Anees

Right - drove the car for a while today while having to collect something from work and concentrated hard on how the car drove. 1. Car rolls alot when making quick direction changes - definetly more then it used to. (Hit some country roads) 2. Unstable on the motorway (like in a crosswind) as Tony mentioned before 3. Steering is abit numb and doesn't snap back as quick as it used to. It feels like its slow or delayed. On the plus side no matter how hard I pushed the car into the corners the rear end was stuck like glue! Should hopefully get the car on the ramp tomorrow at a garage but I am getting more and more convinced the tyres are to blame. Bit fed up with it all really.

Yeah - I was wheelspinning alot in the wet with the FK452's mate, the drop in performance and the fact that the rim protector is virtually not existant is what puts me off the FK-452 but I might still go back to them. Heard the Vredesteins affect fuel economy alot?

Anyone?

If it was Lexus Owners Club I could post up asking for a swap and normally some kind member would help out............ thats one thing I do miss.

I posted on BMW Land about this issue and I had a few responses - mostly mixed. @Tony - Tony does there seem to be a common denominator that determines if the tyres will work well on a car or not? Three positve replies were from a 5 series owner and the other two from an e90 330d Sport and e46 330D SE owners - both very happy with the tyres. The other suggestion was from a e90 330d owner that had been to WIM actaully - he said my geometry was in spec but not perfect - I would argue that my car is lower then his and on aftermarket suspension so mine won't be exactly by the book. What I really need to do is swap wheels and tyres with another BMW owner and see if there car with the tyres it has fixes the issue; problem is I don't know anyone that can help. I did ring Drury Lane today too and they were more then happy for me to bring it back in so they can take another look at it; but I'd like to try a different set of wheels and tyres first ideally.

Hi guys, Following on from this thread: http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=4185 and the issues I appear to be having with my Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics the concencious seems to be that the Goodyears are not good for heavy cars (my BMW Diesel weighs 1615Kg). I had the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta tyres on my Toyota Aristo (Supra engined 400bhp saloon) in 18" and they were great. Hardly ever broke traction and the steering felt good. If I have to change tyres I am considering the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta for my BMW diesel too since they worked well on the Aristo and thats an even heavier car then the BMW. Any futher feedback on these tyres? I did previously have Falken FK-452 on both the BMW and the Aristo and they were very good tyres but I am slightly apprehensive about going back to the Falkens because 1. The Rim Protector is virtually not existant 2. When they worn down to 4mm and below the performance dropped off big style. Saying that however I know they work well on the BMW.............

Cheers mate. They have a section on the top rated tyres by car. For a BMW e46 3 series it appears to be Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric. http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyres_For/BMW/E46-3-Series.htm I am going to post on BMWland and see if anyone else has had such isses. I will report back Anees

The things you describe are exactly what I would say I am experiencing. Another reason why I got these tyres was that they are/were impressive on another car I drive from time to time - a Honda S2000 where they just GRIP and GRIP and the turn in is fantastic; admitadly we are talking about totally different cars here and the S2000 weighs much less. EDIT: Had a look on www.BMWland.co.uk and the Goodyears seem to have some good reviews by both e46, e90 (3 series) and e60 (5 series) owners

Surely it can't be the tyres?? I have been out and checked the tyre pressures - they were slightly under inflated but now that I have changed them car doesn't really feel better. I am going to get my mates garage to just look over the car to see if they spot anything worn out - there shouldn't be since it has only just passed its MOT but you never know! Slightly off topic here, but: Is it possible to have the steering adjusted/setup so it is quicker and more direct? Thanks to Tony and other contributers to this thread so far for the valuable input.

Yes......... firs time ever. Previously I had Falken FK-452 which were recommended by many on the owners club. This time I fancied a change and the good reviews of the Goodyears and past good experience with goodyear tyres on my Lexus IS200 swayed me to try the Goodyear Asymmetrics. Maybe I need to play with the tyre pressures? I must confess I have not checked what the current tyre pressures in the car tyres are. According to the manufacturer they are supposed to be 34psi front and 42psi rear. I have always felt uncomfortable running such high pressures at the rear so on my Falkens I settled on 35psi front and 38psi rear.

My old wheels were not BMW wheels either. Old Wheels: Front 18x8.5 et40 Rear 18x9.5 et45 New Wheels Front 18x8 et40 Rear 18x9 et40 The new wheels are also light weight at only 9.5Kg per wheel which is around a 1.5- 2Kg saving per corner. So nothing obvious seems wrong with the geometry report then?

