Dodgy tyres?

[Trajara]

The missus ended up facing the wrong way on a roundabout this morning on her way to work, she really was taking it easy too as the back end has been twitchy on a couple of ocassions before in the wet.
The tyres that are currently on the car are:
Front - Matrac XM 185/55/R15 82V
Rear - Triangle Talon Sport 205/50/R15 86V
The tyres were already on the car when we bought it.
Tyre pressures are correct however I've no idea if these tyres are good bad or indifferent, but one things for sure it certainly doesn't hold the road in the wet which is very worrying.
The Toyo T1-R tyres seem to have a good following on here, should they be what i'm aiming for?
Any advice is greatly appreciated as I dont want to spend a few hundred quid on the wrong tyres and be no better off.

[AmeR]

Never heard of those tyres personally.

Toyos have a good following but there are plenty of opinions and options depending on your needs. A good place to start is probably here:  m http://mr2roc.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php? ... 633a2cc2f0 m  (Tyre Reviews sticky at the top of Performance)

Hope that helps. I would advise that, especially with the poor weather, a change of tyres really could transform the car and potentially remove the twitchiness (given there are no other issues underlying).

There's also plenty of info about on tyre pressures (for various tyres), alignments, car setups etc. Definitely worth a search up top.

[dj2k21]

Try 215 on the rear, the toyo tyres are amazing in the dry but are basically road legal track tyres, I would opt for the Pirelli pzero as a lot of high end cars have them standard and I know my mr2 did too. Also get the rear bushes checked as that can cause the same thing as I found out when my back end was stepping out in the wet too. The bushes are pretty cheap. Good luck.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[redcarblackhorse]

I had Yokos on for a while and they were really grippy but wore quickly (bought a set of wheels from a mate which had them on) but now I am back to the tyres (and alloys) that came with the car. They are what I call budget tyres and in the wet the car is more tail happy and I can not wait till I get them changed for a decent set again. It the dry they are fine.

[stargazer30]

Op,

Your story is exactly what happened to me the 2nd week after I bought my first MR2.  In my case I had mismtached budget tyres, I replaced them with 4 x bridgestones and all has been well since.   Yours sound like cheapos as we have not heard of them.

Best advice is pick a decent mid range or name brand thats known on here and replace all four corners with the same make/model before the winter sets in.  It will only get worse as the temps drop and we get more rain.

Other stuff also worth a check - tyre pressures you said they are correct but you do know MR2 run lower PSi front than rear right (26/32 IIRC)
Geometry - £40 to get that checked, more likely to be tyres but if you have not had the car long, maybe it had a previous spin and knocked it out?

[Trajara]

Many thanks for the comments/advice it's a great help.

[loadswine]

Welcome, and just to clarify Toyo T1R tyres are NOT road legal track tyres, but a fairly decent and reasonably priced tyre that a lot have found work well with the Roadster. They can take up to 1000 miles to give up their best grip and be free of the release agent from when they are manufactured.
Camskill seem to have them at pretty decent prices, if that helps at all.

[alfajerry]

Matrac? Triangle?
Please get that crap off the car before you kill yourself.

[markiii]

problem 1  sshit shit sshit  tyres

problem 2 you have different  sshit shit sshit  tyres front to back

[frogger]

Try 215 on the rear, the toyo tyres are amazing in the dry but are basically road legal track tyres

As noted by loadsawine, this comment is BS.   Toyo T1R's are well known as fantastic all rounder tyres in dry + wet, especially in wet.
Perhaps your thinking of the Toyo 888's.

The 'try 215' comment is also not well founded.

The tyres you have are the right size, they are just dangerously crap brands with no grip whatsoever.

Get 4 x good brand name tyres in the same sizes you have now, and regularly check the pressures.

Matrac? Triangle?
Please get that crap off the car before you kill yourself.

+1

problem 1 **** tyres

problem 2 you have different **** tyres front to back

In this instance problem 2 probably is minor, as both compounds have the friction coefficient of an eel in a bathtab of castrol

[Trajara]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I have learned a great deal today for sure!

Tomorrow I will be ringing round for the best deal on 4 new branded tyres!

[Wabbitkilla]

Check mytyres.co.UK and blackcircles, they both have some discounts going at the moment  s;-) ;-) s;-)

from a planet somewhere nearby

[frogger]

and camskill.  For me camskill have routinely come out on top on price compared to the above.

[Anonymous]

I can only echo what has already been said by the experienced,well respected members above.  s:D s:D

[Anonymous]

 m http://tyresavings.com/ m  

Worth trying here too. They were cheapest fully fitted price for standard tyres for my facelift Bridgestone recently.

[Trajara]

I've ordered 4 new Toyo T1-R's and they are being fitted tomorrow.

Many thanks for the help & advice, I will let you know how we get on with them.

[roger]

Well done, good decision made. Just remember the advice to take it easy for the first 500/1000 miles to get rid of the release agent.

[2 of the left]

I've ordered 4 new Toyo T1-R's and they are being fitted tomorrow.

Many thanks for the help & advice, I will let you know how we get on with them.

For pressures - Try 26 psi fronts - 36 psi rears - The reponse from the 2 is terrific!!

[Trajara]

Well the new tyres are on and I have to say the difference already is quite amazing! Not been out in heavy rain yet but certainly so far so good in light rain.

While talking to the guy in the tyre place he said "See how you get on with these and if they don't work we will see what else we can try"! really! at £300 a time (for 4 tyres) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they stick like "Sh*t to a blanket"   s:D s:D  

Thanks for all the help and advice.

[StuC]

Just remember the advice to take it easy for the first 500/1000 miles to get rid of the release agent.

Please heed this warning, especially in the wet stuff  :-) :-) :-)