Tire-related mistakes

The time has come when cars have quite serious computers on board. Undoubtedly, this is for the better. Most systems significantly improve the car's performance. Today, we will discuss cases where the car literally rejects new tires, illustrating this with various errors.

Assistant systems have proven themselves well in the business and forgive a lot of mistakes on the road. The long-known ABS (anti-lock braking system) does not allow the wheels to fully lock up when braking, significantly reducing the braking distance. ESP (Electronic Stability Program) determines the moment of skidding. In other words, the electronics will detect the difference between the wheel rotation speeds and brake a specific wheel/wheels, and the car will stabilize. As a rule, the more expensive the car, the more complex and richer the assistant system.

At first glance, it's not entirely clear what tires have to do with it. Tires can only be related to warnings about loss of pressure. Not at all. But tires directly affect how safety systems behave. The most common problem is when, after installing new tires, the car starts to behave strangely on the road. We're not talking about the trivial wheel rubbing against the car's elements, but rather fairly dangerous situations. For example, when overtaking and moving into the adjacent lane, ESP turns on and the car starts to slow down. This is not only untimely but also extremely dangerous.

The reason for this is that the car does not understand the behavior of the tire. We're not even talking about a size mismatch, but often it's related to a design mismatch. A good example is the mismatch of tires for BMW. As you know, cars of this brand are equipped with self-supporting tires of the RUN FLAT system. Thanks to these tires, you can continue driving even on tires without pressure, essentially on the sidewalls. The sidewalls are capable of carrying the full load of the car due to special reinforcing inserts. It's clear that tires of this design differ significantly from ordinary tires where the sidewall can be easily bent by hand.

The reason the car starts to go crazy during sharp maneuvers at speed is that it perceives the bending of a softer "ordinary" sidewall as the beginning of skidding and turns on the ESP system.

How to avoid this? Try to choose tires with homologations for your car. Often this applies to luxury cars and sports cars.