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I’ve completely ruined the handling of my GTi.


Cleybrooke
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Really daft question jamesH but have you checked that the tyres have been fitted the correct way round. They must all be fitted with the tyre front facing outwards regardless of off side and near side. They must not be fitted to match the direction of travel. Does this make sense?

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Why is that? Please excuse the ignorance.

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Most tyres have a direction of travel arrow which must be correct. The Goodyears must be fitted with the face on the front of the tyre facing outwards, this is because the tyre tread is not the same throughout its width and has a different pattern towards the outside edge, namely asymmetric pattern.

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Very sorry to hear about your trouble.

Like the others I'm due to buy a new set soon - I don't think I'll even consider the Goodyears after what you have said.

I'll probably go for the Vredstein Sessantas.

Do you think it's worth asking if a Goodyear technical person could have a look at them and drive the car?

I did this many year ago with a Ford Capri that we fitted Michelins to.

The Michelin tech guy was very good.

I hope this helps. Please keep us posted.

Ludwig

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I put Michelin PS2's on my Sportback (same engine etc. as the GTI), they were much better than the standard Conti's and were wearing better as well.

I've heard to many stories about people hating the Goodyears from bad stories for me to follow suit despite the glowing reviews. I have to confess I haven't tried them first hand bu the PS2's were great. 169144-ok.gif

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For what it's worth I read in one of WHSmith's high street libraries this morning in one of the car mags (I read them all so can't remember which one), that a survey has exposed the fact that many petrol station tyre pressure monitors are inaccurate and so not reliable.

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STOP STANDING IN MY WAY READING THIS IS NOT A LIBRARY! the_finger.gifsmirk.gif

yes I always use a separate gauge at home and a foot pump to do pressures.

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I have Dunlop Sportmaxx all round on my Gti. They are horrible tyres and I can't wait to change, BUT i double checked the tyre pressures - seems Krap fit had over inflated them - only very slightly but dropping a little really made a big difference.

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Hi RR,

Yes, not ideal I know, but I've still got about 5mm left on the Dunlops on the back. I actually may put the F1s on the back and the Dunlops on the front that way I get rid of the Dunlops quicker :-) As you it's better to have the best tyres on the rear anyway.

I used to use F1 GSD-3 on my Leon Cupra R and loved them.

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I've not seen any reference in the manual, don't think having different depths is a big issue with the Haldex system like with some other permanent 4-wheel drive systems.

It would be nice to swap all 4 tyres at the same time, but unfortunately the fronts wear much faster than the rears just like a normal front whhel drive car. It's not economic to throw away have worn tyres.

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I used to have a Passat W8 4-Motion and the manual for that advised :

“In order to guarantee a fault-free function of the ESP , all four wheels must have the same tyres"

“You should only combine radial tyres of the same construction, size (rolling circumference) and, as far as possible , the same tread profile on all four wheel wheels”

It was a bit of a grey area really, as it just said as far as possible confused.gif , my dealer said it was OK to mix them but VW UK advised me not to frown.gif

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I rotate mine front to back every 5k miles so they wear fairly evenly. The rears would last for years if I didn't and rubber degrades over time.

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Yep, I do this too, but normally only once at about 10k miles. I like to get to a point where all 4 need replacing at the same time, hence I get same brand all round.

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I like to get to a point where all 4 need replacing at the same time, hence I get same brand all round.

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Only downside is the expense of buying 4 tyres at once. EEK2.GIF

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When you do the change over stick the money for two tyres away somewhere, eases the hit for the four 169144-ok.gif

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Just a quick hint - tracking? Get it tracked properly i.e. on a VAG Beissbart machine like APS's.

You may have probably had it tracked already. In my experience I got my GTI tracked locally by a recommended tracking place (used many times before), and it just ruined the handling. I got them to check the tracking many times - spot on apparently. I then got the tyres changed, which still didn't help.

In the end all it took was tracking again at APS's - voila once again drives and handles great.

Just my 2p's worth jump.gif

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