GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk5 => Topic started by: ressla on 01 September 2007, 01:10
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jus wondering if someone can help? ive recently got a gti which has 18 replica wheels and budget tyres on it. the car however seems to wheel spin in the wet like crazy and goin round a roundabout the traction control light on the dash seems to be flasing constantly when doing any kind of decent speed. the bloke i bought it from said that he's had it lowered too although i doubt it is to do with that and im guessing its maybe due to the cheap tyres. i have a bmw 116 also and that drives perfectly in the wet and has branded tyres. jus wondering if anyone can help on whether im right in thinking its the tyres or is there some other underlying problem?
thanks in advance.
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The first thing I would do is get them budget tyres off!!!
Branded tryes start at about £80 for toyos, £110 for OEM bridgestones or up to £150 for Really high spec.
Running a GTI on budget hoops is a false economy.
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ur right pablo!!
its that ive jus bought the car and i dont mind if the problem is caused by the tyres as long as its nothing else which may cost an arm and a leg to sort out.
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I have the bridgestones on mine and i like `em, no probs with excessive wheel spin.
The only time I have used budget tyres is on a p reg fiesta (1.25) and that could spin its wheels in 3rd in the wet. They had no grip in the wet....or dry and sounds like what you are experiencing.
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Budget tyres on a GTI :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
They are the only areas of contact that your car has for braking and steering as well as acceleration. If your getting wheel spin all the time in the wet imagine what would happen if you had to make an emergency stop or had to take avoiding action to miss an object. The cars dynamics are up to the job, the tyres are the weak link. Get some decent boots on it.
Now where is TT im sure that he will have an opinion on this one.
Either that or you hammer it every where you drive...........(no offence) :rolleyes:
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Why oh fcuking why to peeps spend £20k or more on a car which was designed to run on specific high performance OEM specified boots, to then completely trash the handling, your own personal safety, and that of other road users - by fitting cheap shyte "nippon-no-grip" CRAP tyres.
Any person who does that should have their gonads removed by hand, and nailed to the nearest road side tree!
Get some decent boots - my personal recommendations would be Michelin Pilot Sport PS2, Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2, or Conti Sport Contact 3.
I know others have recommened Bridgestones, but I would strongly recommend NOT using them. I have personally experienced truely shocking performance from Bridgestones, but also reasonable performance too. Anthother poster here, Schrodingers Cat, if I remember correctly, also had a torrid time with Bridgestones on his GTI, which was transformed when he swapped them for Pilot Sport 2s. I think Bridgestone can make a decent tyre (the S03 for one), but they suffer with very notable inconsistencies. The RE040 was truely shyte, and IMHO dangerous. The RE050 seems to be offering some quite different and opposing opinions.
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"nippon-no-grip" CRAP tyres.
You might wanna copyright that, or the chinese will be using it.
Perhaps they already are.
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....I'm very much in agreement with what others have posted: Tyres are your only point of road contact and very important. I've had Conti's, Bridgestones, and now Goodyear Eagle F1's. I find the F1's streets ahead of the others for grip and traction in both dry and wet - I heard their good reputation but didn't expect them to be quite as good as they are. They're a little noisier on the road but who cares about that?
Wheelspin is avoidable if you learn how to feed the throttle progressively and I have an extremely throttle-responsive car which has taught me how to do it if I want to avoid wheelspin.
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I have 18" Mich PS2's on mine. Sticks like shi* to a blanket, wet or dry.
I also drive a mark IV TDI 150 with 17" Dunlop Sport SP01A. I know the MK IV is a crap car handling wise compared to the MK V but the difference is night and day.
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"nippon-no-grip" CRAP tyres.
You might wanna copyright that, or the chinese will be using it.
Perhaps they already are.
It actually referrs to Jap tyres, and was a very common phrase used by motorcyclists in the 1980s. In those days, if you fitted a Jap tyre, irrespective of the make, then you WOULD crash in the wet! In those days, Avon, Pirelli and Continental motorcycle tyres were literally untouchable. Even Michelin made poor tyres, but it is a very different story now. Virtually all the major manufacturers make decent motorbike tyres. My preference on my bike is Avon Azaro, and I don't like Michelin bike tyres, because whilst they give absolute shed-loads of grip, they don't give much feed-back on the limit, so it is "grip, grip, grip . . . more grip - slide" = many brown-trouser moments!
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....I'm very much in agreement with what others have posted: Tyres are your only point of road contact and very important. I've had Conti's, Bridgestones, and now Goodyear Eagle F1's. I find the F1's streets ahead of the others for grip and traction in both dry and wet - I heard their good reputation but didn't expect them to be quite as good as they are. They're a little noisier on the road but who cares about that?
You surprise me with your comments on the Goodyear F1s. The whole point of directional tyres is that they are supposed to be much more quite, compared to standard or assymetric tread patterns. One big problem with all directionals is they suffer from aquaplaning much more dramatically as the tread wears.
I personally don't get it when people use the F1s - as they have never had any OEM approvals. They are now obsolete too! If you are after ultimate performance tyres, then look at an ultimate performance road car - Porsche, as they ONLY use Michelin and Continental as OEM boots.
Wheelspin is avoidable if you learn how to feed the throttle progressively and I have an extremely throttle-responsive car which has taught me how to do it if I want to avoid wheelspin.
Yeah, that gets me too! Why do some people not understand that the accellerator pedal is much more than a simple "off-on switch" !!!
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....I'm very much in agreement with what others have posted: Tyres are your only point of road contact and very important. I've had Conti's, Bridgestones, and now Goodyear Eagle F1's. I find the F1's streets ahead of the others for grip and traction in both dry and wet - I heard their good reputation but didn't expect them to be quite as good as they are. They're a little noisier on the road but who cares about that?
You surprise me with your comments on the Goodyear F1s. The whole point of directional tyres is that they are supposed to be much more quite, compared to standard or assymetric tread patterns. One big problem with all directionals is they suffer from aquaplaning much more dramatically as the tread wears.
....Definitely not quieter but not noisier to the point where it matters. However, my car has all sorts of wonderful sounds going on :smiley:. I've read elsewhere that the F1's are noisier and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm influenced by the placebo effect.
....I best watch out for aquaplaning though I am very conscious of never touching my brakes when on visible water, though an emergency is an emergency.
I personally don't get it when people use the F1s - as they have never had any OEM approvals. They are now obsolete too! If you are after ultimate performance tyres, then look at an ultimate performance road car - Porsche, as they ONLY use Michelin and Continental as OEM boots.
....The guy who runs Drivetrain (whose opinions I greatly respect) recommends the Michelins but I wasn't especially impressed by the Contis originally supplied on my GTI.
Wheelspin is avoidable if you learn how to feed the throttle progressively and I have an extremely throttle-responsive car which has taught me how to do it if I want to avoid wheelspin.
Yeah, that gets me too! Why do some people not understand that the accellerator pedal is much more than a simple "off-on switch" !!!
....Yep, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand that one! I find it far more rewarding to make a fast getaway without wheelspin. :cool:
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The conti's on mine are excellent in both the dry and the wet. :smug:
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I know others have recommened Bridgestones, but I would strongly recommend NOT using them. I have personally experienced truely shocking performance from Bridgestones, but also reasonable performance too. Anthother poster here, Schrodingers Cat, if I remember correctly, also had a torrid time with Bridgestones on his GTI, which was transformed when he swapped them for Pilot Sport 2s.
Ah yes, 'twas indeed me. I can certainly recommend the Mich PS2's for grip in both wet and dry conditions, but they are not cheap. :cry:
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The RE050's are standard on mine and give tremendous grip in wet and dry............until you try to turn quick in the wet on a very tight radius, such as a mini roundabout, then they lose all grip and plough straight on, so due for some PS2's in next few weeks and will see if they solve this little issue
TT.......I had the BT015's on the Blade and the best I got out of 2 rears was 1500miles, so switched to Pilot Sports, much better life upto 3K so far and still tread left, and yes, you can drift the back when pushing on to the point of leaving darkies but they never just snap, so all good fun :grin:
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I find it far more rewarding to make a fast getaway without wheelspin. :cool:
Agreed completely.
I actually find people who purposely wheelspin (or even regularly "accidentally" !!) are merely showing a complete lack of maturity - both in personal terms, and also in driving ability.
OK, on extremely rare occasions, I too have lit the fronts - but it is usually if I have incorrectly read the road or traffic conditions - and when I do, I feel a numpty! :embarassed:
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The conti's on mine are excellent in both the dry and the wet. :smug:
What type of Contis? Sport Contact 2, or Sport Contact 3 ???
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I know others have recommened Bridgestones, but I would strongly recommend NOT using them. I have personally experienced truely shocking performance from Bridgestones, but also reasonable performance too. Anthother poster here, Schrodingers Cat, if I remember correctly, also had a torrid time with Bridgestones on his GTI, which was transformed when he swapped them for Pilot Sport 2s.
Ah yes, 'twas indeed me. I can certainly recommend the Mich PS2's for grip in both wet and dry conditions, but they are not cheap. :cry:
But surely the price should be secondary to keeping your car on the road! :nerd: Anyway, in my experience, after a couple of hours on the phone, I can usually haggle down the price of Michelins to around £10-15 more than similar brands. :smug:
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The RE050's are standard on mine and give tremendous grip in wet and dry............until you try to turn quick in the wet on a very tight radius, such as a mini roundabout, then they lose all grip and plough straight on, so due for some PS2's in next few weeks and will see if they solve this little issue
But I personally wouldn't class that as "tremendous grip"!
OK, there may be underlying issues in your "driving style" which provoke that kind of behaviour - but that scenario is fairly classic with most Jap car tyres, and also with Goodyears.
TT.......I had the BT015's on the Blade and the best I got out of 2 rears was 1500miles, so switched to Pilot Sports, much better life upto 3K so far and still tread left, and yes, you can drift the back when pushing on to the point of leaving darkies but they never just snap, so all good fun :grin:
Oh, it seems that Michelin have really taken on board some long-standing criticisms of their motorcycle boots. Trouble is, once bitten, twice shy!