first taste of winter in a VR4

[Scanny]

the last few days have been cold and i am sitting on badly worn yokohamas on the back and part worn continentals on the front. i have had a bit of fun kicking the tail out leaving work at low speed round a 90 degree turn but apart from that i have kept it steady in below 0 temperatures and i am very impressed with the car. going round corners is a vast improvement over any FWD car that i have owned which i didnt expect. dry roads, yes but i didnt expect such a difference on an icy road and i am wondering if winter tyres are really necessary on these cars. they made a huge difference to the V6 but as the VR4 is handling so well as it is i think the difference will be far less noticeable but maybe snow will be different. summer tyres arent designed to handle snow so i might hang on a bit longer and see what happens before swapping over

[chris g]

Summer tyres of decent condition should be ok...

Winter tyres even better...

[Scanny]

i will be buying a set of falkens AGAIN but i cant afford them yet so im stuck with crappy summer tyres or useable winter tyres. i would rather wait a few more weeks though until the summer tyres are very borderline then i can bin them and use winter tyres for a while. they should last the season but i dont want to put them on until the temperature is constantly cold enough and not just cold spells

[Atik]

Even between different quality summer tyres I found there was a noticable difference. Though I have naver used winter tyres, I'd expect there to be a a significant benefit from them. Especially for you folks up north. Might be worth sourcing a set of spare wheels and fit winter tyres on them and swap them as needed. My brother in Aberdeen does that.

I found that in the last few years, when it was particularly cold, I just didnt drive! But I know a lot of people dont have that luxury.

[Scanny]

that was the plan but the finances havent stretched that far yet. in fact i dont have any alloys for the VR4 now that i have brembos. im using Colins alloys just now until i decide what i want to buy

[horndog]

Winter tyres made a huge difference for me in the snow, but over 5deg it feels like driving on marbles

[Gingerfish]

Winter tyres would be better. My summer ones are pants in ice and snow.

[Kenneth]

Having different tyres front and back is a problem with AWD. There is a picture on here somewhere of someone who came across black ice or some such with different tyres front and back, the car is on its roof.

[WOODY72]

Dont forget to take your AYC & ABS fuses out in the snow!

[Scanny]

i cant find the AYC fuse. the pump is probably knackered now anyway

[WOODY72]

Next to the ABS fuse i think. Lots of beer since last winter.

[Humpty's Revenge]

Having different tyres front and back is a problem with AWD. There is a picture on here somewhere of someone who came across black ice or some such with different tyres front and back, the car is on its roof.

14122007165.jpg

[Scanny]

2 different brands between front and rear caused that? i would really love to hear the explanation of that conclusion

[wintertidenz]

It's usually because of the differences in grip IIRC.

[chris g]

IIRC it's stupid to take any fuses out for anything...

[Scanny]

i dont have AYC Chris so the pump is pumping air to open ended pipes. the oil is long gone so there is no point in running power to a redundant system which isnt doing anything

that doesnt make sense Daniel. having better grip at either end of the car is not going to do that. it doesnt look like the car was being driven at excessive speed as it hasnt slid along on its roof so my guess is he has hit the hump in the road and skidded as the weight of the car has come back down and lost traction on all 4 wheels due to to the vertical movement of the car on what is clearly a cold and possibly icy road. the cause of that was nothing to do with the tyres but probably a lot to do with poor road building coupled with cold conditions. an auto will cause an even bigger problem with lack of traction as there is no clutch to disengage the drive.
with a front wheel drive car the official advice is to put the good tyres on the back because you are used to understeer. i do the opposite because its always easier to bring the tail end back into line than the front end. thats why i have always put the good tyres on the front rather than go with the advice for the general public. the steering is critical in any skid situation so i would want the best tyres on the front and that is the set up i currently have

[col1n]

ive ran normal tyres all year round with no problems, more fun when the snow does come and ive never been stuck yet and thats a big YET,

[aboo]

I agree with you Colin Winter tyres are a waste of time imo. They are only good under 7 degrees. Okay we had a couple of bad winters a couple of years ago but I still managed to get about with descent tyres

I don't see the point in buying wheels & tyres for maybe say 3 weeks of the year when it gets cold.

Its common sense at the end of the day. Leave more space between you & the car in front, brake earlier, don't drive so fast etc, etc.

I hadn't even heard of winter tyres till about 5 years ago & I'v been driving for 23 years.

Richie do they put winter tyres on the wagons you drive in the winter?

[Scanny]

on trucks Andy? no chance. too expen.sive. normal tyres cost around £250 each so it would cost £1500 to put a new set of tyres on a tractor unit. winter tyres would cost even more. multiply that by 100 trucks and you are talking serious money. then the season ends and you need to put summer tyres on again. where the hell are you going to store all those winter tyres through summer?

[jbjonb]

I was somewhat perplexed today when the mrs managed to make my vr4 galoon lock up today no abs kicking in or nowt just plain lock up and 4 wheel slide...... I know for fact the abs is working perfectly fine..... could the fact i'm running different tyre makes front/rear and also different sizes have caused the abs to be confused?? 235/45/17 on back which are yokohamas and 205/40/17 on front which are toyo proxes .... I have noticed that in the wet under moderate acceleration pulling out of junctions and turning that the ayc is lighting up either the bottom light or sometimes both top lights.... do I sense a problem or is this normal??