Worrying Grip.

[sgtbob]

Following the aquisition of my new AMG wheels, i have had a few occurances recently where the back wheels have lost grip etc. The alloys came already with tyres (if some of you remember me asking about them). I just had the plain 16" wheels with Avons ZZR on previously, and the grip was fine. I assumed that with bigger, wider tyres/wheels the grip would be better. In the dry it seems fine, (around round-abouts, corners etc), but in the wet they seem a bit dicy. Last night going around a round-about at roughly 25-29 ish, the car just gave up the ghost and started to slew sideways for what seemed like 2-3 seconds, then regained grip. The rears are new (when purchased), but i am unsure of the make. I believe they are budget tyres (no name/make on the side). Any idea what tyres are the best? Should i be worried? Should i be running out and buying 2 new rears?

Thanks in advance.

Rob.

 

[C240Sport97]

I believe they are budget tyres (no name/make on the side).

therein lies the explanation ...

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Yep, budget tyres will reveal their true performance most clearly when wet, when the relative difference between them and a premium set is widest.

 

[Mactech]

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=64025&highlight=budget+tyres

See this write up on budget tyres with names on. I dread to think what the ones without names on are like!

 

[popuptoaster]

not all tyres are suitable for low temperetures and wet weather, if you have summer tyres on and its cold they will be noticably bad in the wet as they are not warm enough to work properly.

 

[Dieselman]

Don't forget as the tyre width increases so does the wedge of water it pushes ahead of it, thus it has increased tendency to aquaplane.
Though, like others, I'm sure the main issue is the budget tyre compound.

 

[lynall]

Got budgets on mine and they grip pretty well around wet roundabouts etc, i never think oh oh!

Dont seem any different to the conti sports that were on there.



Lynall

 

[wemorgan]

I know that race tyres need to be scrubbed, by taking it through hot and cold cycles. This seems like a long shot but maybe your budget tyres would also improve with scrubbing?

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Is your ASR on the blink? the W202 is terriblein the wet with 17"s+ unless you have decent tyres, caused the demise of my last car

 

[Ronnie]

You cannot really generalise with ALL budget tyres, the same as you cannot with the Premium Brands.....they all have different qualities or faults !
Quite obviously the tyres you have dont work in the wet !! or dont suit your car...it is not always the tyre in isolation......
There is a lot of bargains out there but get some feedback from users you can trust (fellow-members) before making any decision on replacements.......
For my input, I would not really recommend any budget brands...some are OK but no personal experience of them althoughhave lots of conflicting feedback from users, so sometimes it can be difficult to determine the facts.......... although for a decent priced brand I would highly recommend the Vredestein......

 

[Adam230K]

Eagle F1's are ideal on the rear, immense grip and handling both in dry and wet. If you want to take the cheaper route, Falken 452's are very good for the money.

 

[grober]

If you are stuck with the tyres you have you may be able to improve the cars stability slightly by running the rears at a slightly higher pressure than the fronts--say 2-3 psi for a start [assuming they are all the same initially]. This will tend to make the car understeer ( run on in corners) rather than oversteer ( the tail coming round). There are pros and cons of course for cars that behave in these different ways. However understeer is a progressive behaviour and tends to reduce speed by tyre scrub whereas oversteer can occur quite suddenly as the tyres can reach their limits of adhesion quite suddenly and the tail can come out and the car even spin if not caught with a "drop of oppo" I would start off at the recommended pressures and then try some adjustments to the front/ rear ratio- keep all the tyre pressures within the manufacturers "fully laden" values and you should be fine. The other possibility is that those tyres you have fitted to the rear are not quite the right size for the rims???

 

[prc]

not all tyres are suitable for low temperetures and wet weather, if you have summer tyres on and its cold they will be noticably bad in the wet as they are not warm enough to work properly.

My £0.02
Not really normally cold here in Portugal, but during those half dozen days where temps are near zero and tarmac is wet, the decrease in grip is quite noticeable.
This is also true when extremely hot. My 203's rear end breaks easily when in 30º+ ambient temp.

Paulo