*UPDATED* One for the motorheads....very possiby a daft question coming up!

cyclonebri1

What you are experiencing is how the car felt when it was new, or had all new wheels/tyres, (your reference to new wheels seems strange??)


Bad and tired tyres wear to the road and give a slowly heavy steering feel. When this is removed with new tyres you feel you can turn the car with a little finger.

Beware tho' in present conditions as it is v v easy to overdue steering corrections:eek:

Kurtis_Blue

As above, plus new tyres with larger depth of tread will have less lateral dry grip then those with worn blocks.

goldspanners

maybe the tyres are just rubbish on your car in snowy or even wet conditions?

neilmcl

Jakg wrote: »

Check your tyre pressures...

I'd second that. I'm always amazed as to how often tyre fitters inflate new tyres to the incorrect pressure.

Kilty_2

goldspanners wrote: »

maybe the tyres are just rubbish on your car in snowy or even wet conditions?

This - it's possible the tyres you've been sold are crap in poor weather.

A colleague was struggling to get her car (a petrol Peugeot 308) up the icy hill to the work car park over Xmas - I was driving a little 1.3 diesel Corsa which flew up and didn't step out of line at all.

Puzzled me for a bit until I saw the tyres on her car - the tread pattern was clearly not suitable for even wet conditions :eek:.

covmutley

Probably bad tyres and too high tyre pressure?

Also, i think if they put the tyres on the wheels the wrong way round this can make the tread hold rather than disperse the water?

babyshoes

It could be the lubricant they use to get the tyres out of the mould, and it should wear off after a few miles - but in the current weather it might not have had a chance to rub off yet.

I agree with the suggestions of checking the pressures though as overinflation is the most likely cause of twitchy light steering.

Also, if your old tyres were almost bald, then they would have had far more rubber actually touching the road making them feel 'grippier'.

I suspect the problem is probably a combination of at least 2 of these 3 issues...

Regarding the tyres being put on the wrong way round, it is possible - look at the tread pattern and the sidewall. If the tread has arrow-like pointy patterns, then the pointy bit usually points in the direction of rotation. On the sidewall there may well be an arrow pointing in the direction of rotation, and/or the words 'this side outside'. If you see the arrow pointing the wrong way or the words 'this side inside' or just 'inside', the tyres are on the wrong way round. It is easily done, as most cheap tyres are uni-directional, and it doesn't matter which way round they go, so tyre fitters get into the habit of not checking for these things.

gsmmad

check tracking, last time i changed alloys not tyres, but the whole alloy and tyre, my steering got very funny and would pull side to side without justification, had the tracking done and it was back to perfect

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

As above, plus new tyres with larger depth of tread will have less lateral dry grip then those with worn blocks.

Not always true, tyres worn down to the limit often have much less grip than new tyres.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Kilty wrote: »

This - it's possible the tyres you've been sold are crap in poor weather.

A colleague was struggling to get her car (a petrol Peugeot 308) up the icy hill to the work car park over Xmas - I was driving a little 1.3 diesel Corsa which flew up and didn't step out of line at all.

Puzzled me for a bit until I saw the tyres on her car - the tread pattern was clearly not suitable for even wet conditions :eek:.

Tread has next to nothing to do with grip on ice.