Driving in the rain.

[Cris.MTL]

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if you guys had any similar stories or any thoughts on the story about to tell you guys.

I'm from Montreal and today on my way home from Go-karting with some buddies I get caught in a pretty bad rain storm. I had about 45 minutes of highway driving to do and after trying to wait out the storm, i decided to give it a chance and hit the road. It probably was the scariest ride of my life, I had to do 60km/h with my hazards on while everyone else buzzed by me.

Now I'm new to my 02, New to old cars and definitely new to cars this light. I have decently new tires on, i rebuilt my brakes, suspension and steering last winter so everything is in good shape and it felt like i was on ice to whole way home. I had no confidence in the steering and almost slide into the guard rail once.

So basically I'm asking what are your experiences in driving in heavy rain and is there something I've possibly over looked that caused the car to be so unreliable in the rain.

Cris

[ndog]

sounds like the book?

[TobyB]

Hmm... What kind of tires?

I've driven around lots of 'faster' cars in the wet.

Bridgestone S03's were great for that.

My experience on good tires has been that the 2002's pretty good

in low traction situations.

but I'm a bit of a maniac...

t

[oldguy]

Bridgestone S03's were great for that.

t

+1

somewhere i've got a pic of my cluster doing 100...

it was raining..

[Cris.MTL]

They are Yokohama S-drives which are the tires that were on the car when I bought it.

[M3M3]

no issues at all in the rain.

define "decently new tires"...

how much driving experience do you have?

[7002chris]

i dont know about you but i love driving in the rain its the only time i can get my car sideways. These cars actually handle awsome drifting around i hope to get enough power in my car to be able to do it on dry pavement. Other than that i have never had a problem with my car sliding out on me when regularly driving in wet conditions id look back over and see what else the problem could be.

[Cris.MTL]

This is the first summer i drive the car which started in may, and at that point the tires looked new to me. And i haven't beaten the car in the corners or anything like that because I'm still trying to get a feel for it.

[M3M3]

"look new" and "are new" are two different things. really old, hard tires can look new, but are dangerous. even new tires which are cheap crap can suck in the rain. what is the date code moulded into the side of the tire? what kind are they?

[ray_]

Also check your front end alignment.

GL,

Ray

[Cris.MTL]

@ Mlytle, They are Yokohama S-drive, Date code Dot CC8N 82V1811, which if i have understood correct means 18th week in the year of 2011

@ Ray_koke, Ya i was definitely starting to think about checking out the alignment.

[TobyB]

Huh. Those are supposed to be pretty good.

+1 on alignment, and if you've gone through everything,

it might be worth paying for '4 wheel' just to make sure

something's not bent.

t

[Cris.MTL]

Oh I just thought of something else, what about tire pressure? What do you guys normally run at?

[jgerry2002]

I came from NYC to Plattsburgh today in that same rain. Torrential at times.

Managed to keep it around 70mph / 110kph the whole way when I wasnt blocked by summer traffic.

What size tires do you have? Just curious

Very worn set of 195/60 14" Falkan Azenis on my car.

'02s are really fantastic in the wet, but you have get used the feeling of skating along the surface. Different from the "heavy" or "solid" feel you get form most modern machinery.

They don't need much more than some semblance of a groove in the tire either to run well in the wet. I've run worn out R compounds in track sessions and still managed to pass faster/newer cars with ease. In a steady rain...

Check your front toe, too much toe-in would make it feel scary in the wet.

[Cris.MTL]

@ jgerry: tire size is 195/55/15

I'm definitely going to get my alignment check out, also as I think now, my tire pressure could be too high as well,

...man, some days this car makes me feel like a complete Noob. haha

Anyways, thanks guys for your help.