Loss of Control

[stewie1953]

Had a scare yesterday, coming down an onto a motorway ramp and accelerating up to merge at 70mph with a slight left turning motion. Before I could merge the right hand side of the car lost traction and started fish tailing. It was dry, just a slight turning motion on the wheel but it gave me a scare. I recovered but that's the fastest I've been travelling when that happened. I've had similar at slower speeds when applying a turning motion at slower speeds and the back has kicked out.
Is it the stock Chinese tyres or is there something wrong with the handling I should contact the Garage about?
Thanks!

Reading your query and some of the responses, I am somewhat surprised at this event. I've had my MG4 SE for a year now with none of these issues. The car came with High spec Continental tyres and I run them at 3.0 BAR when cold. I find that they perform better than the standard pressures. I had issues with the Nissan Leaf whereby I ran those tyres 0.3 BAR above recommended as the tyres were wearing more on the outside than the middle. My 4 has done 14000 miles and the tread wear is perfect. I hope this helps in some way.

 

[Davn]

I'd agree the Continental tyres fitted to mine are not that bad even after 20k miles. My only thinking on this is that one wheel was on the white line and lost traction, I've had this even with front wheel drive cars.

 

[Tuareg]

Isn't that situation where traction control gets activated?

 

[fnegroni]

Isn't that situation where traction control gets activated?

Yes. And having done several advanced driving courses, the best course of action is to keep accelerating or gently letting go, no sudden deceleration

 

[Tuareg]

So with traction control activated, there should be no 'loss of control'.

 

[fnegroni]

So with traction control activated, there should be no 'loss of control'.

Traction control and stability control are not the same thing.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes. And having done several advanced driving courses, the best course of action is to keep accelerating or gently letting go, no sudden deceleration

With fishtailing, do you mean? My instinct was to take my foot off the accelerator, and the car sorted itself out OK, but I could do with some hints and tips in case it happens again.

 

[Kithmo]

With fishtailing, do you mean? My instinct was to take my foot off the accelerator, and the car sorted itself out OK, but I could do with some hints and tips in case it happens again.

That's exactly the right thing to do, with rwd when the back swings out or front wheel drive when it's understeering.

 

[Rolfe]

Ah well, my instincts seem sound in this instance.