Car aquaplaning on corners & roundabouts

[librarylogin2012]

Anyone else had this? I am the proud new owner of a Peugeot 206 cc, but it slides very easily and has a habit of aquaplaning on corners and roundabouts. Tonight it aquaplaned as I moved from the left to the right hand lane of a dual carriageway. I wasn't even doing 40mph and the roads were wet but only a bit., I failed to control the slide and the car crashed up the kerb, over the central reservation and came to a stop on the opposite carriageway.

[Artermis]

Well... sorry to hear you've had a crash. First and foremost I hope you are safe and unhurt.

You're certainly going to want to check your car over for crash damage as 40mph is decent speed to be impacting things like kerb stones. You are going to want to check that you've not bent or damaged any of the alloy wheels and that the suspension control arms are still in alignment. In your scenario I would recommend getting this checked professionally. Most tyre garages will do this for you - explain your situation to them.

Re your traction issues.

I would start by suggesting that you were not likely to be aquaplaning. That typically requires a dangerous blend of speed and standing water - like very heavy rain or a flooded road surface (inc puddles). Aquaplaning occurs when the car travels fast enough that it no longer cuts through the water and instead rides on top of it. Aquaplaning is avoidable by driving at a safe speed for the road conditions - on the assumption you have an otherwise healthy and roadworthy vehicle. If as you say it was a damp road at 40mph i dont think the conditions are right for aquaplaning.

Consider looking out for shiny / rainbow patterns on the road - if a lorry spills some diesel or something leaks a bit of oil down mixed with some water it is worse than ice and you'd not stand a hope in hell if you spin out on that.

It does sound like you have a wayward handling issue though, so I am concerned that you potentially have an unsafe car - so please consider carefully before you drive. Even on a damp/wet road, in a straight line you really shouldn't be spinning off into oncoming traffic at 40mph. I don't want to scare you, I want you to be safe!

I'd like you to get several things checked out - some of which I've mention above since you've had a crash anyway.

The first thing to check is the tyres. I want you to check that firstly you have a good all weathers tyre on there. You don't want to be running a summer tyre on wet winter roads, as your grip level will be compromised. There are a lot of Chinese brand tyres out there too - they're not always the best, so you ideally want to have a branded budget tyre.

Check the tread depth on the tyre - worn tyres won't be as efficient at clearing water as new ones. Most tyres have tread depth markers, lumps in the grooves of the tyre. If these lumps are at or very close to the surface of the tyre, it's time to replace. Other tyres have coloured lines in the tread, when the coloured lines show, time to replace.

If you've been experiencing vibration from any of the wheels (you'd feel rear vibration through the seat and front vibration through the steering wheel) then have your wheel balance checked. It may be that if you've crashed and buckled the wheel that this will need repair and rebalance anyway.

Make sure you turn the wheel so that you can see the full width of the tyre when you check. You're looking to see if you have any uneven wear across the tyre's width. Wearing more on the inside or outside edge compared to the other suggests the wheel's alignment is wrong - which can cause instability in the car.

As I've said above, have the suspension inspected. Worn suspension bushes and ball joints can lead to play in the suspension arms, allowing the arms to move more freely and to greater extent. This again will diminish the handling capabilities of the car and mess with wheel alignment. Suspension arms can easily be bent in a crash too - so physical damage to the arm should be checked.

Lastly, pending any necessary repair or adjustment from the above, have a four wheel alignment done. The biggest affect on handling will be alignment issue. Part of me wants to say this is your likely culprit but it's all interlinked and this is the last segment of the chain. If any of the above isn't right - there is no point doing this bit until it's resolved.

Something you may wish to consider if you're newer to driving is a skid pan driving course. It might help with confidence following your incident if it's made you nervous and they're not massively expensive - a bit of fun too!

[IanL]

Goodyear Eagle F1 tires - nothing to beat them!

[gazza82]

Nothing wrong with summer tyres on wet roads as long as long as they have good tread and aren't cheap ditch-finders.

Don't make the mistake of thinking winter tyres are the answer ... they only work properly when the temps are below about 1C then it's not wet that's the issue ... it's frozen wet.

The CC is quite light at the rear so it's easy to get it to slide.

My guess is worn tyres and/or cheap tyres which are too hard and don't grip. If you are going to replace them to sell a car you don't generally by the best .... and dealers don't either.

[Capncol]

I've driven wifes car in horrendous conditions without any problems so it's not really a trait with the model. Good points made by the above posters, suggest you follow advice given.

[Artermis]

Goodyear Eagle F1 tires - nothing to beat them!

I had some of them on the front of my Alfa GTA five or six years ago - I wasn't impressed. The darn things were noisy as hell and squealed up if it broke traction, which it seemed to do too easily. It was LSD too so it would break traction on both fronts. They were finished in a nats over 5,500 miles.

Ended up replacing them with Bridgestone Potenza RE050A - they did defy physics.

[IanL]

I'm surprised to hear that. I have them on a Suzuki Cappuccino and a 206CC, and they don't do that at all. Just corner on rails and are lasting very well.

Did you perhaps have the front alignment adjusted when you had the new tyres fitted? That would make the difference.

[gazza82]

Been running Hankook Evo 2s on the daughter's CC and they were great rain or shine.

[Artermis]

I'm surprised to hear that. I have them on a Suzuki Cappuccino and a 206CC, and they don't do that at all. Just corner on rails and are lasting very well.

Did you perhaps have the front alignment adjusted when you had the new tyres fitted? That would make the difference.

Yep it was straight as an arrow. The GTA is a different beast entirely vs a 206 mind, so it is horses for courses. It was a few years back now too so the compounds and tread patterns may have evolved since.