louisrai

This is my 08 535i, again. It was raining in San Francisco this morning. When I drove on 19th ave, my car spun twice...one was on a sharp turn, another was on a not-so-sharp turn, with speed of 20+ and 40+. I used to drive in the same way, but never got spinning on this car in the past. But today I got DCT activated by itself four times.

I bought this car in Jan 2011, the tires looks new at that time. They are TOYO. I just checked the tires, they still look okay. Perhaps TOYOs are a bit too hard? I have driven less than 7k miles on them, while they have no visible sign of wear-out. I have no idea what tire I should use on E60s.

My last car dead on an accident, which caused by a spinning at a turn on a raining day. I am so worried now...I used to drive kinda aggressively on dry road, never had feeling of losing control or spinning. Today, it just felt dangerous the whole ride.

So my questions are:

1. How often do you guys maintain your tires? on what standard?

2. How to evaluate tires' wear-out?

3. Is wore tires the main reason of spinning? what else can cause abnormal spinning?

4. Do you guys just turn on DCT before driving in a rainy day? Or normally you won't worry about the spinning?

If anyone needs, I can post a picture of my tires later.

Thanks, guys!

KAF

DCT is on by default, it will work to stop you spinning by cutting power to the wheel losing traction.

To be honest, loss of grip is usually down to the driver, as long as you have 3mm of tread tyres should be fine.

When cornering you should be neither accelerating nor braking.

Sounds to me like you might be getting on the gas a bit to soon.

The alternative is that the roads have got particularly slippery if you have had a dry spell.

604nguyen

its definatley the way your driving......lol

Ive had summer tires on in light snow before (i dont reccommend it)...never had issues with spinning out....got around just fine

sanjsanj

+1 lol

[font="'Comic Sans MS"]I would highly recommend you go Go-Karting so you can get a sense of grip, learn what the best way to take a corner is, and what happens when you push the limits of physics. [/font]

luigi524td

Is it possible you've recently driven through some slippery stuff (e.g. spilled oil on road??) and it's stuck to your tires? The only time I've had any serious slipping has occurred when I've really over-powered my car on a wet curve and the electronic controls kicked in. Truth be told I have purposefully done this a couple of times to get a feel of how the car behaved when over-driving a situation.

Maybe you could find a big empty parking lot ... practice and test your car's handling and your driving prowess to be totally prepared for any emergency maneuver in advance. We all hate (unpleasant) surprises

Gilgorm

Wet or snow = slow down and drive for conditions. I agree with others that your right foot is possibly too heavy for the conditions. A light drizzle after a long dry spell = worst driving conditions. The road gets oily during the dry spell and the light drizzle is NOT enough to wash it away.
I doubt your tires are at fault but will say that different brands do provide different levels of traction. What pressure are you running them at? High pressure will provide less traction if the tires are too hard (they will also get less flexible as they age).
Take care.

louisrai

Thanks guys!

@Gilgorm, I agree, after-rain surface makes me feel more slippery. My tire pressure should be at the standard level, 32 or 33.

@luigi524td, 604nguyen, sanjsanj, I guess I do have problem on driving style, just I never had such slippery feeling with this car in a rainy day. Now I am trying to do what KAF said, no braking or accelerating while cornering.

So you guys don't think TOYO is too bad, right? In a rainy day, when I start accelerating at an intersection after a red light, the DTC indicator will flash one or two times on cluster. Honestly, I don't step on gas too much after a red light. I will be more careful then.

Straight thing: in the past two days, I felt the steering wheel gets loose, quite different from before. Everything starts feeling straight now....

I couldn't find instruction for reseting the TPM after inflation. Do I have to drive in order for TPM to reset correctly? Cuz when I reset TPM in still, the reseting progress will not finish in more than 10 minutes!

pjinca

Could it also be that you are looking at the wear pattern on the outer edge (most visible) part of the tire? Remember, our cars have negative camber in the rear (-2.0 degrees is within spec) and so the outer edge can look like theres a good amount of tread, whereas the inner edge of the tire can be worn VERY badly - ask me how I know. Other than that, I have Falkens on my car and I drive almost as aggressively
in the rain as I do in the dry and I never "spin out". There has to be an adjustment in your driving style in the wet, brake sooner, turn smoother, and anticipate the spin - if there is one.

pjinca

Dual post - dammit

KAF

This is normal