Aquaplaning!!

[JAZZERT501]

I have been having some very scarey moments going through standing water , sometimes at speeds as low as 60 mph.
Usually at 70mph on the motorway, the car does a lot of squirming and needs a firm hand at the wheel to keep it straight.
Tyres and pressures all seem good, anyone have similar experiences?
My OH is not impressed and it's really putting her off the car.
It has 19 inch wheels,adaptive suspension in comfort mode, any tips on how to tame the beast.
Should I set it to adaptive or sport?
Or get 15 inch wheel with 165 tyres?
Just like the 1.0 Fiesta that whizzed past me on the motorway tonight!

 

[Argyll Andy]

Can’t say I’ve experienced anything like this except hitting pools of standing water at :tumbleweed: mph

How many miles have you done on current tyres/how many mm’s left? I know mine got more than a bit squirrelly when the tread dropped to around 3.5mm.

Only other thing I can think of is does your car have lane assist and if so is it switched on? I remember when I had one for my extended test drive and it had this on it felt like aquaplaning and needed constant input to keep the car right.

 

[StanDiego]

I have been having some very scarey moments going through standing water , sometimes at speeds as low as 60 mph.
Usually at 70mph on the motorway, the car does a lot of squirming and needs a firm hand at the wheel to keep it straight.
Tyres and pressures all seem good, anyone have similar experiences?
My OH is not impressed and it's really putting her off the car.
It has 19 inch wheels,adaptive suspension in comfort mode, any tips on how to tame the beast.
Should I set it to adaptive or sport?
Or get 15 inch wheel with 165 tyres?
Just like the 1.0 Fiesta that whizzed past me on the motorway tonight!

The star Michelin tires are known to be tuned more for dry than wet but they shouldn't be hydroplaning unless the puddles are an inch or so at which point, yes, they can hydroplane on most tires. If you drive frequently in that situation, you should probably consider performance all season tires such as the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 or Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus.

P.S. Be sure to look at the full width of your tire. I've seen a couple of posts on other forums with the tire worn to the belt on the inside but with a lot of tread on the rest of the tire.

 

[JAZZERT501]

Lane assist is off, that was way too dangerous the way it intervened!
The car is on 10k plenty of tread on the tyres.
The roads have been exceptionally wet,I can't say it has ever been a concern on any of my previous BM's,(330e n 520d both on 18 inch wheels.)
It might be down to exceptional road conditions my drive to Edinburgh last night had multiple dodgy moments the same return journey had none as the road had dried out a lot.

 

[mr wilks]

Tyres is the answer OP , do some study & buy the best tyre for driving the car 12 months of the year , ive recently taken PS4S off my M4 , it was lethal on cold wet bends & couldn't cope with any amount of standing water .
Currently on Pilot Alpins which are more suitable for Lancashire life 9 months of the year but they aren't anywhere near as good as Nokian WR4 fitted to our F11 5 series .
These are on all year round & don't change characteristics even in 30deg temps & contrary to popular belief do not wear faster with summer use , covered around 12k total in 2 years & still measuring 6-7mm .

 

[B21]

Plenty of tread? It would be interesting to measure the actual depth across the widths of all 4 tyres..

Wide tyres like this will be prone to aquaplaning..on my E89 with almost the same widths at 4mm it already started to struggle a little..at 3mm it was getting my attention..at 2mm it was undriveable on really wet roads at speed..

 

[buzyg]

Lane assist is off, that was way too dangerous the way it intervened!
The car is on 10k plenty of tread on the tyres.
The roads have been exceptionally wet,I can't say it has ever been a concern on any of my previous BM's,(330e n 520d both on 18 inch wheels.)
It might be down to exceptional road conditions my drive to Edinburgh last night had multiple dodgy moments the same return journey had none as the road had dried out a lot.

10k on a set of tyres, on a performance car, is old tyres in my book. Definitely check them properly, they are almost certainly the issue here. If you haven't already then get yourself on a skid pan day too. Won't stop the aquaplaning, but it will help with the nerves. :driving:

I had a chap overtake me on the M74, in very wet conditions. A mile or so later on I hit some deep standing water. A few hundred yards later I was out of my car checking he was ok, sat in his wrecked car. He was fortunate.

 

[JAZZERT501]

Thanks for the helpful replies, as ever,I was planning on changing the tyres soon.Might need to move that forward !

 

[bonzo]

I replaced my worn PS4S with PS4s and noticed a huge difference in wet performance.

The car in general drives far better for me on the PS4s than the PS4Ss ever did.

 

[ori]

Low profile wide tyres and hitting standing water is never a good thing.
On heavy rain I slow right down for that exact reason. I read somewhere that once tyre tread is down to 3mm aquaplaning is a much bigger danger.