I honestly do not understand why all of you have problems with hydroplaning.

My Kumho ASXs are near the wear bars on the rear, and I have no problems with wet weather, which we get a lot here in the PNW.

 

'cuz you drive so slow grand-pa' !

 

Im curious, not to pull this thread off track, but I noticed no one mentioned Bridgestone's Potenza RE050A Pole Position's. They seem to be rated high for wet weather traction, but are the not as good as PS2's? How do they compare?

 

Only on the street. I also drive on my street tires on wet events (like last weekend) and had no hydroplaning problems even though there was a definite "river" across the course in a couple of places.

The first time my Z was driven on an autocross course, it was on the stock tires in a downpour. No problems at all (and my competition were a bit depressed afterwards, since I was posting very fast times).

Honestly, I don't understand all of these "hydroplaning" problems, but then again I realize that the posted speed limits are for DAYTIME when it is DRY. If I have to turn the wipers on anything higher than intermittent, I slow down.

 

The very first thing I did to my z was to get rid of those damn OEM tires. Running GY Eagle F1 GS-D3s now with zero problems.

We have some torrential downpours here in Florida and I have to really get down on the throttle to break loose on a wet road. I’m sure the PS2s are sweet as well, I just hate the "cheese eating surrender monkeys" French.

 

You do realize that Renault owns a substantial piece of Nissan?

 

well could it not also be something as simple as bad alignment or what i suspect the most....bad tire pressure, whenever i've had scares like that, i would immediatly check the tire pressure and would discover that one or more of the tires would be off, cuz honestly eventho the stock tires are not the best...they are also not thaaaaat bad

 

I also think the stock Potenzas are garbage - mine are nearing replacement on my '04 ZR with just over 16K on them... but I'm fortunate that it doesn't rain much here in San Diego.

Anyway, I was reading a favorable review in C&D about these new Goodyear F1 All-Season tires that are coming out in July - you may want to check these out instead of the BFGs...

I have the Eagle Assurance TripleTreds on my G35 Sedan and they are awesome!

http://www.goodyeartires.com/eagle/eagleF1AS_innov.html



~KK

 

Argh, guess no one has anything to say about the Pole Positions eh? Darn.

 

Change tires.

 

ive never had a problem with the Z hydroplaning and that was even when I had the stock potenzas that were nearly bald. I switched to avon mtechs and the traction was awesome. Now i have 19's with nankang ns II tires. I drove it in heavy rain w/o a problem. Its pouring in chicago right now, and I still have 2 hrs left to work. Hopefully it subsides by then.

 

This post is a little late...but there is something else that could have contributed to your situation. Kolia alluded to this...but when you hit the puddle, if you QUICKLY let off the gas...that could have done it. When hydroplaning, when on ice or on any other loose/little traction surface, it is a question of simple dynamics vs. complex dynamics. Any race driver will tell you that cars "like" to do one thing at a time to keep traction, ie: brake, turn, or accelerate. The more you add in complex dynamics, (like braking and turning at the same time, etc..) the more a car will lose traction. In the case of hydroplaning, the puddle has already caused a loss in traction due to water being caught under the wheel. This has upset the dynamics already, so this is why you do NOT want to slam on the brakes, accelerate quickly, or oddly enough, let off the gas quickly. Slowly letting off the gas and making sure that your steering inputs are smooth will allow the car to settle back down.
I share this because that exact knowledge saved my life as I was driving to colorado this year, and NOBODY likes hydroplaning. On a similar note, if you are ever in heavy rain and think hydroplaning might be a possibility, make sure that cruise control is OFF. Don't want your beautiful z completley out of control...

just some helpful info

 

+1000!
Discount advised me it would not be a big deal to mix tires front and rear and boy were they wrong! Very noticeable in inclamite weather and also pushing 8/10ths on dry like off ramps and such. It is very important to have all 4 tires the same. Never again

 

There are plastic pieces in the back wall of the trunk of your Z that have Renault molded into them. I found something in there when doing my stereo. Might have been the gray vents with the flappers?

 

I'm not seeing anyone here mention tire pressure. 36 psi seems a tad high imo (no z here, just speculating). So I'm just thinking, maybe bring it down to 32 psi? Wouldn't that help atleast?

 

Manufacturer's recommended pressure is 35psi.

Lowering it to 32 is a bad idea, more so in the rain.

 

Ah I see. The only reason I recommended that as an idea is because I thought by lowering the pressure, you'd be giving the tire more flexibility to work with the conditions, instead of having such a tight pressure, giving less room for flex and compromise in a situation like that where it needs to disperse as much water as it can.

 

Actually, there's a formula (gotta go find it now) that shows a tire's tendency towards hydroplaning is inversely proportional to the tire pressure. The more pressure, the less likely the tire is to hydroplane (and vice versa).

Here's a link that talks about it: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...e.jsp?techid=3

 

Like PDX said, you want more pressure to push the water out from under the tire instead of it flexing in a concave shape, trapping the water in the thread.

 

I have to agree. I've driven in the rain on stocks for at least 15,000 miles awhile back and not a single issue. Odd in the least. Maybe Dave and I got some of those rare prototype stock Potenzas?