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[VXL V6]

Yeh, this was boxing day.

Car had slight dent in bonnet and cracked bumper, had a spare bumper in the correct colour in my shed off the V6 and bought a bonnet in the correct colour from a member on here, a few plastic clips from AndyC later and the car is good!

No damage otherwise to the car, chassis true and straight, no impacts or abrasions underneath. Fortunately the tree stump that stopped the car in the ditch (by which point there was little energy) was dead centre so the headlights escaped without even breaking the mountings!

Cem, road was wet and cold (photo doesn't do the surface justice as a camera phone), turned into this road off a main road, turned in many times before with the Kumho KU31's on without issue at higher speeds in wet and dry.
Car had new springs and shocks on the rear 2 years ago and new wishbones, droplinks, shock absorbers, springs and a track rod end less than 6 months ago on the front and was set up to the specs we all know so well on here.

I admit that the tyres on the rear were used and were bought with 7mm tread and no repairs. I immediatley noticed the difference on fitting them and wrongly assumed that after a few hundred miles the grip would radically improve. I'll check the manufacturing dates, be interesting to see if there was a particular batch that was recalled maybe? I have Marshall L'Zen's on the front and I find them vastly superior.

Incidently, like quite a few on here, I have driven rear wheel drive cars for a number of years, have practised driver training regularly on skid pans etc and am always willing to learn more, however, in the limited confines of a country lane when you've wrestled the car back one and a half times you start to run out of road! One thing I will say is that the DTi's do not have traction control, once you lose rear traction it's only down to your foot / brain interface which in this case was a fail! 


 

[cem_devecioglu]

Yeh, this was boxing day.

Car had slight dent in bonnet and cracked bumper, had a spare bumper in the correct colour in my shed off the V6 and bought a bonnet in the correct colour from a member on here, a few plastic clips from AndyC later and the car is good!

No damage otherwise to the car, chassis true and straight, no impacts or abrasions underneath. Fortunately the tree stump that stopped the car in the ditch (by which point there was little energy) was dead centre so the headlights escaped without even breaking the mountings!

Cem, road was wet and cold (photo doesn't do the surface justice as a camera phone), turned into this road off a main road, turned in many times before with the Kumho KU31's on without issue at higher speeds in wet and dry.
Car had new springs and shocks on the rear 2 years ago and new wishbones, droplinks, shock absorbers, springs and a track rod end less than 6 months ago on the front and was set up to the specs we all know so well on here.

I admit that the tyres on the rear were used and were bought with 7mm tread and no repairs. I immediatley noticed the difference on fitting them and wrongly assumed that after a few hundred miles the grip would radically improve. I'll check the manufacturing dates, be interesting to see if there was a particular batch that was recalled maybe? I have Marshall L'Zen's on the front and I find them vastly superior.

Incidently, like quite a few on here, I have driven rear wheel drive cars for a number of years, have practised driver training regularly on skid pans etc and am always willing to learn more, however, in the limited confines of a country lane when you've wrestled the car back one and a half times you start to run out of road! One thing I will say is that the DTi's do not have traction control, once you lose rear traction it's only down to your foot / brain interface which in this case was a fail! 

your ok.. your car is now ok.. thats good news..
 
thread depth alone dont hold the car on the road, if the compound is hardened no way to solve this other then some chemicals which is not suitable for daily use..  when you check the tires, you must be able to open the small teeths of tire by your finger at least 1.5-2 mm (winter tires)..  if not, get rid of them imo..
 
another thing to keep in mind, in the past I changed  2 year old tires because seeing them skid on a specific part of my commute.. wrong , even my brand new tires skid there.. and when I control the road it was so oily that no tire have chance .. after I start to wash my tires periodically.. (and must admit mechanic shops are the worst places for tires)

[VXL V6]

your ok.. your car is now ok.. thats good news..
 
thread depth alone dont hold the car on the road, if the compound is hardened no way to solve this other then some chemicals which is not suitable for daily use..  when you check the tires, you must be able to open the small teeths of tire by your finger at least 1.5-2 mm (winter tires)..  if not, get rid of them imo..
 
another thing to keep in mind, in the past I changed  2 year old tires because seeing them skid on a specific part of my commute.. wrong , even my brand new tires skid there.. and when I control the road it was so oily that no tire have chance .. after I start to wash my tires periodically.. (and must admit mechanic shops are the worst places for tires)

Indeed it is... I thought for a minute i'd have to start buying petrol again! 

