Poor handling after new rear contisport contact 5 rears

[barwell1992]

Hi all

Had some new rear tyres fitted a few weeks back and I've had handling issues since.

firstly the car previously had sport contact 5 XL's on the front and sport contact 3's on the rear (not sure if they were XL rated) the car felt sure footed even when cracking on in the wet, My driving style means I tend to lean hard on the front tyres where's the backs last me ages (38,000 miles on the rears to 3 sets of fronts) always on standard pressure

The car now has contact 5 XL's all round, there's about 8,000 miles on the fronts and around 500-1000 on the rears. Running standard pressures

The problem I'm having is the car now wants to spit me backwards through a hedge, car doesn't feel as flat and there's not progression to the grip, rear feels lose especially around roundabouts. Lift off oversteer is pretty savage. High speed stability also seems affected. Car does feel a bit more pointy in slow corners, but at speed it feels like there's a dead spot in the feel/response just before the suspension loads up that gives an uneasy feel (feels like the rears just about to let go) this wasn't there previously.

now the only possible difference other than been a contact 5 and not a 3 is the new rears are Extra load rated tyres and I'm not sure if my last ones were.

Has anyone had similar issues?

I will be checking the rear suspension and possibly rotating the tyres.

ps sorry about grammar and spelling I'm on my phone.

Thanks
Dan

 

[Mattb_197]

What pressures are you running? 30PSI rear 33PSI front? - That's the 197 pressures I believe but I'm not sure if that's changed for the 200.
Either way you can play about and go 3-4 PSI either way to see if it improves things or makes it worse. Some tyres need slightly more and some less depending on what they are. Have to remember the stock tyre pressures are for the stock tyre the car came with from the factory.

You should always have the tyres with the most tread/grip on the BACK which is right but also bear in mind that the tyres might take longer to wear in on the rear than they would otherwise on the front.

 

[petercronin]

Are the tyres definitely fitted the right way round? Should be a marking saying outside on the sidewall. I don't know if the cs5's are asymmetric or not?

 

[barwell1992]

Yup 33f 30r, I'm going to drop to 28 rear, I figure the tyre been a XL will have a stiffer side wall meaning to tyre isn't as compliant possibly reducing the contact patch.

 

[barwell1992]

I'm sure there the correct way round but will double check, I don't think there symmetrical

 

[Kazumz]

Run 30psi all round.

Not a fan of continental anyway, had a set on the rear to tie me over and the arse end came out on mini roundabout and sharp turns.



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[sevenfourate]

Pressure. Can only be. The 5's get rave review everywhere ive seen. 1st or 2nd in every category apart from noise and rolling resistance. Your "driving style"- especially if on the road and at less than ten-tenth's - has nothing to do with it IMO.

My car had some early version on before (3's ???), and ive now got 5's all-round. I've no experience with anything else on these cars......but i can tell you the 5's are a night-and-day improvement and ive had no issues at all wet, dry or otherwise including some spirited driving.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/91858/continental-contisportcontact-5-review

 

[Kazumz]

Pressure. Can only be. The 5's get rave review everywhere ive seen. 1st or 2nd in every category apart from noise and rolling resistance. Your "driving style"- especially if on the road and at less than ten-tenth's - has nothing to do with it IMO.

My car had some early version on before (3's ???), and ive now got 5's all-round. I've no experience with anything else on these cars......but i can tell you the 5's are a night-and-day improvement and ive had no issues at all wet, dry or otherwise including some spirited driving.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/91858/continental-contisportcontact-5-review

Forgot to mention... I had 3s. 5s might be a different ballpark.

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[sevenfourate]

Forgot to mention... I had 3s. 5s might be a different ballpark.

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If Conti 3's are what these had from standard (?) - mine had a pair on the rear when i got my car. Lost the back round a slip-road following my old man home a mile from picking it up !

Was therefore kinda loathed to get 5's. Glad i did now. Been completely predictable.

 

[Kazumz]

If Conti 3's are what these had from standard (?) - mine had a pair on the rear when i got my car. Lost the back round a slip-road following my old man home a mile from picking it up !

Was therefore kinda loathed to get 5's. Glad i did now. Been completely predictable.

Yeah I picked my car up with 3s on the rear too and I agree they were dangerous tyres. Very unpredictable.

I'll try out the 5s sometime if they're priced tidily when the time comes ☺

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[nutnutwelshman]

Not a fan of continentals had Verdastine on my Clio and Meg now have Michelin Super Sports on my 220T which are fantastic

 

[MRizzle]

Yeah I picked my car up with 3s on the rear too and I agree they were dangerous tyres. Very unpredictable.