Nope - I did mention the weight and again they said it wasn't needed due to the stiff suspension. When someone climbed into the car to show me, the readings did not change. I also made sure I had a full tank of fuel and the underbonnet fluds were full.

Report Report attached (click to make it larger):

Yeah - strange one mate Just had a "camera-malfunction" when trying to take a picture of the report. Awaiting recharge.

Hi guys, My BMW 330D has been pampered in the last week or so with new staggered alloys 8" front and 9" rear, new Goodyear Assymetric tyres, replaced worn bushes etc. Car sailed through its MOT and I thought it was time to give the car a geometry check since it had been quite a while: Last Geometry http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=2016 Went for a check on Thursday at Drury Lane in Oldham. All went well so I thought; Paul @ Drury Lane talked me through what was being done. They adjusted Camber, Caster, Toe-in at both the front and rear of the car. I watched all these adjustments being done. I have been driving the car for a few days now and I am not happy with the front. The rear feels great - nice and planted but the front of the car is not so good. 1. More play in steering wheel which i don't like - I want steering to be more direct. 2. Steering feels loose 3. Front feels twitchy. 4. Steering does not "snap-back" as quickily as it used to. 5. Car does not feel planted. At Drury Lane they basically set the car to the default BMW settings; so I am unsure what the issue could be. I will post the report up when I get home, so hopefully someone can spot something. I have not had time to go back to them yet, but I will try to get back to see them on Wednesday during my lunch hour if I can. Thanks, Anees PS I might be coming down to London-way in the next week or so, so if possible I would love to get Tony to take a look at the Geometry setup.

Well done Bazza and Tony

Have always loved the S2000 (even Clarkson likes it! ) but apparently it can be tricky in the wet where as the MX5 is a more neutral and safer handling car. The S2000 is much faster however but the high reving engine might get tiresome?? Get her to drive them both and se which she prefers. Oh……. The S2000 is in the £400/year road tax band too I think and is a Group 20 car insurance wise.

WOW!!

what difference would fitting just a rear one, compared to front and rear? Not sure mate. Why would you do that anyway? Surely you would replace both front and rear?

Can you just check that all four tyres are the same size? A few people with 4 wheel drive cars have issues when fitting larger tyres on the rear without matching then up to the front.

If Roll is the big problem, then I think you have answered your own question - get some uprated AntiRoll bars

I will probably get beaten up for saying this, but what about some of the amazing diesel engines that are out now? Loads of torque, good levels of improved refinement and with a remap possible to get get good gains. I volunteer the BMW M57N which when it came out in 2003 was miles better then the equivalent Audi or Merc offerings. The new BMW diesel engines fitted into the 335d, 535d, 635d is also mightily impressive. Twin turbo diesel, 286bhp stock and then remappable quite safely to 340 - 350bhp and over 520ft/lb torque and will do 40mpg! Petrol wise I would say the Aristo/Supra 2JZ or the engine in the Skyline. The 2litre block in the Mitsubishi Evo range is impressive too.

As a pure observation I would say one is pretty slow and the other is fast! (Sorry Tony!) Looks really nice the 350Z. Quite a change from the Lexus must say!

Had the wheels balanced again today and the drivers side front and rears were both off and needed to be rebalanced, the car does drive better and the vibration is less. One worrying thing is that the rear wheels are a very tight fit onto the centre bore of the rear hubs; so much so that today when the balancing was being done the wheels had to be forced off. The bore is 60mm and the wheels (TTE mk1 GS300 Sport wheels 10" rear) are supposed to be 60mm. Should I be concerned? At least their is no chance of the wheels at the rear not being hub centric, but is them being too tight on the hub an issue too? Learnt that the wheel nuts on a GS300 should be torqued to 103NM Going to try and get the geometry settings done on Friday (leaving the car with them at lunchtime) hopefully. The car is lowered on 18" wheels (8.5" wide front and 10" wide rear) with a two finger gap between the top of the tyre and the wheel arch at both the front and rear of the car. What I would like to is sharpen up the steering if possible and make it return to the centre quicker; ideally also make the car more stable at high speed and stop wondering. I have replaced the steering rack bushes with recommended ones from Club Lexus and they have helped with the steering but I still have a "dead-zone" in the steering but not as much as before. Will the standard Aristo stock geometry settings work for me or will I need custom settings? Thanks, Anees

Yay!! I should stop listening to people that give me over the top advice. I must admit I wasn't sure about corner weighting......... Going slightly off topic here, but can the steering be sharpened up and be made more responsive through geometry?