Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

[GuardianSix]

Alright, when I first bought my G6 one thing I loved was the 'loose' feeling that made the car feel like it was light on it's feet and yet still able to go in a straight line and grip the road on turns or on bumpy roads/interstate. Recently though, I've noticed that it seems like the car has lost a massive amount of grip. If it sprinkles just a few drops of rain, going from 0 to start with anything more than a literal feather touch makes the wheels spin, the TC light come on, and the back end start to kick out. When I'm on interstate, I can't stay in a straight line to save my life and I've tried holding the wheel from every single angle with grips from very light to deathgrip. When I'm going around turns it feels like the car is just going to let go and the back end will just slide from behind me. For some reason, it just seems like the car has little to no grip anymore. The dealership says that the tires have full traction still, they rotated the tires, and say there is nothing wrong with the suspension and the car passed inspection.

I currently have the stock "Optimo" tires that came with the car when I bought it. It now has 16,xxx miles on it and on a slightly different note I had to call AAA this morning to come get the car, because the hood was smoking and it smelled like something was burning along with the engine sounding very very different (sounded like something was loose or rattling, but I'm not certain on that. It was just a very different sound).


So, my question is: If I buy new tires (I can't afford new rims AND tires), will the car have a better grip and will I be able to actually stay in a straight line? I'm not liking having to say "Hmm, the tops of those trees are moving, guess I'll wait to drive for a bit". Any advice or ideas?

[datexasdude]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

stock tires suck, new "different" tires would make a difference

[standfast]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

stock tires suck, new "different" tires would make a difference

My Goodyears that came with the car are not great, that's for sure, at the roughly 16000 mile mark. I don't have quite the same issues as noted above but traction stinks.

[WhiteSedanMan]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

I have wondered about one of those problems too.

I find when going through a bend in the highway, if i go over a bump or crack in the road, it feels like the back end is going to let out.

I've always wondered why that happened

[VigilantMachine]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

I had to call AAA this morning to come get the car, because the hood was smoking and it smelled like something was burning along with the engine sounding very very different

Wow... did you find out where the smoke was coming from?

[GuardianSix]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Nothing yet. I had to go to my college classes, so I borrowed my mom's car (Ford Five-Hundred) and they will find out what's wrong and I'll call them later to find out. I won't get home until about 4-5pm tonight though, so that's about when I'll know what's going on. I have no idea right now, but hopefully it isn't something that can't be fixed

[popsicle]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Take a look on tirerack.com or something and look through the reviews, then you'll have a better idea for a good tire and a cost.

[Dubbzzz]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

yea, try tirerack. I bet if you get new tires, you'll be set. Hold off the rims and invest in some deeeecent tires first...IMO

[Dextar]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Did you beat the hell out of the car since you bought it? From the way you're speaking it sounds like you are a very spirited driver, which will wear very very quickly on a car. It also can be due to you getting used to the car.. go drive a slower car for a while and then come back to your 6, it'll feel like new.

[GuardianSix]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Alright, just got home (hurray for 15.5 hour days !!) and found out what's going on.

1. There are a lot of recent potholes on some of the roads I drive everyday. They are fixing them and apparently since it was kinda fresh, somehow my car kicked up some "tar like substance and some pebbles" that all got thrown up into the "engine area", which is why it started smelling from that area, smoking from that area, and why it sounded why there was something 'rattling'.

2. They cleaned it all up and actually did some sort of washing thing to the entire underbody of the car to make sure everything was clear and they also checked suspension and tires and such to make sure the potholes didn't cause any damage (they are huge potholes).

3. I was driving my mom's car, which is a 6speed, and after coming back to my car (I got it back not too long ago today) it seemed like the car was a bit more sturdy. I still noticed some 'sloppiness', but part of that was just me being tired.

4. I am going to buy some new tires and wait on the rims, because after driving the car today I am completely convinced that it is simply the stock tires that are worn in (had the car for almost a year and 16.3k miles on it, a lot of which is stop-and-go instate traffic and newport news and norfolk traffic, which is bad).

5. I am a 'spirited' driver in the sense that I'm not going to go from 0-60 at half the speed of smell, but I'm not a racing driver in the sense that I don't floor it at every light and then slam on the brakes. I will admit there are times where I've needed to accelerate quickly and then let up quickly due to a change in traffic and those times when I let up it seems like the car 'hicups' or something, so I believe that along with the milage on the car and the type of miles it's been has aided in wearing the stock tires perhaps a bit quicker than normal. I partly attribute my 'spirited' nature to the fact that I was used to driving a Vette for a while ... didn't race it, but Vettes are meant to be DRIVEN not driven.


So, that's the update. If anyone has gotten good tires from tirerack that they would recommend I would be fully open to suggestions. So far I've checked out some of them, but I don't think I'd be able to afford anything above $500 for all four tires. I might be able to get up $600, but above that would be past what I could do.

[VigilantMachine]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Glad to hear no serious damage was done. Hope they didn't charge you much too check it out.

[GuardianSix]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

They actually didn't charge anything for any of it :-)

Also, I was doing some research and I think I am going to get Goodyear Eagle GT tires from tirerack. Anyone used these on their car? The thing I liked was the reviews saying they were excellent on both dry -and- wet roads, which is something that I definitely need. We don't get snow or ice barely ever, but we do get rain (mostly light rain) quite a bit. Also it stated that 'steering response' was good and I think perhaps the not being able to keep the car in a straight line and going sloppy is due to the Optimo tires ... which got bad reviews on them. So, the Eagle GTs are $114 each, which isn't too much and yet not the cheapest stuff and my parents have used them before and liked them. I'll post later if/when I get them/get them on.

[WhiteSedanMan]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

I actually have Goodyear Eagle tires on mine.
They are stock on the Solstice, which i have the wheels from.



I'm not sure if they are the exact same ones you are looking at or not.
They are decent, but i havent really had much to compare them to.

[Sticks07GTP]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Those are the RS-A's.

[WhiteSedanMan]

Re: Sloppy handling - Need better tires?

Those are the RS-A's.

Yeah, probably not quite as good as the GT's