Car pulling all over the place in wet

[Donmak]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a VX S1 Clubsport a few months ago. Last week while driving down a freeway in heavy rain i noticed it pulling left and right constantly to the point where i had to pull over. It was a nightmare on the parts of the road that had been retared and were very slick.

I remember reading somewhere i think that the vx was prone to inside wear on the tyre so i took it to my work where they rotated and balanced the wheels. Tho im still experiencing the same problems. There seems to be plenty of tred still on the tyres and my work never mentioned anything about the tyres needing replacement.

Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

[keepleft]

Drop yer speed down in heavy rain. (Sorry, could'nt resist:-)


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[Evman]

Have you had a 4 wheel alignment? The only other thing I can think of would be crap tyres...

[vxSSilver]

do you have directional tyres that are on the wrong way ??

[Sonnymad]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a VX S1 Clubsport a few months ago. Last week while driving down a freeway in heavy rain i noticed it pulling left and right constantly to the point where i had to pull over. It was a nightmare on the parts of the road that had been retared and were very slick.

I remember reading somewhere i think that the vx was prone to inside wear on the tyre so i took it to my work where they rotated and balanced the wheels. Tho im still experiencing the same problems. There seems to be plenty of tred still on the tyres and my work never mentioned anything about the tyres needing replacement.

Anyone have any ideas?

thanks


It almost seems like ur cars aquaplaning,or you have a very bad alignment,drop into granville pedders as for con,he will be able to tell you right away wats wrong,hope this helps :)

regards sonny

[Donmak]

[QUOTE=keepleft;1126040]Drop yer speed down in heavy rain. (Sorry, could'nt resist:-)[QUOTE]

Still happening whilst doing 70 in 110 zone on the m5... not really wanting to go much slower then that :P

Tyres were rotated by my tyre section at work so the direction should be fine.

Wheel alignment possibly, not sure when it was last done, but when i take my hands off the wheel the car doesnt pull at all in the dry..

Might get the alignment done monday, just sucks it wont stop raining and im an hour away from home lol.

[Tecca]

Bad allignment, balance will make the car aquaplane pretty bad!!!

[luvsit]

could be even ur tyres,

[payaya]

Bald tyres. So bascially like an F1 car in the wet with slicks on :)

[VECALAISV8]

its probarly the tyres you got.

what brand and how many kays they done.

[blackbettyhsv]

a quick check for you swap your wheels with someone elses & see if it still does it

[Oversteer]

My ute had a similar problem when i got new tyres....i paid a bit more to get decent pirelli tyres on the back of it for the wet but they sold me directional tyres. There were normal BF sports on the front with the directional on the back and mate this was scary how much it weaved on me.

At 100kmh it was basically changing lanes by itself (not joking!!), i thought they'd stuffed the alignment on it so i took it to another store and they swapped around the tyres and checked the alignment which ended up being good (put the pirellis on the front and BFs on the back) and it was perfect!

It was doing this in the dry and it hate to see it in the wet, your prob may be similar but it would do it all the time id think!

[Humpy]

You're experiencing aquaplaning. Due to varying tread designs, some tyres are worse than others. Drive a bit slower in the wet and try to avoid large puddles.

[Donmak]

You're experiencing aquaplaning. Due to varying tread designs, some tyres are worse than others. Drive a bit slower in the wet and try to avoid large puddles.


considering i do alot of highway driving theres no way i can continue to go at 60km/hr everytime it rains....


i was talking to someone who works at holden and he said its unavoidable since my car has 20 inch wheels and is lowered... any truth to that???? seems kind of hard to believe...

[Ahyeah]

considering i do alot of highway driving theres no way i can continue to go at 60km/hr everytime it rains....


i was talking to someone who works at holden and he said its unavoidable since my car has 20 inch wheels and is lowered... any truth to that???? seems kind of hard to believe...

absolutely no truth in that mate!

i bet its one of 2 things; first is the tyres, second is... right foot:banana:
i dont think its the latter tho!!!!

series 1 VX did have inside wear issues (correct if wrong) but i highly doubt its that, tread patterns with shallower (and smaller) groves tend to aquaplane more than than deeper treaded tyres.

iv seen a car have trouble with nearly sick falkens (large surface area tread) in the wet... and thats a AWD wrx!!!!!

[vyss2ute]

Tyres were rotated by my tyre section at work so the direction should be fine.



Boys at work aren't playing sillybuggers with you are they?

[GHZ28]

A VX with 20s sounds to me like it will have Nankangs, Wanlis or Nextgens or other similar cheap and nasty crappy tyres.

With any of those, you have to accept the trade off of price vs performance and slow down in the wet.

Wonder why I have stuck with 18s on my cars, I can still afford GOOD tyres at that diameter.

gh

[Donmak]

The tyres are 20 inch kuhmo ecsta spt...

ive now been told if i get a wheel allignment with lots of negative camber this should fix the problem...

[Oversteer]

Get too much negative camber and the car will 'fall over' the wheels on the rear and handle awfully. Maybe you can get a camber kit in the rear to stand up the tyres a bit more...this may solve some handling woes

[kadir103]

heyy mate on the VX S1 you cant do wheel alignment on the rear tyres, on the vx s1 they where stable they fixed it up on the SERIOUS 2 was you VX ever crashed from the rear

[GHZ28]

The tyres are 20 inch kuhmo ecsta spt...

ive now been told if i get a wheel allignment with lots of negative camber this should fix the problem...

OK, unless you are going pretty serious track racing you do not want a lot of negative camber. You want some, maybe up to 1 degree or a little less on the front, and maybe half to one on the back. You will need a four piece camber kit for the rear to allow this adjustment on a VX 1. I have one.

You actually want the car set up as per factory, maybe the VX SS settings for camber, caster and toe on the front and within spec for the rear.

Sorry, but Kuhmo Ecsta is not a top notch tyre. I put two of them on the back of my 94 camaro trying to save some cash, had Goodyear F1s on the front, they lasted one and a half days, so little traction compared to good tyres.

My suggestion, get your car setup as close to factory SS spec as you can and go from there. Wet weather makes the highest demands on your tyres and driving abilities.

gh

[Donmak]

thanks for the input guys

I had the tyre place check it out and they said my 2 back tyres will need replacing. How and why they did not see this the last time when they did the balance and rotate is beyond me but anywho.

Im going to get the camber kit installed too.. Any reccomendations of places to take it to in the shire? Pedders i assume? and any idea of the cost. thanks.

Oh of course 2 new back tyres are needed too, whats the best bang for buck? My work tyre place sell Continental brand so they are trying to sell me GT Radial 20's.. $290 a peace..

[Mungrel]

It almost seems like ur cars aquaplaning,or you have a very bad alignment,drop into granville pedders as for con,he will be able to tell you right away wats wrong,hope this helps :)

regards sonny

I too was thinking aquaplaning.

[Wonky]

Im going to get the camber kit installed too.. Any reccomendations of places to take it to in the shire? Pedders i assume? and any idea of the cost. thanks.

Every time I've had quotes from Pedders for lowering, shockers etc I've come away going :shock: :lmao: at their exorbitant prices. That said they hopefully do at least know what they're doing.

I believe the 4 point camber kits are worth around the $100 mark (I got one for my VZ SS with the lowered springs and short body shocks just in case I needed it).

I believe there are several hours labour involved in fitting it so it won't be a cheap exercise by the time you are finished.

[Scommo]

Hmm Kuhmo tyres...

Old man got them in his BA xr8, they are CRAP, and the tyres are too:rofl:

All seriousness, Kuhmo tyres we have on the Ford is crap, so crap. No traction, stick to Bridgestones!

[Donmak]

weird just did a quick search for kumho and found a 6 page thread where everyone seemd to go on about what a great tyre this model is.

Kumho Ecsta SPT KU31.. and mine are 225/35z/r20 90y

i cant afford to buy the top performance 20's, i guess im looking for something thats good with a decent price tag.

[LS1VT]

weird just did a quick search for kumho and found a 6 page thread where everyone seemd to go on about what a great tyre this model is.

Kumho Ecsta SPT KU31.. and mine are 225/35z/r20 90y

i cant afford to buy the top performance 20's, i guess im looking for something thats good with a decent price tag.
I had these tyres on my car and found them pretty good for the price. Now i,ve switched over to Falken 452 and think the're a great tyre imo.