Hi,

I have not noticed this much before, but tonight on the way home I suffered the most terrible understeer on some roundabouts/corners, the front end really felt unstable and as if I was driving on glass or oil or something.....it was not just one stretch of road, not icy...anyone any ideas?

It is a 54 vrs hatch with 10000 miles on the clock, not that heavy a driver and the tyres (conti's) seem to have plenty left on them..

I will see if it does it again in the morning, but it really was disconcerting

Thanks in advance

Simon

grit on the roads? At this time of year the roads are noticeably less grippy even down in England.

ps. My Conti's 'went off' well before the tread wore down to the limit.

Conti's go off below 3mm on account of them being a german tyre.

I'd also add to the mix a fuel deposite / grit / greasy day.

I nearly went a over t the other night, it looked likea clean section of concrete...very very fine layer of ice, so fine I did the same acrobatic routine on the way back a few mins later.

I noticed this yesterday - I think the roads are just very slippery at the moment what with grit, salt and general crap. I resisted the temptation to test the ESP :D

Thanks guys, I double checked the tyre pressures also, which were a bit low, a bit more air seems to have made a bit of difference...still have about 5mm left on the tread so they should last a little bit longer..

had the same last night as well and i'm running Proxes T1-R's with only a few months under them, in the end i turned the ASR off and had a play on some of the quicker roads on my route home, i must say the amount of grip the standard vRS generates still surprises me at times, and when it does understeer its very controlable....

its simply the time of year and the grease the roads get covered in. the conti's are an "all round" sort of tyres though, you'll need to think about switching to a tyre more suited to quick driving, something that focuses more on grip.

The answer is in the type of grit used ... they changed the composition for some reason and it appears to be super slippy this year , as last : the bike press did a piece last year (if you think its slippy in a car, you should try riding a bike on it !!!)

i must say the amount of grip the standard vRS generates still surprises me at times' date=' and when it does understeer its very controlable....

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Annoyingly, it's been wet / damp since I've had my Octavia.... But grip seems quite good for a powerful front wheel drive car -a remapped car must be a wheelspinning, understeering monster on wet, gritted roads!

ASR isn't as good as the ESP on my old Focus (I didn't appreciate how good it was!), though. ASR has you pitching and rolling a bit...

I have to say though that the one area I've yet to get used to so far is the steering. The steering rack is quite low geared and there's not a lot of feedback.

Annoyingly' date=' it's been wet / damp since I've had my Octavia.... But grip seems quite good for a powerful front wheel drive car -a remapped car must be a wheelspinning, understeering monster on wet, gritted roads!

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It is - can be a lot of fun :D

On the other hand, sometimes :eek: :eek:

Probably a daft question , but was your re-map worth the cost and insurance hike?

I'm tempted, insurance allowing, although waiting until Spring might be a better option!

It was dry(!) so I took small detour and included some roads 'popular with a certain magazine' in North Wales on the way to mountain biking near Llanrwst.

I was really impressed!

The Octavia felt very composed and stable with excellent grip, the nose ran wide a couple of times, but the understeer was quite progressive.

The rest of the car is good too:

The brakes feel sharp and didn't fade noticeably.

The engine feels smooth and punchy, overtaking is very easy and the broad torque curve is good for unfamiliar roads.

-mpg plummeted, of course, but you don't get owt for nowt....

It gets better and better:thumbup: