Handling

[IDH]

Morning all

 

Looking for some advice please.

I bought my 05 roadster in May.

I love the car but I am amazed how skittish the car is.

If I hit a poor bit of road, or a white line, the cars seems to jump all over the place.

 

I have had a Nissan dealer check the car out for accident damage of other mechanical issues. Nothing seen.

I have had the tracking checked. Was a wee bit out but nothing major.

Tyres are well within the limits.

 

Is this normal? I keep getting told it is, but just wanted more opinion.

 

Ian

[spursmaddave]

First question - what tyres do you have

 

It is normal with a RW drive car to be a bit skittish when a front wheel hits a white line or bump and loses traction it is to be expected really, roadsters will always be that bit more too as they are less rigid

[Zugara]

2nd question is what are the tyre pressures

[bronzee]

When was your car manufactured? Half way through 2004, there were a number of changes made to the original model 350.

[rabbitstew]

First thing id check is what brand of tyres do you have? Ive Falkens on mine and its not skittish at all. In fact reading the reviews online comparing the coupe & roadster there is very little difference in handling. The roadster had a whole load of extra reinforcements added to it to improve its stiffness to compensate for the lack of the roof.

[Maccaman]

As I read it you are not saying the car is slipping. If that's correct all you are experiencing is the stiff suspension, exactly what I get.

[Beavis]

What mileage as the car done? Worn shockers may be? think Chesterfield had a faulty shocker on his GT4 iirc that caused a similar experience.

[IDH]

As I read it you are not saying the car is slipping. If that's correct all you are experiencing is the stiff suspension, exactly what I get.

 

No, the car is slipping.

On good tarmac all is fine, its just when I hit a poor surface or paint.

Not at home at the moment so cant tell you the tyres but I will find out and post shortly.

Tyre pressures were as the manual but cant remember what they are, but I will check more regularly.

[Beavis]

As I read it you are not saying the car is slipping. If that's correct all you are experiencing is the stiff suspension, exactly what I get.

 

No, the car is slipping.

On good tarmac all is fine, its just when I hit a poor surface or paint.

Not at home at the moment so cant tell you the tyres but I will find out and post shortly.

Tyre pressures were as the manual but cant remember what they are, but I will check more regularly.

 

 

Should be approx 35 psi.

[bronzee]

As I read it you are not saying the car is slipping. If that's correct all you are experiencing is the stiff suspension, exactly what I get.

 

No, the car is slipping.

On good tarmac all is fine, its just when I hit a poor surface or paint.

Tyres.

[neo]

whats tyres have you got on all four wheels ?

 

when i had bridgestones on the front and toyo proxies tr-1 on the rear it was skittish over white road markings even kicking on TCS light sometimes

[IDH]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

[Ebized]

Ditch, before the ditch finds you

[AmyZed]

HMM this is interesting.. i am running bridgestones and find the same...

what tyres are best then!? useful info to have as i need to replace some tyres soon....

[Mega]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

 

Get rid of those awful awful tyres immediately. Before the ditch finders do as their name suggests. Or worse.

 

Either get some Bridgestone RE050s to match the front, or ideally replace the whole set. I'd suggest Falken FK 452.

[Ebized]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

 

Get rid of those awful awful tyres immediately. Before the ditch finders do as their name suggests. Or worse.

 

Either get some Bridgestone RE050s to match the front, or ideally replace the whole set. I'd suggest Falken FK 452.

 

Good advice

[was8v]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

 

Get rid of those awful awful tyres immediately. Before the ditch finders do as their name suggests. Or worse.

 

Either get some Bridgestone RE050s to match the front, or ideally replace the whole set. I'd suggest Falken FK 452.

 

Good advice

 

 

 

Have any of you experience of Maxxis Ma-Z1 tyres?

 

There is a "Drift" variant of the MA-Z1 which is not as good as a road tyre as the "standard" MA-Z1, unfortunately it was the Drift variant which autoexpress tested (and it rated it above some premium contenders):

 

So, they are not as good as the bridgstones, but they aren't ditch finders. I bought some replacement alloys for my Z that had "sunway" tyres on - these were truly dreadful and true ditchfinders causing the car the slide around in the wet - they didn't last long.

 

So I would suggest the OP gets their alignment checked (inc castor / camber) by a reputable motorsport place. Alignment is critical on a performance car like a Z.

 

I would check all the suspension bushings (bannana bar etc) as these so crack and cause alignment to shift.

 

Check the date code of tyres - I would replace after 7 years on a road car as they do "go off".

[Ebized]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

 

Get rid of those awful awful tyres immediately. Before the ditch finders do as their name suggests. Or worse.

