Go Back   986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners > Off Topic > Regional Forum > GBBG -- Greater Boston Boxster Group

Post Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-09-2002, 10:48 AM   #1
Forum Contributor
 
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 11
Tire Vibrations on Cold Mornings?

I've meant to ask this of others for quite some time now...

On cold days after you haven't driven your Boxster in several days, do you get wheel hop? It's like my tires feel out of round and the steering wheel vibrates. This will smooth out over the course of several miles and is gone in say 15 miles...

I have 17" Continentals.

Has anyone tried any of the various products on the market to prevent "flat spots"?

-rob

RobFigler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-09-2002, 02:58 PM   #2
Regional Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 445
I can definitely feel this. But like you said it goes away fairly quickly with driving.

I think there are two kinds of flat spots, one which is the simple creasing of the rubber from the car sitting on them, the other which involves some kind of thermal distortion. This later kind is basically impossible to get in street driving (involves putting a 200 degree tire on cold concrete and leaving it there as the rubber cools), but it is the kind which the "Tire Cradle" product has the "measurable research" on. Besides which the Tire Cradle is ridiculously priced.

I was going to go with some product like the Tire Cradle for winter storage, but after I learned more I decided to hedge my bets and just store the car with 50 psi in each tire. I left it up to 4 weeks between drives, and never had any issues except for the usual initial vibration like you describe.
CharlesGordon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-09-2002, 08:44 PM   #3
Forum Contributor
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Greenland, NH
Posts: 21
Send a message via Yahoo to JSLeach
Hi rob,
As Charlie stated, the initial vibration quickly dissipates; all three of my tire varieties have done it, but the most noticeable were the original Contis. I don't know if it was something peculiar to the compound or the effects of "age" but they certainly were bouncy for a few miles particularly after sitting idle for a few cold nights. You may recall that I am running 18s, so the effect may be more apparent than on 17s.

Interestingly enough, I bought a set of the "ridiculously priced" Tire Cradles shortly after I got the car, in my naivete, to avoid flatspotting; maybe they work as proposed since the vibration is so transient -- more likely, as Charlie alluded to, current technology makes permanent flatspotting from short-term storage a non-issue. I still have the cradles on my garage floor, but they serve more as car positioning markers than anything else.

John
JSLeach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-10-2002, 05:19 AM   #4
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 5
FWIW: The Khumos I just put on seem worse than the P-Zero's I replaced. It takes a good long while for things to smooth out, much more noticible with the new tires...

drewr is offline   Reply With Quote
Post Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




All times are GMT -8. The time now is 02:21 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2024 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website -    DMCA Registered Agent Contact Page