Guys and Gals Hi

i finally have my winter tires on the car and my initial thoughts are odd

Gonna give them a bit more time but im thinking im running the wrong tire pressures and i cant find anything on here or on google relating to Pandas and 195/50/15 profile tires.

They were fitted by the alloy wheel refurbisher and pumped up to 36-35 psi. At these pressures the steering was suprisingly light and the front end felt a bit loose

i drooped the pressures to 33 psi up front and 31 at the rear. This was more of a guestimate.


Front end feels better but it still a bit loose compared to the olg Eagle F1s of 195/45/15 profile.

Can all you guys runnning 195/50/15s share your tyre pressures....

Lost a bit of confidence in the cars front end.......

I'd be inclined to drop your fronts to 30psi and see how that feels.

Tyre pressures for Std. tyres winter 165/65/14 are: 2.0bar (29psi) at the front and 1.8bar at the rear, for a medium load.

You are not running std. sized tyres, (according to the 2009 Panda handbook) so you're going to need to do a bit of experimentation.

Good luck

Dave

I always check the (dutch) Vredestein site. http://www.vredestein.nl/autobanden/search/model/fiat/panda/panda 1.4 16v/64398

And it says 2,4 bar in the front and 2,5 bar in the rear for 195/50 15's.
That's what I use.

gr J

I've been running winter tyres since November. Around 32psi.


What I find is that they are ghastly in normal weather and do feel squidgy........nothing like the Uniroyals.


That said, on compressed snow and ice they're WAYYY better - though not get outta jail free of course. Newton makes sure of that.

cheers guys

its all a bit squidgey and floaty for my liking.

i might go to 31 F and 30 R to see how i get on

The change has been so great im a bit reluctant to switch to 50 profile normal tires now and stick with more expensive 45 profile option for the normal tires for the warmer months

feels very alien considering how pointy, direct and planted it was before the switch to winters. The weather is meant to be bad this week so hopefully they will show why its worth investing in winter tires.

Even in the cold weather i had no problems with lack of grip with the F1's in icy and wet conditions. i always knew what the front end was doing and how much grip i had.

bit miffed

GunMetalPo said:

cheers guys

its all a bit squidgey and floaty for my liking.

i might go to 31 F and 30 R to see how i get on

The change has been so great im a bit reluctant to switch to 50 profile normal tires now and stick with more expensive 45 profile option for the normal tires for the warmer months

feels very alien considering how pointy, direct and planted it was before the switch to winters. The weather is meant to be bad this week so hopefully they will show why its worth investing in winter tires.

Even in the cold weather i had no problems with lack of grip with the F1's in icy and wet conditions. i always knew what the front end was doing and how much grip i had.

bit miffed

Click to expand...

I found the F1s useless on compacted ice and other snowy bits that we had in 2011/12. These winter tyres are way better. When we had the bad snow late December 2014 I swapped from the Dynamic on summer 165s to the 100hp on winter 195s. Significant difference.


My summer tyres are Uniroyal Rainsport 50s and they are a world of difference to these winter tyres. Same grip at least as the F1s in the dry, rather better in the wet and in terms of feel, at the very least an equal.


The 50 won't give you much in terms of extra comfort in ride - I switched mainly to prevent any more alloy flatspots.

With winter tyre's you really need to be using the pressures the tyre manufacture recommends from personal experience

Quite a bit of advice above could do with double checking .The Dutch site pressures are way off Fiats for starters .Fiat recommends 2.2/1.8 bar front /rear ie about 32psi/28psi .(Dutch site says2.3/2.4 , the rear pressure is alarmingly high unless you have three heavy passengers and their luggage ) The time I had a 'crash' in my Multijet ( thankfully no major harm to car or driver) I was running 34/30psi hoping I'd save a little on fuel .Penny wise and pound foolish !The car aquaplaned uncontrollably mid bend .Like every male I like to think I'm an ok driver , I guess the car could have ended up facing backwards or even upside down if I'd freaked out with the steering wheel but basically I felt like a passenger .(While deep surface water and dangerously smooth Tarmac were also factors the tyre pressures won't have helped)
I would never use above 33psi/30 if wet roads were likely to be encountered.The 'stickiness' of the low rear pressure is a bit of a fail safe if things do go wrong and the heavy engine over the front needs a bit more ( but not TOO much ) 'support' .
Even 2psi difference can unsettle a car near the limit in my opinion .A change in weather or the difference between 'hot ' and 'cold' tyres ( 20 minutes driving?) would cause this if not up to double it .Watch your pressures ( at least fortnightly ?)

IMHO aquaplaning will have little to do with the tirepressure in the reartires.
Compared with the pressures in the 100HP handbook for 195/45 15's the difference is ,1 and ,2 bar.
Too low pressures may feel comfortable, but cause overheating off tires and blowouts.
So please don't dismiss the values off a tiremaker for something you feel in the seem of your pants.

gr J

The later model's handbook states to raise the pressures of winters by 0.2 bar over the normal pressures.

"With snow tyres, add +0.2 bar to the pressure value prescribed for standard tyres."

Tyres with a deeper tread block and winter "snipes" will feel different to normal tyres, the blocks move around making the steering and handling seem lighter.

Goudrons said:

The later model's handbook states to raise the pressures of winters by 0.2 bar over the normal pressures.

"With snow tyres, add +0.2 bar to the pressure value prescribed for standard tyres."

Tyres with a deeper tread block and winter "snipes" will feel different to normal tyres, the blocks move around making the steering and handling seem lighter.

Click to expand...

thanks for all your inputs. I have dropped the pressures for 31F and 29R. And the tire have come into their own. As everyone will know the temps dropped drastically yesterday and i was able to drive around with more confidence with the lower pressures (not dry tire levels) but more like how i am use to.

Traction was good in the almost freezing conditions, cornering traction is good but you can feel the front loading up the tires and the direction changes are not as immediate. Under hard acceleration in 1st and 2nd traction is strong.


I am much happier now and winter tires seem like a worthwhile investment purely on the freezing conditions stability.

I am running continental winter contact tsp 800 195.50.15 fitment

And thanks for the info about the moving tread block, now i know why the steering is much lighter and the car feeling loftier. But the reduction in pressure has made a marked difference for the better.

Oh i do notice the car a tad nicer over bumps with 50 profile too. Not huge but enough to be able to notice.

Ok I was in a local tyre place today and he had a chart ( remember when ALL service stations had these ?I guess something else the lawyers killed...) which said 'Panda '30/28 psi F/R . I'd say the diesels might like another one or two up front but this seems about right .Id say the 32 is borderline a bit high .Also I always check warm and allow a psi or so 'grace' higher .I know cold is recommended but I've seen tyres go up by 4 psi on a Summers day motorway run so would sooner not end up with rock hard tyres .

Can't compare normal Panda's and 100HP's.
Once again: Don't dismiss the Car and Tire manufacturers recommendations.

Due to heat from constant changing in form, temperatures (and therefore pressures) will rise while driving (especcially going fast), but it will rise more when the cld pressures are low. Simply because a tire on low pressure will change more in form and get much hotter.

Not my opinion. Simple fysics.

gr J