I'll try out the 5s sometime if they're priced tidily when the time comes ☺

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I had Contact 3s on my RCZ and they were utterly woeful but they're on the Clio just now and I actually don't find them to be nearly as poor. I find that they can be a little slow to find grip from standing if you try and accelerate off reasonably hard but I've not found them to be too lacking at other times and I have driven the car pretty hard in all manner of conditions with these on. Perhaps I'll exercise more caution having read other people's experiences as I've only down about 3.5k miles with them so far.

 

[Glenn_Adam_Doble]

I've always ran Bridgestone re050 on my raider, but found they where **** in the wet,

so so switched to conti 5's did them in stages fronts first and the grip was amazing but a few thousand mile down the road I changed the backs to conti 5's and the handling feels very boat like, skitty and not as planted, it almost feels like a broken ARB, played around with tyre pressure's, made sure the tyres where on the right way but still, not 100% confidence in them,

first noticed this doing a "moose test" on a dual carriage way, when a brick flew off a skip wagon felt like the back end was loose and didnt track with the front of the car, but when entering a roundabout and inducing a little lift off oversteer they are completely predictable, very strange characteristics

 

[sevenfourate]

I've always ran Bridgestone re050 on my raider, but found they where **** in the wet,

so so switched to conti 5's did them in stages fronts first and the grip was amazing but a few thousand mile down the road I changed the backs to conti 5's and the handling feels very boat like, skitty and not as planted, it almost feels like a broken ARB, played around with tyre pressure's, made sure the tyres where on the right way but still, not 100% confidence in them,

first noticed this doing a "moose test" on a dual carriage way, when a brick flew off a skip wagon felt like the back end was loose and didnt track with the front of the car, but when entering a roundabout and inducing a little lift off oversteer they are completely predictable, very strange characteristics

Thats really interesting and sounds just like the OP's findings / description.

Not experienced anything like this myself.

 

[barwell1992]

Right, so went and purchased a gauge to check pressures properly rather than using petrol station kit, turn's out that both rears were sitting at 26psi, fronts were at 31psi (I'd checked them yesterday At a petrol station, they were supposedly at 2.1bar/30psi , they were done cold) I had also checked them previously at another garage.

so the only thing I can assume both times I've checked the pressures previously the kit was a mile out.

Plus side is the cars now much more stable through high speed corners and turn in at speed, it's still not like it was prior to changing the tyres, not nearly as stable. Down side is I Seem to have traded rear instability for understeer.

im going to get the tracking checked as I still think something is off.

 

[barwell1992]

I've always ran Bridgestone re050 on my raider, but found they where **** in the wet,

so so switched to conti 5's did them in stages fronts first and the grip was amazing but a few thousand mile down the road I changed the backs to conti 5's and the handling feels very boat like, skitty and not as planted, it almost feels like a broken ARB, played around with tyre pressure's, made sure the tyres where on the right way but still, not 100% confidence in them,

first noticed this doing a "moose test" on a dual carriage way, when a brick flew off a skip wagon felt like the back end was loose and didnt track with the front of the car, but when entering a roundabout and inducing a little lift off oversteer they are completely predictable, very strange characteristics

I'd say that's exactly what mine felt like, apart from I'd lost a lot of progression from the rear when it started to break loose, even when my old tyres were down to the wear markers they I'd still say they had more grip.

Ill ly do some miles with it over the next few weeks as I've only just got the car back from having a new gearbox fitted. (Problem was there prior to the box been out)

 

[Glenn_Adam_Doble]

I'd say that's exactly what mine felt like, apart from I'd lost a lot of progression from the rear when it started to break loose, even when my old tyres were down to the wear markers they I'd still say they had more grip.

Ill ly do some miles with it over the next few weeks as I've only just got the car back from having a new gearbox fitted. (Problem was there prior to the box been out)

Sounds like your car is having the same issues as mine just had my gearbox done aswell

 

[ryan t]

My 200 felt exactly the same as your describing and I tried loads of things but found that my rear bearings where to blame, are your rear discs badly worn or still original ones?

 

[barwell1992]

My 200 felt exactly the same as your describing and I tried loads of things but found that my rear bearings where to blame, are your rear discs badly worn or still original ones?

There worn and original but not to bad, I'll check them for play. Car has just shy of 39000 on the clock

 

[CallorFold]

Eagle F1 on the fronts, Conti 5's on the rear (both XL too) - nothing but praise for both tyres must be something else at fault here