Loss of Control

[regnak23]

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!

 

[Ian Key]

What are your tyre pressures?

 

[AndyL61]

The standard tyres aren't the best but I don't think they're that bad either. Certainly when it's dry I have never had a cause for concern. EV's have instant torque and do accelerate extremely quickly, if there was diesel or similar liquid just where you accelerated then that could cause what you are describing. Lorries can occasionally drop diesel which is extremely difficult to see.

 

[tsedge]

Ice?

 

[Rolfe]

It's not been that cold even in Scotland, I doubt there would be ice in Dublin.

 

[tsedge]

It's not been that cold even in Scotland, I doubt there would be ice in Dublin.

It was icy on the way home from Southampton yesterday - my ice warning was going off a lot.

The weather does vary a lot across these isles.

 

[Alb]

Difficult to diagnose from a single incident.
Tyre pressure and condition is something you can easily check for yourself but there may have been something wrong with the road surface such as a diesel spill. I think the car gives a low temperature warning at something like +4°C.

 

[Rolfe]

It was icy on the way home from Southampton yesterday - my ice warning was going off a lot.

The weather does vary a lot across these isles.

I suppose so, and I've been getting the ice warning too, but it goes off at 4 degrees and there's never significant ice at that temperature. It's a couple of weeks since I was seeing -5, and thought there was a real danger.

 

[regnak23]

It was warm enough around 12°C. Might have been something on the surface itself I couldn't see all right. I'm considering new tyres just for my own confidence but might hold off a while longer and see. The car feels rock solid except when it doesn't! Thanks everyone!

 

[fnegroni]

The stock tyres are low rolling resistance and are on the cheaper end of the scale. They can get overwhelmed more easily than I’d wish for, especially if the surface is a bit compromised.
I’m not surprised about what happened to you as it might well happen to me.
I was driving my other car over the weekend and it reminded me of how good the Michelin cross climate 2 are. And how skittish the stock tyres are in comparison.
Having said all that, the stock tyres aren’t as bad as some other tyres I’ve had in the past; unfortunately they take a bit of getting used to.
I purposefully didn’t change them over winter to see how good/bad they were going to be. Luckily they have been ok so far, but have a tendency to feel a bit floaty at speed and really benefit from lower pressures: having tried 2.5 bar cold and 2.4 bar cold in a variety of situations, I am pretty positive even just 2 psi less than the manufacturers recommended pressure benefits this tyre greatly.

 

[SimonS]

EVs give you way more torque more quickly than ice cars and it can surprise you very quickly. Even more so if you are not used to rear wheel drive. It still catches me out if I try to accelerate a bit too quickly while turning and I’ve been driving RWD for the last 20+ years.

 

[QLeo]

It was warm enough around 12°C. Might have been something on the surface itself I couldn't see alright. I'm considering new tyres just for my own confidence but might hold off a while longer and see. The car feels rock solid except when it doesn't! Thanks everyone!

We replaced the factory tyres with all seasons, and the car is now far more certain. I noticed even at low speeds going across cattle grids, common around here, that the car really liked to wander, even when apparently not accelerating. But there's another thing we found out. We were careful in reasonably slippery conditions to be a little porky on the accelerator, but if regen is turned up, that can easily catch you out. One would never brake if conditions were slippery, but if regen is dialled up, the effect might be the same.

 

[richlove]

We replaced the factory tyres with all seasons, and the car is now far more certain. I noticed even at low speeds going across cattle grids, common around here, that the car really liked to wander, even when apparently not accelerating. But there's another thing we found out. We were careful in reasonably slippery conditions to be a little porky on the accelerator, but if regen is turned up, that can easily catch you out. One would never brake if conditions were slippery, but if regen is dialled up, the effect might be the same.

Noticed that also on cattle grids. I think the stock tyres are pretty horrendous, they seem quite binary off/on in terms of grip, not particularly progressive or predictable

 

[Rolfe]

We replaced the factory tyres with all seasons, and the car is now far more certain. I noticed even at low speeds going across cattle grids, common around here, that the car really liked to wander, even when apparently not accelerating. But there's another thing we found out. We were careful in reasonably slippery conditions to be a little porky on the accelerator, but if regen is turned up, that can easily catch you out. One would never brake if conditions were slippery, but if regen is dialled up, the effect might be the same.

As you know, I copied you. I have had way too much trouble with tyres in Scottish winters in the past, culminating in my Golf GTi which was like Bambi on an ice rink. He turned into a quasi Land Rover with proper winter tyres.

I wasn't willing to take the risk on the stock tyres on the MG4. As it happens this winter hasn't been too bad (as yet) and maybe I'd have got away with it, but it's not worth it. Since I'm now on all-seasons rather than actual winter tyres I'll wait and see how I get on in the summer. My garage man said, keep the stock tyres in case you do want to change back, so they're still in my garage, but I may put them up for sale if the all-seasons do what it says on the tin.

 

[regnak23]

Decided to pull the trigger on 4 x new Michelin CrossClimate 2 tyres and see how they fare. Will go easy with the foot in the meantime!!!

 

[Kithmo]

Since my tyres had bedded in, I find the 4 a lot more grippy than the ZS was.
I've had no incidents accelerating hard off roundabouts on damp roads where the ZS would have under steered if pushed.
ZS had Michelin Primacys as does the 4

 

[Rolfe]

I had a fish-tailing episode (in the stock tyres) when accelerating hard off a roundabout while overtaking White Van Man. Slightly disconcerting.

 

[Deleted member 16414]

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!

Hi I from the uk I didn't understand that's at all can u please put it I to words I understand please I understand everyone got a way of saying thi things but we all don't understand this

 

[Mike01Hu]

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!

A not uncommon issue with EV's with a bit of power, like the MG4. High torque is available throughout the speed range, a characteristic of electric motors, so hitting the acceleration can unstick the wheels at almost any speed. Therefore, a lighter approach to acceleration is needed. In this case, I suspect there may have been a diesel spillage to initiate the problem.

 

[Rolfe]

My dealer actually warned me about this when I picked up the car. He said it wasn't dangerous but be aware, as it's a rear wheel drive.