New tyres activate VDC

seejay · Post by **seejay** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:13 pm

Hi all. I have just replaced my rear Toyo T1r tyres with Toyo C1s. but now the VDC keeps cutting in on corners,.I know that sometimes that new tyres need to be scrubbed in but I have never had it activate the VDC. The tyres feel a bit twitchy with the system turned off. I still have Toyo T1r tyres on the front. I have no complaint with the Toyo tyres,but am at a loss to as why the system is coming on. Should I just wait a few Ks for the tyres to scrub up. The tyres are all standard size 225/45/18 F and 245/45/18 R,
Any ideas

BRONZEE · Post by **BRONZEE** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:26 pm

seejay wrote:Hi all. I have just replaced my rear Toyo T1r tyres with Toyo C1s. but now the VDC keeps cutting in on corners,.I know that sometimes that new tyres need to be scrubbed in but I have never had it activate the VDC. The tyres feel a bit twitchy with the system turned off. I still have Toyo T1r tyres on the front. I have no complaint with the Toyo tyres,but am at a loss to as why the system is coming on. Should I just wait a few Ks for the tyres to scrub up. The tyres are all standard size 225/45/18 F and 245/45/18 R,
Any ideas

Tyres make a huge difference. Personally I'd run the same tyres on all four corners, so you're dealing with the same behaviour, tread pattern, water pumping ability, stickiness, sidewall rigidity etc.
I've not driven a 350 with C1's on, so can't comment on those tyres.

For example, running the stock Bridgestone Potenza's RE040 (that came on the cars new), you can upset the VDC/TCS extremely easily. Changed to the, Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3, hardly saw the christmas tree light up, then moved onto Yokohama Advan Sport V103 - you really need to be pushing the car before you'll see a christmas tree. Tyres are really important.

Driven lots of 350's with all sorts of tyres, some good, some absolutely horrible.

BRONZEE · Post by **BRONZEE** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:35 pm

http://www.toyo.co.nz/tyres.php?Category=UHP Found them.

seejay · Post by **seejay** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:45 pm

I will put them on the front to match,but the fronts still have a bit of life left in em. I just wanted to try a different tyre,I found the T1Rs quite noisey and only lasted 20 K

BRONZEE · Post by **BRONZEE** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:56 am

seejay wrote:I will put them on the front to match,but the fronts still have a bit of life left in em. I just wanted to try a different tyre,I found the T1Rs quite noisey and only lasted 20 K

Don't forget our cars are quite heavy, and also it depends how you drive. Some tyres last longer, harder compound, but might not be as sticky. I've found with the Z's I've driven that have the Toyo's on, the sidewalls are a bit soft for my liking, but then that's an individual thing.

The Potenza's both the RE040 & RE050 are both quite noisy too, in the future you're looking at tyres again.

netrover · Post by **netrover** » Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:20 am

When I got mine it came with nearly new RE050's on the rear, and pretty worn RE040's on th front. VDC was going off all the time.

Changed the fronts to RE050's to match the rear and only now see VDC when pushing really hard.

Hopefully both fronts and rears wear out together so I can get a different tyre - as Bronzee says, they are noisy tyres!

BRONZEE · Post by **BRONZEE** » Sat Nov 26, 2011 4:11 pm

Over in the UK forum, one of the newbies, has posted almost the same as you:

http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=56052

ZMAD · Post by **ZMAD** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:45 am

Just try new tyres on front, old on rear. Tyres never wear out at the same time unless rotated often.

netrover · Post by **netrover** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:55 pm

ZMAD wrote:Just try new tyres on front, old on rear. Tyres never wear out at the same time unless rotated often.

Good suggestion for most cars, however 350Z's have different tyre sizes front and rear.

BRONZEE · Post by **BRONZEE** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:58 pm

netrover wrote:
ZMAD wrote:Just try new tyres on front, old on rear. Tyres never wear out at the same time unless rotated often.
Good suggestion for most cars, however 350Z's have different tyre sizes front and rear.

And an odd tyre combination will easily upset the VDC/TCS as Seejay has found out.

ZMAD · Post by **ZMAD** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:17 am

Bumma, new tyres all round then. Trade in your old ones.

Brock365 · Post by **Brock365** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 4:49 pm

I got Skyline 350GT and I need new back tires soon so hopefully want to avoid the same issue

bluefish · Post by **bluefish** » Mon May 04, 2015 7:07 pm

I have just replaced my worn Bridgestone Potenza S001 - 275/35R19 Rear Tyres with exactly the same tyre brand and spec. The fronts are Bridgestone Potenza S001 - 245/40R19 and only around half worn so I didn't replace them.