Will check what you have listed above 

Tell me more about the chemicals....!

[cem_devecioglu]

and must add, winter times are a special period that you must be driving defensively .. I'm using 2 different cars daily which are very different in behaviour , steering, braking etc.. and I have been driving more than 32 years  even those roads catch me unaware, from time to time.. sandy, muddy, oily or frosty zones are real traps and on heavy a rwd drive car with more torque it can beat you any time (like last week when I turned the corner and was nearly thrashing the cars waiting at the light on the other side of the road)
 
normally when I buy tires , I test them on an empty road to see their behaviour.. but sometimes very different road conditions can still surprise you..         yesterday in Istanbul more than 1100 accidents reported .. and snow was not even a surprise

[cem_devecioglu]

your ok.. your car is now ok.. thats good news..
 
thread depth alone dont hold the car on the road, if the compound is hardened no way to solve this other then some chemicals which is not suitable for daily use..  when you check the tires, you must be able to open the small teeths of tire by your finger at least 1.5-2 mm (winter tires)..  if not, get rid of them imo..
 
another thing to keep in mind, in the past I changed  2 year old tires because seeing them skid on a specific part of my commute.. wrong , even my brand new tires skid there.. and when I control the road it was so oily that no tire have chance .. after I start to wash my tires periodically.. (and must admit mechanic shops are the worst places for tires)

Indeed it is... I thought for a minute i'd have to start buying petrol again! 

Will check what you have listed above 

Tell me more about the chemicals....!

 
tire softeners.. but generally they are used for track days.. as the tire surface became too soft it finishes in just a single race.. for daily use not suitable imo.. as the tire will be unpredictable after..

[VXL V6]

What I really don't like about these tyres are the way they handle an oversteer situation, with previous tyres it is possible to 'drive the car' out of the inevitable rear end wave, certainly I had no problems doing this with Kumho KU31's in last years snowy conditions, however, with the current tyres the rear cannot easily be driven out of an oversteer situation, thereby requiring more and more steering input ending up in the inevitable unrecoverable situation.

I think the fact the front has far superior traction does not help the situation, but if I swapped the fronts / rears then I fear a FWD with no tread would be a far safer option! 

[VXL V6]

your ok.. your car is now ok.. thats good news..
 
thread depth alone dont hold the car on the road, if the compound is hardened no way to solve this other then some chemicals which is not suitable for daily use..  when you check the tires, you must be able to open the small teeths of tire by your finger at least 1.5-2 mm (winter tires)..  if not, get rid of them imo..
 
another thing to keep in mind, in the past I changed  2 year old tires because seeing them skid on a specific part of my commute.. wrong , even my brand new tires skid there.. and when I control the road it was so oily that no tire have chance .. after I start to wash my tires periodically.. (and must admit mechanic shops are the worst places for tires)

Indeed it is... I thought for a minute i'd have to start buying petrol again! 

Will check what you have listed above 

Tell me more about the chemicals....!

 
tire softeners.. but generally they are used for track days.. as the tire surface became too soft it finishes in just a single race.. for daily use not suitable imo.. as the tire will be unpredictable after..

I think I might introduce them to a product known as petrol and it's friend a naked flame!

[D]

VXL V6. Glad it wasnt too bad.

Are you mixing tyres? Front and rear?

[VXL V6]

Yes, Front's have Marshall L'zens and rears are Goodyear UG

[feeutfo]

Goodyear ultra grip....?  Some irony there.

As you say, check manufacture date. But I would think a winter tyre would need to last longer than a normal tyre, as they'll spend a portion of their life in storage. Hopefully covered out of sunlight. Check the rubber is still "rubbery" all the way round the tread perhaps, as if stored and not covered/exposed to sunlight half the tyre will go hard.
 Mrs G had this on an old conti, it blistered all round one side making a bang bang bang noise. "wtf is that noise?" I asked. "what noise?" she replied.

Anyway, it sounds like they'll be coming off and binned smartish....? Tyre suppliers will test tyres at the manufacturer if asked...?

[VXL V6]

Tyre suppliers will test tyres at the manufacturer if asked...?

This is something I would like to do because my experiences of these tyres have put me off the brand completely but I know they do some very competent tyres in their summer ranges - I believe H21 rates them amoungst others.

When I actually get a spare 15 mins I will be fully examining them and reporting back on the points Cem has raised.