just doesn't allow that! Considering the fronts have to do all of the work it would only be them that I'd change, the rears have been fine even under heavy braking.

That sounds like mine on the Dunlops it came with; on hitting standing water the TC would stutter, I'd lift, and then sometimes the warning light would flash. So yes, I'd say the issue is the "Everspins". How much tread have they left?

Plenty of tread, not far from new. They get mixed reviews all round. Good to hear that the problem was replicated in your car, at least it means my engine/sensors are probably ok!

I went through two full sets of Evergreens on my 2007 PD170 vRS.

I know tyre reviews on forums are generally a waste of time but I really couldn't fault them.

I'd have had a third set had I not sold the car.

Interesting comment on the silica compound. My winter tyres (Avon Ice Tourers) are silica based so I'd hope they don't need to be run at optimum temperatures, unless it is below 7 degrees celcius!

Edited 30 April, 201511 yr by silver1011

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Edited 30 April, 201511 yr by silver1011