Hi all

Sorry for the slightly rambling post, I thought more detail would be useful...

I recently had my rear tyres replaced due to wear, (toyos with toyos).

For the first couple of days the new tread felt great, but then all of a sudden the back felt really strange especially on a roundabout, but it was about midnight and raining, so I continued until the nearest garage (about a mile). I discovered that one of the rears was completely flat. As it was late and I was only a couple of miles from home I filled it up with air and continued, tyre still had a lot of air when I got home...

Went through the process of changing the wheels round and had the tyre repaired (large nail...). All seemed ok...

However since then the car is becoming more difficult to drive it seems really unstable over about 40 mph, and requires a lot of concentration to keep it from falling off the road... tyre pressures are 34 all round.

Question is, what do you think I've done? Could it be that I damaged the sidewall getting the car to the garage? or do you think I could have wrecked the alignment somehow?

Andy

 

Wheel balancing is what I'd get checked first, then take a look at Geo.

 

What do you mean when you say you 'went through the process of changing the wheels round?
Presumably you know the tyres should be different sizes front to rear (if you've got the standard 16" alloys), also the tyres will probably be directional so the wheels should not be moved to a diferent corner of the car.
If you've driven with a totally flat tyre you may well have damaged the side wall.

 

@ AlyWW When I said changing the tyres around I meant sticking the spacesaver on the front...

I have balancing done and tracking checked, but still have the same problem, the car seems to be tramlining (its taken me a while to figure out why if felt unstable...).

Someone suggested that it might be due to new tyres on the rear(7mm) when the fronts are down to about 4mm, as they had a similar problem in another type of car, but I'm not sure. Does this make sense?

Any thoughts gratefully received...

Andy

 

When you drove with the tyre deflated the rim may have damaged the sidewalls of the tyre. I should hope the garage that repaired your puncture would have pointed anything like that out.

If this has happened the strength of the sidewall may be affecting the handling of the car.

look for a wear line on the sidewall

 

OK, my thoughts (from previous experience):

1. Are these 16s or 17s we're talking about? Either way, I believe the starting point is 32PSi all round - although the Toyo's may need 34PSi for a softer sidewall, but try and see.

2. Have you got the correct wheels on front and back? Fronts are narrower than the rears, but not everyone is aware of this - including tyre fitters. ALso make sure they fitted the wider tyres on the wider wheels!!

3. Alignment - have you had 4 wheel alignment done? If not, do so - try www.alignmycar.co.uk for nearest centre. There's a good place called Wheels In Motion in Chesham, which isn't a million miles from you if you're in Reading.

4. It could be mismatched tread depths, but I'd be surprised.

Do a seatch for my post "So it's not the tyres" and you'll read plenty about the issues I had, which are finally sorted!