I've recently bought an 05 1.9TDI estate which besides a few niggles which are being sorted under a 3 month warranty from the dealer, has been pretty good so far.

 

However, I've had a bit of a problem with oversteer on two occasions. The first occasion was a few weeks ago, but I didn't think much of it as it was very wet and I was driving fairly spiritedly and I just accelerated out of it. Yesterday, however, I had a much more major slide - it was damp, but I was only doing about 20 around a fairly large roundabout when the backend slid right round, and the car would have spun 360 if I hadn't corrected it. I wasn't expecting it at all as I was driving quite sedately, and it took me completely by surprise! I didn't hit anything at all, and managed to accelerate away but it shook me up a bit. 

 

Is it possible that there's something wrong with the car causing this? Or could it just have been diesel or something on the road? In a lack of traction situation on a roundabout like this I would have expected understeer, so I'm a little surprised the back end stepped out. Tyres are all in excellent condition, although they are fairly cheap summer tyres (I'm hoping to replace them fairly soon) and it can't have been lift-off oversteer as I didn't lift off, and besides how much lift off oversteer can you really get at 20mph in 3rd gear? 

Edited 10 January, 201610 yr by TobyMTDI

As the car is more than 10 years old there is a chance the rear suspension has seen better days.

 

The Octavia has a reputation for throwing out the rear suspension alignment too.

 

Have you checked the tyre pressures?

Edited 10 January, 201610 yr by silver1011

Cheap summer tyres on a cold day won't help either, compound might be rather hard.

Been there done that...

A couple of 3x2 concrete slabs in the boot will sort rear end grip issues!

As the car is more than 10 years old there is a chance the rear suspension has seen better days.

 

The Octavia has a reputation for throwing out the rear suspension alignment too.

 

Have you checked the tyre pressures?

 

I check the tyre pressures regularly, but I checked them afterwards just to be sure and they're all okay. If it's the rear suspension, would getting a 4 wheel alignment done sort out the rear suspension?

 

Cheap summer tyres on a cold day won't help either, compound might be rather hard.

 

Hopefully it's just this combined with a greasy road surface. I'm hoping to get some Pegasus alloys soon so I don't want to change the tyres until then, although I'll probably be using the current vegas as my winter wheels so perhaps I should get some winter tyres sooner rather than later. It was 8C in Ipswich when this happened yesterday, which I wouldn't have thought would be cold enough to make that much of a difference though. 

 

Edit to add: current tyres on the back are Dębica Furio, which I've never even heard of, and don't seem to have very good reviews on the net.

Edited 10 January, 201610 yr by TobyMTDI

Cheap tyres will cause all sorts of grip issues. I had 2 nearly illegal continentals on the back and two on the front I'd never heard of called event. Every corner it would under steer like crazy and just got worse in the wet and when it got colder. I changed all 4 for some bridgestones and it's been great since for me.

I'd start with decent rubber and work from there.

Lack of grip on the 205's and cold will always make worn hard rubber even more less likely to grip. Change tyres and all will be well. It wont be alignment or anything like that. Just take it easy in wet and cold till you get some new treads on there. The extra length and weight of the estate means when it does go itll try and step out more and will take abit more to keep on course with the above situation

Invest in some decent rubber for it. Will improve the handling/safety no end.

Sounds like a plan, will probably swap all the tyres out for a set of winters as soon as possible - it's looking like it's going to get a bit more like a normal winter next week

Thanks Mike, glad to hear it might be something I can get fixed, I'll look into getting a four wheel laser alignment done sometime soon.