 

Either get some Bridgestone RE050s to match the front, or ideally replace the whole set. I'd suggest Falken FK 452.

 

Good advice

 

 

 

Have any of you experience of Maxxis Ma-Z1 tyres?

 

There is a "Drift" variant of the MA-Z1 which is not as good as a road tyre as the "standard" MA-Z1, unfortunately it was the Drift variant which autoexpress tested (and it rated it above some premium contenders):

 

So, they are not as good as the bridgstones, but they aren't ditch finders. I bought some replacement alloys for my Z that had "sunway" tyres on - these were truly dreadful and true ditchfinders causing the car the slide around in the wet - they didn't last long.

 

So I would suggest the OP gets their alignment checked (inc castor / camber) by a reputable motorsport place. Alignment is critical on a performance car like a Z.

 

I would check all the suspension bushings (bannana bar etc) as these so crack and cause alignment to shift.

 

Check the date code of tyres - I would replace after 7 years on a road car as they do "go off".

 

No, I have not tried the Maxxis Ma-Z1 and it would seem from your post you, wisely, chose to fit them all round.

 

Its the mix of two completely different tyre types that from the all the hundreds of tyre posts I have seen on here indicate is invairably the factor that can lead to sudden loss of grip. The structure/compounds/tread patterns vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and indeed within the same company. For instance it is it is well known that mixing Bridgestones 040's with 050's can be quite lethal.

 

And I have moved away from the 'preferred' tyre choice of Nissan by fitting Vredsteins Ultrac Sessantas - although listed as a premium tyre they seem largely untried as far as I am aware on the 370's although there has been good reports of them on 350's. So, I am being something of a guinea pig as I really felt the 050's could be improved upon when pushing on, especially when you want to steer the car with the throttle.

[neo]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

 

 

yeah, make sure they are the same brands front and rear, mine are now all toyo proxies, been like it for the last few years and no problems at all now

[IDH]

Guys

Thanks for all the advice.

New tyres are on Santa's list!

 

Cheers

 

Ian

[Nolan]

Ive got maxxis on the fronts and I had bridgestones on the rear.... I got lassas put on the back last time I took it into Nissan...... Big mistake, grip is now terrible, same symptoms as other posts, when go over white road markings or hit water I lose grip. Grrrr. Last and only time I'll save a little on new tyres.... Was recommended by the Nissan garage to!

[Fuse]

It's not uncommon to find mixed tyres front and rear, they're going to wear at different rates so plenty people end up just shopping for the best bang for the buck tyres for either the front or rear axle, not expecting it to make too much difference. I know before I joined this forum I'd not really though about it being a problem.

 

On a slightly related note, I hear from people at work all the time "oh they're only tyres, I'll just get the cheapest ones around, it doesn't really matter". Those four bits of rubber are the only thing connecting you to the road though. Maybe it depends what you're driving, but I think it's worth paying a little more for some that will actually keep you there rather than in the nearest tree!

[Captain Vimes]

Another vote for the Falkens, although in my case they transformed the handling on my old MR2 roadster.

[Chris`I]

On a slightly related note, I hear from people at work all the time "oh they're only tyres, I'll just get the cheapest ones around, it doesn't really matter". Those four bits of rubber are the only thing connecting you to the road though. Maybe it depends what you're driving, but I think it's worth paying a little more for some that will actually keep you there rather than in the nearest tree!

Fine for pootling about in a @*!# box to and from work, but in a 1.5 tonne 300HP RWD car, its not something you want to consider

 

Mixing also isnt anywhere near as much an issue with FWD cars which predominantly understeer off the road before anything bad happens. Its also no real problem in the Zed when its dry, its when you hit damp of wet tarmac that the car handles weirdly with mixed tyres.

[JetSet]

This may be my problem.

Forgot to mention I have the TC light kicking in sometimes when it slips too.

 

front bridgestone potenza

rear maxxis victra ma-z1

 

Thoughts?

 

Ian

 

Yeah, apart from the answers you've already had I think its important that you don't mix tyre patterns as well. The Maxxis are Assymetrical while the Bridgestones are I believe Rib pattern. There are occasions when the only alternative is to fit a non matching tyre...for example earlier this year it was impossible for me to find matching tyres due to the tsunami in Japan so on the tyre fitters recommendation we had to fit a Maxxis to Caroline's roadster as it was the closest match on pattern to the existing tyre. The tsunami may have lead to many others fitting the "wrong" tyres too

 

Another thing to look out for is ill matching tyre sizes, for some it may well be a temptation to fit wider or lower profile tyres to replace your old worn out ones but this can play havoc with the TC.

 

 

Pete