I took the 370Z out for a decent B road blast last Sunday and clocked up around 276km. However, all through the first half of the drive the VDC was acting crazy! To the point where a couple of times it scared the sh*t out of me when it decided that it was best to brake for me (e.g. Twilight Road, Hunua Road etc). The car felt so unstable when this occurred. In the end, I turned VDC off and proceeded to have a much better drive around the B roads. It drove exactly the same as the Z did before I replaced the rear tyres and VDC was on - in fact, prior to, VDC rarely ever kicked in unless I really pushed the car super hard). I turned VDC back on near the end of my drive but it was still kicking in, even in the most ridiculous of places (like driving at normal speed around the Bingham Creek Road round-a-bout).

I'm reviving an old thread I know, but I just wanted to know if putting a reasonable amount of K's on the rear tyres resolves this issue. Happy to drive the car spiritedly without VDC but I'd rather the car perform the way it did before I replaced the tyres (with VDC on).

P.S. Tyre pressures are at the manufacturer recommended 35psi all round.

BRONZEE · Post by **BRONZEE** » Tue May 05, 2015 7:07 pm

bluefish wrote:I have just replaced my worn Bridgestone Potenza S001 - 275/35R19 Rear Tyres with exactly the same tyre brand and spec. The fronts are Bridgestone Potenza S001 - 245/40R19 and only around half worn so I didn't replace them.

I took the 370Z out for a decent B road blast last Sunday and clocked up around 276km. However, all through the first half of the drive the VDC was acting crazy! To the point where a couple of times it scared the sh*t out of me when it decided that it was best to brake for me (e.g. Twilight Road, Hunua Road etc). The car felt so unstable when this occurred. In the end, I turned VDC off and proceeded to have a much better drive around the B roads. It drove exactly the same as the Z did before I replaced the rear tyres and VDC was on - in fact, prior to, VDC rarely ever kicked in unless I really pushed the car super hard). I turned VDC back on near the end of my drive but it was still kicking in, even in the most ridiculous of places (like driving at normal speed around the Bingham Creek Road round-a-bout).

I'm reviving an old thread I know, but I just wanted to know if putting a reasonable amount of K's on the rear tyres resolves this issue. Happy to drive the car spiritedly without VDC but I'd rather the car perform the way it did before I replaced the tyres (with VDC on).

P.S. Tyre pressures are at the manufacturer recommended 35psi all round.

No harm in reviving an old thread.
Twilight Road is good fun when the car is performing in an optimum way.

It's a bit of a difficult one, as with 350/370 tyres there aren't that many tyre options size wise. I have to say I'm not personally a fan of Potenza's on either a 350 or a 370 performance wise and also road noise wise and they tend to upset the VDC/TCS. In the 370 brochure it noted either the Potenza's or the Yokohama V103 Advan Sport tyres, but NZ seem to have shod theirs with the Bridgestone.

In my experience the Potenza's don't get better, but others may have different thoughts.

bluefish · Post by **bluefish** » Tue May 05, 2015 7:28 pm

Thanks for replying Bronzee.

The Potenza's on the 370Z were almost new when I first got the car. However, as per usual with a rear wheel drive car, the rear's have worn out much faster than the fronts. When all four corners were near new, the VDC almost never kicked in. Near the end of life for the rear's it would only kick in on the odd occasion when I booted it in a straight line. It never once interrupted me while cornering.

However, that drive on Sunday (until VDC was switched off) was absolutely horrendous.

I understand everyone has their own personal preference when it comes to tyres. My favourites are Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2. I put these on my previous car and they were the most amazing tyre (wet, dry, whatever) I have ever had on a car. However, I have had Potenza S001's on 4 cars now (2 x Subaru Legacy GT's, 1 x BMW 540i M-Sport, and now the Z) and I personally rate them as an excellent all-round tyre. However, I do agree that on the Z (with it's less than optimal sound-deadening) they are pretty damn noisy once you hit typical crappy NZ chip surfaces. However, noise isn't really an issue for me as the Z is a weekend car only

Anyway, bottom line is that I'm pretty perturbed by the fact that changing out the rears, while the fronts still have around half their life left in them, causes so much disruption to the VDC! I have done some more research over the last couple of days and noticed that this is a common issue. Particularly with Nissan FM platform based cars.

Unfortunately, most threads seem to die off without anyone ever actually coming back and advising what fixed the problem. So at this point, I'm just going to have to assume that the rear tyres require a tad more "scrubbing" in.

Just another excuse to take the Z out and hit those B roads (not that I ever actually need an excuse

)

P.S. Twilight Road is one of my favourites. As is Ararimu Road, Ararimu Valley Road, Tuakau Bridge-Port Waikato Road, Kaipara Coast Highway, Firth of Thames...and so on. Hmm, we really need a Best Driving Roads Sticky Page!