More or less tyre grip/traction

kevin0410

i once had this issue when i bought a replacement wheel and tyre after bending the original wheel.

it went on the front and instantly made the car pull towards the side it was fitted.

front tyres should really be changed in pairs because of this

JS477

fred7777 wrote: »

Yes it's possible, in fact it's almost certain that different tyres will have different levels of "grip".

However "grip" is surely only an issue when the tyres either loose it and spin or loose it and lock and unless your tyres are spinning or locking your car shouldn't be "veering off to the left".

I have heard that Winter tyres have a different composition and have more grip/traction than "normal" tyres. But all the tyres on the car should be Winter ones and not just some. It's like mixing cross-ply and radial tyres.


However doesn't the amount of grip or traction a tyre has depend on the frictional force that the tyre exerts between itself (the tyre) and the road surface.

The magnitude of the frictional force depends only on coefficient of kinetic friction (~1.0 for rubber and asphalt & ~0.15 for rubber on ice) and the weight of the car. So if a tyre has more or less grip/traction then it would mean that the coefficient of kinetic friction for that particular tyre is different from the other tyres.

I think!!!!!

Herzlos

If it's a grip thing, surely it'd pull one way under acceleration (the more grippy wheel pulling forward) and the other under braking (the more grippy wheel pulling back)?

If it always pulls to the left I'd suspect either the road camber (unless it happens on the flat in a car park or something) or tracking.

marlot

Different tyres have different levels of rolling resistance. I'd swap the fronts and the backs and see if the steering is then OK.

Fishingtime

schrodie wrote: »

Plenty the car is only 5 months old.

Then in a later post you go on to say you will check the stripe.
It does not matter if your car is only 5 months old, if the tracking is out then the tyre will wear on one side

schrodie

Fishingtime wrote: »

Then in a later post you go on to say you will check the stripe.
It does not matter if your car is only 5 months old, if the tracking is out then the tyre will wear on one side

I'm expecting the car home any minute. When it arrives I'll pop and have a look at the tyres and the tread and if there's a stripe on the opposite tyre.

What I find odd is that prior to the tyre change this drifting off to the left wasn't apparent if even there, then after the tyre change it was so obvious.

Hence my confusion at how a tyre change can suddenly affect the steering in such an adverse and obvious way.

Car's back!!

Just checked and there's plenty of even tread across all the tyres.

However the runout line on the new tyre (front driver's side) is 3" in from the outside of the tyre whereas the runout line on the front passengers side tyre is 1" in from the outside of the tyre.

So I'm not sure if this difference would cause the car to drift to the left.

arcon5

I had this a while back, quite significantly. Winter hit and two snow tyres of the front - problem solved instantly. I put it down to uneven tread on each tyre on the same axle.... maybe the same?

agrinnall

Your description of the runout lines suggests that new tyre is a different make or model to the original one, is that the case? If so they could have different performance characteristics, although my money would still be on the tracking as the root cause.

GolfBravo

schrodie wrote: »

However the runout line on the new tyre (front driver's side) is 3" in from the outside of the tyre whereas the runout line on the front passengers side tyre is 1" in from the outside of the tyre.

So I'm not sure if this difference would cause the car to drift to the left.

In other words, the lines indicate that the front left tyre has a strong tendency to veer left, while the front right tyre has a slight tendency to veer right. So on balance the front of the car veers to the left.

GolfBravo

agrinnall wrote: »

Your description of the runout lines suggests that new tyre is a different make or model to the original one, is that the case?

The runout lines only indicate the tyre's tendency to steer laterally regardless of any steering wheel movement.

The tyre manufacturer measures the degree of runout at the end of the production line and marks the severity onto the tyre by the position of runout line.

You could have two identical tyres, made on the same production line and on the same day, yet their pull characteristics could be totally different. It all depends on how the belts inside the tyre are positioned (manufacturing imperfections/variance).