Handling in tricky road conditions

[Z4MC Tom]

I know this isnt M specfic but recently i've been having grip issues.

Tyres / Geo are fine, Edinburgh / Fife are not frosty (lovely and sunny right now) but the road i'm having trouble with has alot of building development (offices) on it and so has a film of mud / rubish on it.

Now the problem is i'll be driving down the road (40mph) and the lights will be flickering (not constant) and then i'll take the roadabout and understeer (slightly) and oversteer at 10 - 15 mph!!! But it then takes a couple of minutes to recover it self and doesnt feel right until on the motorway then it is back to normal....

Is it jumping into a safe mode due to the overuse of tc? i cant go much slower and more carefully tbh.

Help!

 

[Aliv6]

Doesn't sound right.

Have you got a copy of your geo for interest sake.

What tyres are the using? - Pressures all okay i assume?

 

[abar121]

Hmm, with all that salt down the roads are still damm slippery. Tbh it's not just the zed my friends Punto diesel struggles too.

Just be careful, drive to the conditions.

 

[mmm-five]

Whilst it's not as warm as summer, I still find mine more than capable in the cold weather.

Can't say I,ve seen the traction light coming on any more frequently, but that's probably because I take it easier in the colder/wetter conditions. Even then it's only for a few miles, until the tyres are up to temperature.

I don't think I've ever seen the light come on when I've not been accelerating hard.

If you've got the original Continentals, then that's probably why

 

[Z4MC Tom]

Tyre pressures are ok and I'll dig out geo when Im back up in Edinburgh, sat in the airport waiting for flight down south.

As I've said else where I've never had anything like this even drove my Elise in the heaviest snow and even the z is ok on wet cobbles in town.... How strange?

May contact the council and ask why their not cleaning the road considering the amount of trucks driving down it on and off sites.

For those up my way it's the lower road leading to the Babcock Naval docks in Rosyth.

 

[buzyg]

If you have another car available take it for a spin, sorry, I mean gentle run down that bit of road, you'll soon no if it's the car or the conditions.

 

[Philip]

To be honest without knowing the size of the roundabout you are talking about it's hard to know if 10-15miles an hour is as slow as it might sound.

Different tarmac has different grip though. In a front wheel drive car my local roundabouts, even in the cold & wet are still grippy at 40, even when giving it throttle in 2nd. When I hit the roundabouts near work in Trafford park, I can slide for fun round them at 20-30, they just don't hold the car well and any power in second gear see's it break traction and squirm.

If it's not like that on normal clean roads, then that just sounds like the combination of greasy roads, wide tyres, stiff chassis, weight at the front pulling you wide off throttle, lack of weight over rears breaking traction on throttle.

 

[BMWZ4MC]

In the early hours of last Sunday morning I was in Buckinghamshire and it was -10C. The cold combined with lots of salt on the road made driving extremely difficult, even with a very gentle throttle.