RE: Mercedes tyre 'skipping' - official statement

[GranCab]

Cyder said:

I'm sure I've felt this in the wife's A4 as well.

Oooeerrr ...

[Matt UK]

Not just 4wd cars. I had a jaguar x350 that would do this.

At slow speed on full lock in my works underground car park, instead of scribing a perfect arc, it would draw a slightly jagged arc.

[Nick Young]

Nezquick said:

My M235i does this too. Full lock turns create a very unpleasant juddering - a friend's does exactly the same too.

Very odd.

Mine did. Then I switched from Michelin to Goodyear and no issues now.

[anonymous-user]

The by-product of daft wheel sizes

[Cyder]

GranCab said:

Cyder said:

I'm sure I've felt this in the wife's A4 as well.

Oooeerrr ...

Taps nose

[kambites]

Nick Young said:

Mine did. Then I switched from Michelin to Goodyear and no issues now.

Eagle F1s? If so I'm not surprised - they have very soft sidewalls.

[99dndd]

Is it just me, or do we see some sort of new Mercedes Benz reliability issue thread on here every week?

[Andehh]

swisstoni said:

How often does any car spend on full lock? Seems a fair bit of fuss about not much unless I'm missing something, which isn't out of the question.

I use full lock a lot of the time with parking. Which also occurs at low speed, and at low temperatures (mornings & evenings). At least a couple of times a day. I imagine this would grate on me.

[Ruaraidh_Gamma]

Hardly unusual. Both my C63s and my E 63 do this as well as the C350 I had before those. Normally with slightly worn tyres, at full lock on a damp day. Just the inner tyre stick/slipping as it scrubs over the wet surface.

[Danza]

My W204 C63 does this when it's cold outside, I understand it's to do with the geo and I'd rather compromise low speed full lock comfort than handling at any other speed!

[Krikkit]

Also had this in my Clio! Not an unusual issue, and as noted above it's inevitably exacerbated by super-thin profile summer tyres going even harder in winter...

[GranCab]

99dndd said:

Is it just me, or do we see some sort of new Mercedes Benz reliability issue thread on here every week?

Yes - it's just you ... this has nothing to do with reliability !

[Mr2Mike]

big_rob_sydney said:

It does beg the question though; when other manufacturers of cheap-arsed cars can get it right, why should people spend big money on a "premium" brand, to get it so wrong?

MB can go fk themselves.

How many of these cheap arsed cars have 400bhp V8s, 4WD and huge wheels?

[VX0075]

Something similar in C63 too when I had new tyres on.

[MrBarry123]

swisstoni said:

How often does any car spend on full lock? Seems a fair bit of fuss about not much unless I'm missing something, which isn't out of the question.

Quite and no, I don't think you are.

Black Edition A5 models (those with the 19" Rotor design alloys) also do it. My step-father mentioned it to me previously as his does it, I showed him this thread. My Scirocco also did it yesterday.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=133...

As already stated earlier, my understanding of the reason why is that when at full lock, due to Ackerman steering geometry, the inside front tyre has a smaller contact point with the road in comparison with the outside front tyre as the inside front tyre is turning "tighter". Therefore, and especially when it's cold, said tyre struggles to find grip in comparison with the outside front tyre, hence the skipping sensation, which is the result of the inside front tyre "fighting" with the outside front tyre and losing the grip war.

Should any owners be concerned, on a flat piece of tarmac, go to full lock, get out and have a look at the contact point of both tyres. The inside tyre's contact point will be narrower than the outside tyre's.

It's really nothing to worry about unless you spend your entire day circumnavigating mini-roundabouts and/or like submitting fanciful tyre wear claims to Mercedes.

[nickfrog]

big_rob_sydney said:

It does beg the question though; when other manufacturers of cheap-arsed cars can get it right, why should people spend big money on a "premium" brand, to get it so wrong?

MB can go fk themselves.

Another beautiful contribution. MB will really miss you as a customer.

Anyway, this sounds like pure Ackerman effect to me as Kambites said. Nothing new and really don't see what the issue is. It'd be like saying the noise a windscreen wiper makes on dry glass is poor design.

[David87]

kambites said:

I don't think it's related to 4wd; it's just a steering geometry issue combined with very stiff tyre sidewalls.

Yep. My dad had a 981 Boxster for a while and it would do this too. I suspect it's because wheels have got to big and tyre profiles so small.

[alexrogers92]

This is very very common in Porsche. It wouldn't bother me too much, just wind a tiny bit of lock off when manoeuvring. Maybe I'm too laid back!

[Dave Hedgehog]

glm1977 said:

isn't this just super cold tyres...? happens a lot on my cars in the winter when pulling out of the drive. come warmer times it disappears.

its a combination of huge rims, cold tyres and tyres with really crap thin walls (conti)

just about every performance car i have driven over the last 10 years has done it incl the RS4 + R8, although not to the extent of the GLC video

my RS audi did it, replacing the conti's for MPSS's cured it instantly

my current merc does it and it will be getting a set of MPS4 S in due course (which have been reported on merc forums to cure it)

[CO2000]

Years ago I had this happen in a cold/wet smooth carpark on a E53 X5 with 20" wheels but not on 17's.