sleepyca31

So I slapped brand new dunlop sports on my back yesterday and I would say they have twice as much tread now as my front ones had, whereas for the past while my backs had about half has much as the fronts until they were changed. I am not sure if it is because I got used to driving like that but I am realllly not happy with how the thing is handling-primarly at higher speeds and especially around curves at higher speeds.

I have my driving route (anyone in az?- exiting the 60 to 101 south gives you a reallly long staight under a tunnel and a very slow bend where you can get on it without fear since its closed off kinda-)

Anyway going 100ish and bendy roads the car just felt a lot less stable than usual. Is having more tread in the rears a bad thing or could they have stuck em on poorly or what is the deal here. I dont wanna say I almost wiped out but definetly could not take the turn at the normal speeds I go , had to slow things down a lot-kinda bummed me out.

Even around quick turns at low speed-it feels like it doesnt pull me around the turn like it used to-and thinking about some physics-it makes sense if the rears have more grip and are pulling with a great force it may throw you into some understeer by gripping around the corner and pulling the radius of the turn to tight and letting the fronts go-not sure since I have not pushed it but that is what I feel "would" happen.

any thoughts

I guess since my rears wear so quick I just have to drive 3k and should be even to the fronts to I guess who cares!

Westcoast M5

You should always take it easy for a couple of days with new tires until they wear-in. New tires are "greasy" and traction improves after a bit of wear. The amount of tread compared to the front should not impact it since you have replaced with the same tire. Check the tire pressure yourself if you haven't already - I had tires changed and the dealer put 32lbs all around when it needed 33 front/38 rear.

sleepyca31

ahh good tip-didnt think to recheck air pressure. thanks

sleepyca31

By the way-doesnt that bug you when you take the time, effort and money to get things done at a dealer and still cant drive away with everything correct. I mean much of the reason why I go to a dealer with the bimmer is to know things will get done correctly-man that bugs me that they wouldnt even know the tire pressure for a set of tires required.

Westcoast M5

I have to say I like my dealer experience in general - the people are friendly, respectful, etc, but they really don't seem to have the knowledge that they should when it comes to the cars. If all service techs and advisors spent 30 minutes a day on this forum I think they would vastly increase their knowledge. It is also a crap shoot if you get a good service tech or a bad one (incorrect tire pressure). The worst of course is people that just make stuff up because they don't know or are too lazy to find out.

That said, having owned vehicles from many different manufacturers over the years, the BMW dealership I deal with is definately above average.

sleepyca31

Welll must thank you again for the tip-sure enough I checked air pressure and I am not sure this had anything to do with it but I asked them to check airpressure in all tires and just checked and 37psi in all 4 tires. Now I checked on the door and like someone said fronts should be at 32 and rear at 36 so rears are good but they obviously didnt check or just inflated the ffronts to match-anyway I dropped the fronts back down to 32 and actually felt better on the road. arrg dealers! I agree it is hit or miss with service advisors and such but the techs-especialy when my dealer and most have a seperate Tire manager and tire department where that is ALL they do! come on now!

sleepyca31

Thanks guys-as usual you guys are a huge help. As I said changed my psi to 32 fronts and 36 rears as suggested and I think the tires have broken in some-That combined with the fact it was getting used to the more "touch" steering with this much better grip. I think I had so little grip that the tires did not really grab the road too tightly so now with grip a tiny turn of the wheel, especially going fast just moves the car more than I was used to but adjusting to that has helped. ANyway thanks.

Man I think I mentioned this but I cant believe how much new rears help acceleration. You can just feel the car grip and take off. I can really imagine now how replacing the rims with those super light dinan rims and putting on a brand new set of tires would REALLY make a difference-man tires/wheels sure do completely change the feel of a car-crazy that a 1000 dollar part pretty much (4 tires) can totally change your handling.