Scary Moment

[jamessim]

After giving my car the showroom looks tonight, I went out for a little tour around the island to show it off, and had a scary experience. I had slowed down behind a van which was being held up by two cyclists "not the cyclists fault" just a stretch of road that was twisty with quite a bit of oncoming traffic, the van managed to get past and a little later I had the opportunity, as I was still in second gear doing around 15-20 I pulled out gave it a bit of throttle I passed the cyclists and then the back end suddenly veered off to the right quickly lifted the right foot and had a sharp switch of the back end to the left. I must have done the same manouvre a hundred times without this happening, I dont know if my tyre pressures are out as I haven't checked them for a little while? are their any other reasons for this? maybe worn shocks or something as I do seem to be getting an intermittened squeak in this area recently, roads were very dry maybe it was just poor driving? but any advice would be helpful.


Best Regards,

James Sim.

[J_S_G]

If you were still overtaking then you could well have been sitting across the middle of the road, with the camber falling away on both sides, making the car more prone to verring to one side or the other - exacerbating any steering input you put in.

Similarly, if you were changing from accelerating to decelerating, the weight transfer makes it much easier to lose the back end.

You'll have been on a bit of the road that isn't normally "cleaned" by tyres if you were still overtaking too; lots more crap to upset your road-holding - just look at how much it affects F1 cars.

Would definitely check the tyre pressures very regularly.

Hope that helps...

[fish]

If you have just cleaned your car especially the tyres with trye cleaner / wetter they lose alot of traction.

[powerlord]

you clean the tread with tyre cleaner ???

now that is dedication

>> Edited by powerlord on Friday 30th July 10:45

[jamessim]

Thanks James,
Yes there was a camber in the middle of the road and I was around 4/5ths over the middle of the road to the right, certainly wakened me up to degree of thought required in the future when carrying out this manouvre.
Still haven't checked my tyres though, my pump has been broken by that mystery person in the garage who periodically comes and removes tools and breaks others etc.

Best Regards,

James Sim.

[j_s_g]

jamessim said:

Thanks James, Yes there was a camber in the middle of the road and I was around 4/5ths over the middle of the road to the right, certainly wakened me up to degree of thought required in the future when carrying out this manouvre. Still haven't checked my tyres though, my pump has been broken by that mystery person in the garage who periodically comes and removes tools and breaks others etc.

No problem - overtaking introduces a whole heap of bad things to the driving experience; having the power to pull ahead is the least of your worries.

I always use Sainsburys for checking my tyres. Free air, digital guage, and it'll top up to whatever PSI you tell it to. Works for me as Sainsburys is only a few hundred yards from work, so I can get there without the tyres warming up. Also always keep a £5 digital guage from Halfrauds in the car, just in case...

[jamessim]

Hi Folks
Found out yesterday the most likely cause of my sudden departure from the straight line, the car was in the garage getting the passengers door window height adjusted as there was a small gap at the top no problem with water leaks etc but the noise was a nusiance at high speed, however an hour after I dropped the car off the mechanic rings me says my window is fixed but I need 2 new back tyres they had the car up on the ramps giving it a checkover and both tyres are completly bald with only thread remaining on the inner 1/3rd of the both tyres and up the wall. The tyres looked perfect until you lie on the floor and look under God knows how they never blew out? Anything else I should be doing after I get my new tyres ie geometary check etc cars always handled beautiful with this the first rear end loss?

Best Regards,

James Sim.

[J_S_G]

jamessim said:

Hi Folks Found out yesterday the most likely cause of my sudden departure from the straight line, the car was in the garage getting the passengers door window height adjusted as there was a small gap at the top no problem with water leaks etc but the noise was a nusiance at high speed, however an hour after I dropped the car off the mechanic rings me says my window is fixed but I need 2 new back tyres they had the car up on the ramps giving it a checkover and both tyres are completly bald with only thread remaining on the inner 1/3rd of the both tyres and up the wall. The tyres looked perfect until you lie on the floor and look under God knows how they never blew out? Anything else I should be doing after I get my new tyres ie geometary check etc cars always handled beautiful with this the first rear end loss?

When I had my Elise, I had my front tyres down to the thread once... but that was from the dealer pulling a fast one at service time.

First thing to do is make sure you check them every week! If it's handling beautifully, then that's that. To really make sure, I'd probably get somebody else with one that you trust to try driving yours to make sure nothing "feels" wrong, assuming you haven't tried another one to compare it to recently...

[WYSIWYG]

I had this issue on both front and rear tyres. Further investigation revealed the camber settings were out. Get these and the tracking checked and then put your new boots on.

[andyvdg]

I've heard the fronts can do this - someone recently on here encountered it - but I'm not sure about the back! 3D laser geometry lessons for the car I think!

[whitey]

Check your tyres pressures at least weekly. It is hard to tell if a tyre is underinflated as they are so low profile.

The fronts will wear quickly on the inside of the tyres as thats how they are set up, so look underneath the front regularly. Depending on how hard you corner the car will depend on how long they last.

Get a proper 3D wheel alignment from someone that knows TVRs, the factory will supply the correct settings. It will transform the car.

Remember rubber grows on trees and as it's the only thing connecting you to the road don't be embarassed about buying new rubbers, checking your rubbers or admiting in public you need better rubbers than you are currently using.

cheers
Whitey

[cptsideways]

You drive a 400 bhp car & don't check your tyres at least once a week


Seriously, you should be checking them before any enthusiastic driving. You have enough power & speed to put several hundred kw's of heat into those tyres the slightest wrong pressure could be fatal at high speed or with that much power.

You should also be aware of how many mm's of rubber you have left.

Take a lot more interest in what little you have in contact with the road, it's easy enough to do ask someone who knows what you should be be looking out for.

>> Edited by cptsideways on Thursday 12th August 10:22

[Mollydog]

I have just had my Tuscan 12000 mile service even though the car has done only 6,800 miles (logic somewhere) and the main dealer stated that my front tyres were worn on the inside edge. Being slightly taken a back, the track geometery was out but from a normal day to day inspection you could not see the fault. So do check carefully your tyres as they are the only thing that keeps you on the road ! Any thoughts on best place for tyres in the Suffolk area

[jamessim]

Thanks All,
Declan, SCARY driving here is whipping past the milk floats at 39MPH, before you hit that bloddy Ozone friendly Green Lane 15mph limit.
I have always regularly checked the easy bits, tyres, oil, water, brake and clutch fluids and screen wash etc, and I'm now doing what I always do before a trip, is get someone else to give it a good going over. The point is, whilst I have always checked these things, my instruments were faulty, and I never really gave it the proper weekly going over. It's been a good lesson for me, as although I wouldn't have overtaken if I had to squeeze between anybody coming at me, the vicious swing back to the left will make me sure I will do in future.

Best Regards,


James Sim

[J_S_G]

Mollydog said:

Any thoughts on best place for tyres in the Suffolk area

Buy the tyres online - www.mytyres.co.uk, etc. Shouldn't cost you more than £300 a pair of Eagle F1s/Proxes. Pay any independent tyre place £20 or so to fit them.

[powerlord]

Mollydog said:

Any thoughts on best place for tyres in the Suffolk area

I've been using Autofit in Ipswich for the past 10 years.

They might not be as cheap as mail order, but not far off. And they know what they are doing. They have the usual YTS muppets there, but talk to Dave (the manager) or Adrian (another good bloke) and he will make sure only one of his best blokes touches your car. They do ferraris and all sorts. The main reason I go there is that they do an excellent job of balancing the wheels at various speeds, whereas other places only balance at one. I've found that to make a massive difference.

Also, it's little things, like they let you drive the car rather than them.. they'll ask what torque you want the wheel nuts done to, same with tyre pressures, etc.

Will be going there tomorrow for them to fit my decats :-)


stu

[j_s_g]

powerlord said:

Will be going there tomorrow for them to fit my decats :-)

Must get my sound/video clip sorted before you...

[Mollydog]

Powerlord,

Thank you for the advice i will go down there over the weekend

[powerlord]

best phone them first. They can usually get tyres in in a couple of hours or next day at longest... but there's a good chance they won't have em in stock.

stu