TERRIBLE Handling - any thoughts?

[dean-weston]

Hi Guys. 54 Megane 1.6VVT 5 Door - Dynamique

I recently found out (much to my shock) that taking any sort of corner above 30mph in the wet causes my rear tyres to loose grip and kick the back end out, one one occasion causing me to spin out on a roundabout, now im not talking tight corners here, it was a large roundabout and im sure 30ish isnt too fast - immediatly after this i checked my rear tyre pressure to find a nice 17PSI - oops! topped it back up to 34, where its stayed.

In the terrible rain we had over the weekend this has happened again...... same size roundabout, same speed, same none aggressive driving. Its getting to the point where i wont drive the car with the kids in. Has anyone got any bloody clue why its doing this? My rear tyres arent worn, still have good tread although they arent mached. Im not sure of the tyre specs to hand but I'll get them if anyone has any advise.

many thanks in advance! Dean

[AlexB]

Hi Dean,

What tyres and what tread depth do you have? There is, possibly a dodgy one on the rear left. Is your car equipped with ESP? Are the shock absorbers good?

I know someone who spun on a large roundabout due to having either Corsa or Ceat tyres on the back and Continental Eco on the front.

[ChrisM]

you need to take a look at what make your tyres are, cheap tyres are notorious for breaking away in the wet, they are of very hard compound so they last but well don't actually grip that well, usually sold as "budget" tyres, another thing you also need to look at is direction!
Some tyres are what they call directional tyres. I have Toyos on the front of my CC they simply say "outside" so you can swap them on an axel, my wife has a differant brand of Toyo on her Renault and they say Left and Right with an arrow, you can not fit a right tyre to the left hand side as the arrow will point to the rear when it is rolling forward, so basically the tyre on the passenger side will say right and the arrow will point forwards, there are many tyre makes with L and R and some with with just arrows, take a look at your tyres make sure they are on the proper axels and all arrows pointing forward, in they have "outside" written on them make sure both say outside on either side., if one says inside then it is fitted the wrong way around, leathal!
Also check that all tyres are directional, you need to confirm the next bit of advice as I am not 100% sure, it is recomended that you don't mix directional and non directional tyres on your vehicle, but if you do I think the directional ones have to be on the front, and non directional on the rear, NEVER mix directional and non directional on the same axel.
Non directional are just standard tyres with no L or R arrows or any other "sided" markings. you may find the vehicle has on the rear a directional on one side and a cheap "budget" (non directional) on the other which is why it steps out on wet bends.
So Basically check your tyres and tyre types.

[TODDY]

tyres, if your worried bout the saftey of the kids in the wet get some uniroyal rainsports. might cost a cuple of quid but surely worth the piece of mind for safety.

[AlexB]

Uniroyal is the second brand of Continental. Thus, it is guaranteed to be inferior to anything desirable. For most of us Contis are optimal for enthusiastic driving and Michelins for high annual mileage.

tyres, if your worried bout the saftey of the kids in the wet get some uniroyal rainsports. might cost a cuple of quid but surely worth the piece of mind for safety.

[dean-weston]

Thanks for this guys, as the weather has been terrible in Yorkshire all week i've not hand chance to check the tyres, but i'll do it on saturday and see whats what. thanks for the advise.

[Reyes]

When you do, check for wear on the walls too.

Check your pressures. It almost always is something silly unfortunately.

[wynney1978]

I seem to have a similar problem on my 1.5 dci saloon 2004 (205/55 R 16 91W Michelin Primacy HP's all round, good tread), I had a 2.0 primera sport previously (about 300kg heavier than the renault!) on the tyres that im using now which stuck very well and gave me confidence, so i know the tyres i'm using now are proven to grip well. I just cant work out why when going round roundabouts it seems to snap off the grip. Is this just a bad trait of the car??

P.S. with only the 80 hp model i have to keep the pace up every which way i can! without speeding

P.P.S. if ya find out what your problem is (if there is one) give a quick post, might help others/myself from tearing hair out?!

[joeishmather]

Mine does this sometimes, but tbh it's when I cause it to, great fun swinging the back out... So long as there's no one about! I find as long as the front tyres are grippy enough then it will pull itself out, if you know what I mean?
But as to why it does it, well with me it's going to fast n turning sharply, but other than poor grip I see no reason for your problem.... :-s

[rjacko]

Something else to consider is the roundabout/road itself. Is it near an industrial estate? Mine got loose once on a roundabout driving to work at night in the rain. So did usual tyre pressure check once parked up to find all ok. Was only driving home after work in the morning (in daylight) that you could see diesel or something had been spilt about 3/4 of the way round the roundabout.

[davelowe]

I have to concur with the previous comments - mine feels quite twitchy on badly cambered roads - a bit of opposite lock does the trick - but it's hardly ideal. For what it's worth, it doesn't happen at high speed, only when going relatively slowly - <30 mph. My personal opinion based on no facts is that it maybe down to the design of the car, where the weight distribution is not correct. With the caravan attached (yes that again!) it won't do it. Get two 25kg bags of gravel from your builders' merchants for a couple of quid and stick them in the boot. That's roughly the noseweight of the van. Might sort it.

[dean-weston]

I had forgotten about this one, so i'll update you all. I went to a local tyre dealer and bought some new tyres for the back, nothing flash (as i was low on cash) I think they are Sunitrac Focus 2000 or something like that. cost me £98 for the pair fitted and balanced. This seems to have sorted the problem, iv been somewhat more "enthusiastic" in the bends when its wet and it seems to stick just fine, and let you know when its about to let go. so im guessing its down to the tyres more than anything else. Im waiting till spring to change all 4 to something a little more... branded