Steering issue after new tyres...

Nem

Nem

Nem

Associate
Joined
2 Feb 2003
Posts
1,625
Location
Mansfield, Notts.
I had mitchellin PS2's fitted all round, these were all worn and needed replacing. Three weeks back I had these replaced with a set of Goodyear F1 GSD3's which I'd had on the car a year or two before and was impressed with.

The week before the tryes were replaced I'd had some work on the front bushes and the garage doing the work said it would need a full 4wd alignment. But they said to have the new tyres fitted first and go back for the alignment afterwards.

On driving away from the tyre fitters I noticed the car was pulling / drifting to the left quite a lot and that the steering seemed to want to go where it wanted more than staying true. I put this down to needing an alignment and carried on my way.

Since then the car has been aligned and it 100% spot on in that respect, but again on driving home from the garage I was feeling the same issue with the steering.

I have now checked and double check the pressures, and also swaped the wheels front to rear and the issue is still the same.

The last thing I have done is to try my ole wheels on the front end which have mitchellin PS2's on them, even though they only have 1-2mm tread on them, and the car seemed much better agian.

So, it's looking like there is an issue with the new tyres, but having swapped front to rear and found no difference would mean at least 2 of them have a problem, which I find hard to believe. Could it just be the difference in tread pattern from a radial banding to a 'v' shape making this much difference? All seems odd as i've had the F1's fitted before the PS2's and never noticed any difference in the handling of the car in this way.

Any thoughts at all?

Nick
 
Doubt its the tyres. Incorrectly ballanced tyres will cause a judder at speed, but shouldn't cause a pull in any direction. If anything it will be wheel alignment or another suspension/steering related problem. I'd go back to the place that did the wheel alignment and tell them its still pulling to one side.
That or its alllll in your head ;)
 
Pulling could be tramlining and is caused by low profile tyres with a stiff sidewall. Of which PS2's can be said to be more of than the GS-D3's so if its that I'm suprised you didnt get it before..
 
Put some more miles on the tyres.

Probably it's just residual release agent they use in the moulds. Maybe one tyre is greasy and the other isn't, that will cause a pull.

You need 100 or so miles on them before you can say you have a problem. This gives the tyres time to "clean up" and time to scrub into your cars geometry.
 
Neither tyre has particularly stiff sidewalls so I doubt it would be that. First port of call would definatly be the place that did the work (please dont say its kwik fit).
 
Well the tyres have had about 400 - 500 miles since fitting and the issue remains.

Been back to the tyre fitters and they have said that, there is nothing technically wrong with the tyres. They said that it’s to do with the way they are curved when they are made accross the tread area, and after about 5000 miles they will wear flat and will then drive perfectly. This I said was unacceptable as I’ll end up in a hedge before 5000 miles were up, and that 5000 miles is about a third of the life of the tyre and to have it driving like this for that amount of time was reduculous!

They said they can offer me a refund as there is no actual fault with them. So my options are:

Stick with them till they ‘wear in’.

Remove them and buy, at full cost, a new set of tyres and try and sell my old ones, which isn't going to happen.

Or, the option I’m going with, they will charge me £100 for taking the tyres back and fitting me a new set of a different brand (toyos). Basically they are taking £10 off each tyre as they are now second hand, and then charging the normal £15 a wheel to fit the new set. Which against the other two options means this isn’t that bad a deal.

So I’m waiting for a call from them to go and have them fitted as their ballencing machine is broken and being mended tomorrow hopefully.

Not really a good outcome, but perhaps better than I might have imagined.

Nick
 
It sounds like there is something wrong here aside from the tyres - I don't know what car you drive but I've got the same tyres fitted to mine and it exhibits none of the tendancies you describe despite having 35 profile sidewalls..
 
I drive a Audi TT 225, fitted with Koni coilovers, R32 ARB's, etc etc.

As I said tho, when I put my old alloys with PS2's fitted back on the front end this weekend gone, the car drove perfectly normal again. So the alignment of the car is fine.

To quote what I put on the TT Forum earlier:

Right, well a little googling later it looks like these F1's are a sodding minefield of problems.

Initially "Made in China" ones are "not suitable for uk roads", going to "avoid made in china ones like the plauge" to "chinese ones are ok as long as they have a special number / mark on them".

So I now need to go and look at my tyres again for this 'E' marking to see if mine are legal or dodgy imports.

Piston heads (with reply from goodyear on pg2): http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=386634&i=0

Seat Cupra Net (with avoid like the plauge comments): http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=123575

Scoobynet (E marking info): http://bbs.scoobynet.com/scoobynet-general-1/602143-very-important-notice-goodyear-f1-users.html

Volvo forum (more info): http://www.vpcuk.org/forums/showthread.php?t=19551

Mini forum (more info): http://www.mini2.com/forum/wheels-tyres-brakes/140596-illegal-goodyear-eagle-f1-gsd3s-uk.html

Only thing I can see tho is that these threads are nearly a year old, so you would have thought that this supply issue was now resolved. But I know my tyres were ordered in from a warehouse down south and took a few days to arrive. So maybe mine have been sat there 12 months? Or maybe there is a new supply issue again?
Click to expand...

Mine have the 'E' numbers so are genuine and official.

Nick
 
I dont understand how you've managed to get GS-D3's anyway, they were discontinued over a year ago and replaced with the Eagle F1 Assymetric in 17" and above. The only reason I've still got them on mine is becuase 6 months ago when I bought my set they didnt have any in my front size yet.

FWIW mine are all Made in Germany.
 
Tesla said:
Is it possible it's the alloy wheel at fault (your other set) and not the tyres?
Click to expand...

I changed the alloys front to rear with the new tyres on and had the same issue, so would have to mean two alloys at least were bad which I doubt.

Nick
 
[TW]Fox;11373945 said:
I dont understand how you've managed to get GS-D3's anyway, they were discontinued over a year ago and replaced with the Eagle F1 Assymetric in 17" and above. The only reason I've still got them on mine is becuase 6 months ago when I bought my set they didnt have any in my front size yet.

FWIW mine are all Made in Germany.
Click to expand...

Thats a good point actually. I've read so much about them being discontinued and then not being discontinued, but my local fitters said they had stock somewhere in their network and sourced them for me. The only reason I went for the GSD3's was that I'd had them before and liked them.

Nick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom