Poor Grip in the wet!!

[richy22]

Right now ive been driving for five years now so am pretty used to driving in the rain etc, but today when i was coming home from work i almost stacked my car into a roundabout! i was doing 25-30 at the most and it started to understeer slightly, i lifted off just slighly and that was it the back end came round and i was facing the wrong way Bit embarrassing ! neway why does my car handle sh*t in the wet?? The tread is ok, but i do have 17s on and they are quite wide. I even used to get this in my old Clio 1.9 Diesel so was wondering if this is a commen thing with clios (or just the cars i buy!)

Richy

 

[Daz]

Hmm, Toyos by any chance?

My Toyo Proxes in the wet arnt great.

 

[Iain C]

Think it mabye your 17s..The large surface and light weight of the car may be causing it to aquaplane.
I had the same sort of problems when i put 17s on my old mx5...

 

[richy22]

No not toyos belive there falkens on the rear. Its quite annoying coz i drove like an old man the rest of the way home, and i could still feel it want to understeer slightly on sum corners!

 

[canfordcliffs]

Doing 30mph around a roundabout in the wet? I think most cars would twitch a bit.

 

[richy22]

Thats only a guess, I werent going fast coz it is quite a tight roundabout and its a roundabout that no bothers to look on and just pull out in front of you

 

[KDF]

Ye those toyos are a bummer superb grip in the dry, but they wear quickly and are crap in the wet.

 

[connor]

sounds like it hasnt rained for a while and maybe it was just a lil more greasy than usual? or u just underestimated ur speed?! either way ur tires shouldnt be the problem unless they are known to be sh*t in the wet? i have toyo proxies and havent found any problem in the wet as of yet.

but u should do what i do, be prepared and try to deliberetly slide a bit around every roundabout therefor ur always prepered for a bit of understeer and oversteer

 

[White16valver]

LOL at deliberately sliding everywhere

Could be a combination of tyre pressures being a bit high(?), low tyre tread(?), but most probably just the road not having a good wash in the rain for a while so all the slippery stuffs built up and gone really slidey when damp, as connor said.

 

[Bryan]

a main problem is after this run of hot/warm weather we have had, the roads are going to be coated in rubber, once the rain hits this, it becomes as good as a glacier covering, id expect most cars to suffer the same around this time

the understeer i cannot really explain, the lift-off however is mainly down to suspendion geometry not much i know about myself, but i know my saxo was a bugger for it