Tramlining

[ChrisD]

I recently fitted 17 inch wheels to my Z3 and experienced quite bad tramlining, white-knuckle driving down some roads.
The tyres that came fitted to the wheels were a mismatched budget brand variety that were only just legal.
I replaced the 2 front tyres today and the tramlining is now barely perceptible.
I thought this info may be useful to someone at some point.
I still have budget brand on the rear for now
Here’s a picture, taken after a relaxing drive down some shoddy local roads.

 

[Z Victor 1]

It's not necessarily budget tyres. When I bought my 2.8 it had Michelin tyres and the tramlining was terrible so when they were worn I fitted Avon Zv7s. Transformed the car,no tramlining. My 2.2i sport came with budget tyres and they were fine, no tramlining and couldn't fault them for grip and wear.

 

[the Nefyn cat]

Cheap tyres definitely don't help, and mis-matched ones only make it worse. One of the problems with Michelins is that they last too long, which may sound daft but there's a definite degradation with time, back when I was in the tyre side of the motor trade we'd reckon on 5-6 years at the most before tyres were starting to get a bit marginal, regardless of tread depth and the like.

 

[RAYBOY]

Switched from a mish mash to Eagle F1s on my first Zed
Total transformation. Loved those tyres and the tread pattern was awesome
Goodyear don’t do those any more so on my latest Zed I’ve gone for Avons….
they are outstanding

 

[Pond]

Unfortunately it is still perfectly legal in the UK to have a different brand and model of tyre on every corner.
Should be illegal in my view. The official stance is "it is not recommended to have different tyres on the same axle" which is a waste of a sentence. Means nothing.
I would go further and make it illegal to have anything but four matching brands and models on a vehicle.

The amount of high performance cars I have seen with a different 'ditch-finder' on each corner is shocking. The car trade are the worst culprits IME; stick any old cheap tyre on a car to sell it.

 

[Z Victor 1]

Should definitely have the same tyres on either end of one axle, but not necessarily on all four. Otherwise it would presumably be wrong to have different sizes on the front and rear! So staggered wheels unacceptable?

 

[the Nefyn cat]

It's more to do with tread type and construction, helps if they're all the same. It's certainly always recommended with motorcycles to stick with the same front and rear, and I'm not going to argue with them.

 

[Pond]

Otherwise it would presumably be wrong to have different sizes on the front and rear! So staggered wheels unacceptable?

Nothing to do with widths (or sizes for that matter). As said above, it's different tread patterns, compounds and characteristics of tyres of different makes and types.

 

[as400]

Tracking.