V70 Tramlining - poll

Hmmm!

Back when I started this thread, I had Goodyears fitted to the front, but the rears were still Pirelli. The Goodyears have lasted just 6 months before needing to be replaced (which was done in December). At a guesstimate they lasted 6k-8k miles! How appalling is that? I don't (IMHO!) drive particularly hard, although I do live fairly close to the middle of nowhere & so most of my trips are on small, winding roads.

The upshot is that I'm going to try Michelin Pilot Primacy next, as they're supposed to be harder-wearing & Honest John (Daily Telegraph) recommends them. I'll take advice from my dealer as to which end to stick them on & report back!

Tinpusher.

[Oli]

Originally Posted by Tinpusher

Hmmm!

Back when I started this thread, I had Goodyears fitted to the front, but the rears were still Pirelli. The Goodyears have lasted just 6 months before needing to be replaced (which was done in December). At a guesstimate they lasted 6k-8k miles! How appalling is that? I don't (IMHO!) drive particularly hard, although I do live fairly close to the middle of nowhere & so most of my trips are on small, winding roads.

The upshot is that I'm going to try Michelin Pilot Primacy next, as they're supposed to be harder-wearing & Honest John (Daily Telegraph) recommends them. I'll take advice from my dealer as to which end to stick them on & report back!

Tinpusher.

Thanks for the update,

I may have to change my tyres early due to a very slow and unrepairable puncture on one of them (AWD so have to keep them all to withing 2mm tread of each other) and was seriously considering the Goodyears. But may well have changed my mind now.

Currently I've got Michelin Pilot Exalto 2s. They've done 16,000 miles and still have over 4mm tread left. They were £125 each. Mytyres has them for £112 at the moment (that's for 215/45/17 91W XL). I would definately get them again, if the AWD allowed one tyre to be replaced if needed. Therefore am looking at cheaper options.

This tyre is excellent, the grip and feel are very good indeed, and the wear rate has been very good.

Simlar price to the Primacy, but much better reviews. Have a look at www.tirerack.com for comparitive tests and consumer survey results. Really good US site.

Anybody got a view on the BF Goodrich GForce Profiler?

Cheers

Oli

Hey Olli

Having calmed down (& forked out £266 for the Michelins today!) I have to say that the tracking was way out. Now I'm not one for hitting kerbs (much, anyway) so I'm inclined to put it down to speed bumps & the general state of the roads round here.

Anyway, now I have the Michelins on the front & Goodyears on the back! Watch this space....!

[Oli]

Tinpusher

How you getting on with the new tyres, did you get the PE2s?

Oli

[TimC]

Originally Posted by Hilton

Last week I was able to do a very interesting comparison between my MY05 V70 2.4, and a MY06 v70 D5 courtesy car. While my 2.4 continues to suffer no tramlining symptoms at all, the D5 was surprisingly unstable on grooved surfaces caused by HGV tracks. Both cars are shod with P6000 Powergy tyres and yet I was shocked by the handling of the D5 , which I found quite un-nerving especially in the narrow contraflow sections in our area. I was able to compare the 2 cars on the same sections of road. Given that the D5 had covered only 9000 mls - mine has done 23000 mls - I wonder if the difference could be caused by the front end weight of the cars or possibly trye pressures. I just pray that my car does not degrade in the same way. The service receptionist was quite dismissive when I mentioned the symptom, and claimed that this was quite a common problem, and implied this was a design problem with the V70. Curiouser and curiouser !

I own an '02 T5, and I'm buying an '05 T5, hence I've done quite a bit of driving of various V70s recently. My experience is that the make of tyre is less important than the tyre pressures and steering set up (tracking, toe-in etc). That, I suspect, is why so many people are reporting that, on changing to tyre 'X', things have dramatically improved - mainly because the fitters have set the pressures correctly and may well have adjusted the tracking and toe-in!

My '02 T5 has 17" Thors with 225/45/17 P6000s on, fitted last Autumn and now about 7000 miles on. There is 5mm tread left on the fronts, and 7mm on the rears. I've noticed that, if the pressures reduce below 32 psi, the tramlining worsens. Th '05 T5 I'm buying has 235/40/18 Pirelli Pzero Corsas on 18" Nebula wheels. You might expect these wider, lower-profile tyres to tramline more noticeably than the P6000s, but in fact they're slightly better. They're also a lot more expensive...

[Engineer]

While not wanting to teach anybody to suck eggs tramlining affects all cars and depends on vehicle design, the road surface, driving conditions, speeds and braking forces etc. but solid suspension bushes in the TCA’s such as fitted on P1 R’s are a must have IMHO, not the soggy ones or at least make sure what you have got are in good condition, passing an MOT doesn’t mean they are.

If the TCA’s are not walking all over the road and your steering, stabiliser bars, dampers & springs are in good condition then consider having a professional 4 wheel alignment done by someone who knows what they are doing and at the same time consider your toe / camber settings which are dependant on most of the above.

1mm toe in each side front for the road and standard on the rear / camber all round works ok on my S70R. I appreciate the rear toe (4 wheel alignment can compensate for this though) and camber is not adjustable on all Volvo models. Another thing to consider are the rear control arms, if these are wandering all over the road as well then your straight line stability will suffer independent of how well your front end is planted.

Obviously very worn tyres although legal will loose traction and tend to tramline anyway due to the wear patterns induced by the suspension design (not buffed for track use) but even so these adjustments and mods can all help keep the car pointing the right way, it’s not just about the make of the tyre, profile, size fitted or pressures you run.

My current tyres are 225/35x18 Goodyear F1’s, previous were Pirelli P Zero 205/45x17. Both when new (the Goodyear’s still are) tracked great and the Pirelli’s when half worn still did, it was only when down to the minimum although still predictable that the Pirelli’s got scrappy on wet / dodgy road surfaces

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[michron11]

got rid of my p6000's on the front of my V70 D5 geartronic which were worn down to 2.5mm and tramlined like mad,as when i got the car from maindealer pressures were 36 psi not much tramlining but as book says that 32psi is recomended below 100mph i reduced.well the car was all over place. so now had new tyres conti sport 2's and had laser four wheel alinement and set pressures at 34 psi now drives brill and only when on m25 with great lorry ruts do i notice any thing.but then 225 45 17 and wider i would expect some problems on heavily used hgv roads.


hope this helps some of you out there

Mike V70 D5 geartronic rica sports upgrade

[Arthur30]

I know everyone is gonna think I'm thick but what the hell is tramlining? Yuo'd be surrprised as to what I know and wonder why of all things I don't know what tramlining is. Moon Head springs to mind.

[mrc1501]

I used to have Pirelli PZero's fitted on my Comet 17'' wheels, profile 205/45 17, but changed all of them to Michelin Pilot Sports, again with the profile 205/45/17.

I chose the Michelins purely because they had a bead on the tyre which would protect the wheel rim when curbing, etc. I have found these tyres to suffer from road noise, more than the Pirellis, but are quite hard wearing.

One thing that I find interesting reading through these threads, especially with the 17 inch wheels, are the larger width tyres (215 and 225) that some owners have fitted.

If these profiles are fitted to the 7J wheels, like mine, then this can increase the effects of tramlining irrespective of tyre compound/tread pattern.

Are these wider tyres fitted to the 7J wheel??

One other point....has anyone tried fitting directional tyres to their wheels, and if so, does the car still tramline??

Many thanks

Darren

V70R Saffron

[marlboro]

Tramlining is caused by the condition of the road surface.

Anyone who has ever riden a Bike, motorcycle, will know what I mean.

Basically heavy goods vehicles over time deform the tarmac.

Bottom line: Our roads are poorly made.