Bad Tire Experience

[odobkins]

I put new tires on my 04 Pontiac Sunfire last week. The car handled just fine before that. I bought the car new and have driven it 101,000 miles so I'm aware of how it should handle. The car went in all directions, fishtailed on dry pavement at a speed of over 60mph. I had the car aligned (front & rear) and completely checked over. Nothing wrong with the car. Took the car back to where I purchased the tires and after some "negotiations" they put another set on the car of a different brand.

I've never had an experience like this with any vehicle. Has anyone else had this happen to them and what did they do about it?

 

[XZeroII]

so is the new brand working? What brand were the bad ones? What are the good ones?

 

[amdhunter]

I had the same experience when I put new tires on my Civic. Turns out they had 80+ PSI in each tire. Dumbasses at the tireshop overinflated the hell out of them.

 

[spidey07]

Are these high performance summer tires? Summer tires totally suck in cold weather even if the roads aren't wet/snow, it's the type of rubber used. Very little traction when the temps drop.

Post the model of tire and welcome to the forums.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'm wondering if they were unidirectional and had them mounted incorrectly.

 

[spidey07]

I'm wondering if they were unidirectional and had them mounted incorrectly.

hmmmm, very possible. But it seems most tires are uni-directional these days so the guys putting them on would have to be pretty brain dead.

 

[JulesMaximus]

hmmmm, very possible. But it seems most tires are uni-directional these days so the guys putting them on would have to be pretty brain dead.

Agreed, and I'm not sure even that would account for the dangerous handling the OP experienced.

 

[zerocool84]

I had the same experience when I put new tires on my Civic. Turns out they had 80+ PSI in each tire. Dumbasses at the tireshop overinflated the hell out of them.

Then you should have handled better with that much PSI.

 

[spidey07]

Then you should have handled better with that much PSI.

Aww naw he dien't!

 

[amdhunter]

Then you should have handled better with that much PSI.

Hell no, the car felt like it was on ice skates. They were past sidewall specs.

 

[Zenmervolt]

New tires still have some of the release compounds on them and it takes ~500 miles for these release compounds (which are slippery and help the tires come out of the molds more easily) to wear off a set of new tires. It is common and expected for a brand-new set of tires to be slick for the first few hundred miles.

Different brands will have different amounts of residual release compounds and even different production runs will be different. Sounds to me as though you simply got a batch that were a little more slippery than most.

ZV

 

[odobkins]

The first set was Hankook. The car handled fine prior to the tires being installed. The tire store insisted it must be a mechanical issue with the car so I had a complete front & rear alignment at the dealership where I bought the car new, not the tire store. This cost $325. The front alignment was minimal but the rear did require some shims. It made no difference with the handling issue but it did give me enough documentation for the tire store to take back the Hankook tires & install a set of Dayton Quadra's. I've never heard of Hankook tires before. This appears to have solved the problem.

I've never seen tires change the way a car handles so drastically. The rear end actually fishtailed at speeds over 65 and the front pulled to the left, then to the right. It would have been unsafe to drive over 65 mph with these tires where as my normal highway driving speed is between 75 & 80.

 

[odobkins]

The really scary thing about this tire issue is what if someone had sent their son or daughter in to get tires put on their vehicle before heading back to school or a family travelling. They would have assumed the car would handle good with new tires and could have easily had an accident. It was that bad. I've done lots of business with this particular tire store in the past and was shocked at their attitude when I went back to tell them there was a handling problem. They weren't interested in listening to what I had to say. They took the car and drove it and said it handled just fine. Obviously an independant mechanic shop and the GM dealership where I bought the car said otherwise. Then it got their attention. Has anyone had any experience with the Hankook tire? I've heard the rubber is extremely soft. Or maybe it was a bad casing or both.

 

[StageLeft]

zenmervolt is right. I never knew it was so but this popped up on the forums a while back, new tires really do need to brake in because they can still have some sheen on them and what not.

 

[fleabag]

While new tires should be broken in, they shouldn't be exhibiting such affects to a car's handling unless you're really pushing the car.. I've bought new tires and have never experienced such a thing and I'm sure the OP has before with other vehicles or several thousand miles ago with the same vehicle and experienced no such thing. This would lead to the conclusion that something is seriously wrong.

 

[Zap]

My dad's former F150 truck had a tire that was defective. It would just cause the vehicle to pull to the right all the time. We thought it was an alignment issue... until the tread separated. Put the spare on, and problem went away.

My former car (Contour SVT) had some tires (not OEM, don't remember what they were) that on some highways with grooved concrete surfaces would seriously follow or jump grooves. Made for some squirrely driving... but again only on certain sections of certain highways. One such place was on I8 around SDSU, where it ALWAYS happened.

 

[NutBucket]

My former car (Contour SVT) had some tires (not OEM, don't remember what they were) that on some highways with grooved concrete surfaces would seriously follow or jump grooves. Made for some squirrely driving... but again only on certain sections of certain highways. One such place was on I8 around SDSU, where it ALWAYS happened.

That's purely a function of the tread pattern.

 

[Zenmervolt]

I've never seen tires change the way a car handles so drastically. The rear end actually fishtailed at speeds over 65 and the front pulled to the left, then to the right. It would have been unsafe to drive over 65 mph with these tires where as my normal highway driving speed is between 75 & 80.

What you were experiencing (or at least what you have described) is known as tramlining and is a product of tire design. Tramlining is when tires tend to follow irregularities of the road, which can pull a car from right to left and back again. It can make a car feel very twitchy and inexperienced drivers often mistake this twitchiness for "fishtailing".

Looking at the differences in the tread pattern between the tires in Hankook's line and the Dayton Quadras you eventually bought definitely seems to show that the more performance oriented Hankooks are significantly more liable to tramline than the Daytons.

ZV

 

[brblx]

dayton quadras are the lowest of the low. when i worked at firestone years ago, they were the cheapest tire we sold. i didn't even think they made them anymore.

i think zenmervolt is on the right track. i'd bet the hankooks were h rated (quadras are s).

you basically swapped superior tires to make the car a little more predictable.

also wow@325 dollar alignment. did you really need the shims on the rear? that's often 75-100 bucks a side, but rarely needed, and it still seems like you overpaid.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I posted recently on the subject of the release compounds used on new tyres. You should never 'press on' with a new set until you have a couple of hundred of miles on them. Either that or scrub them up on purpose if you cannot wait.

 

[odobkins]

Here's the latest. My husband just noticed the car now has 3 Dayton and 1 Peerless Tires on it. They were supposed to swap out the 4 Hankook for 4 Dayton, not do a mix. At this point, we are going to return the tires and demand a refund. We'll go with Goodyear Intregrity or Dunlop SP 60's. I don't feel the Hankook was a superior tire at all. At least the car is drivable with the Dayton/Peerless tires on it. It wasn't with the Hankook. I've been driving and buying tires for 40 years and have NEVER seen anything like this!!!

 

[brblx]

dunlop is crap, if you can get a good price on the goodyears, go for them.

 

[KDKPSJ]

That's really weird experience. Hankook (Korean pronunciation for "Korea", btw) makes fairly good tires, and no, they are not no-name brand as they are the 7th largest tire manufacturer in the world. But anyway, for whatever the reason, if you are not satisfied with them, then they are bad.

 

[odobkins]

The tires have been replaced, the car has had a complete alignment but when you hit a driving speed of 70+, the rear of the car still feels like it's moving back & forth. Even though it is a front wheel drive, it now handles like a rear wheel drive with a bent housing or ring gear & pinion that needs to be replaced. THe car was fine prior to the installation of the first set of tires. This particular tire store does all of their installations outside(this is Kansas) and they use a four-corner lift to raise the car. I'm concerned they didn't have the car on the lift correctly and something has been bent or damaged. I'm taking the car back to my local GM dealership today with the hope they can figure out what's wrong with it.
Any ideas?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Even though it is a front wheel drive, it now handles like a rear wheel drive with a bent housing or ring gear & pinion that needs to be replaced.

A bad ring and pinion will not make a car twitchy. It will simply add a whole hell of a lot of backlash or whine like a summb*tch. A bent axle housing (which would only apply to cars with a live axle) would cause a consistent pull in one direction, not the twitchiness you describe.

Additionally, when did the issue become "un-fixed"? The car was apparently handling just fine with the 3 Daytons and the Peerless on it based on your comments in this thread.

Finally, if something was wrong, the alignment shop should have noticed it as it would result in an inability to bring overall alignment into spec. Any half-decent alignment shop would immediately notice a tweaked frame or similar condition. If you truly do suspect something was damaged and the alignment shop didn't catch it, then you'll probably need to find a more competent alignment shop.

ZV