Goodyear GSD3 FI Users

[fan168]

Hi,

Question for anyone using Goodyear GSD3 F1 tyres, had a pair fitted to the front this morning to replace the existing Dunlop SP Sport 01’s. As soon as I pulled away from the tyre shop I noticed that the tyres were noticeably louder than the Dunlop’s, is this normal? Also I think I may have got a tracking problem as a result of having them fitted, just went out to the supermarket and instead of going in a straight line the car wanted to veer towards the left, I had to constantly adjust the steering.

One other thing, for the first time the tyres went of without needing extra weights put on when it was being balanced. Could that be the problem? Any advice appreciated.

[Kin Mak]

I will be very suprised that your wheels will be perfectly ballanced and don't need weights.

[peppernick]

I have been using GSD3-F1s for 3 years and never experienced any if the problems you've described. IMO, it's very unlikely to be the tyres (unless the tyres you bought are way past their shelf life and the rubber has hardened significantly). I too would get the wheels re-balanced, although constant pulling to one side sounds ,ore like an alignment problem than actual tyre/wheel balance issue.

[RDG 40]

No weights is very weird? worth checking that on another machine if they av one?

[fan168]

Thanks for the info I was expecting these tyres to be much better in every respect to the Dunlops so was a bit surprised. Will give them a call in the morning and see what they say.

[Auryn]

i dont think your problems are with the tyres mate as ive never had anything like that & ive used F1's for years, and in ##years of driving ive never had an un-weighted wheel either :)

[fan168]

Gave the place a call this morning, they said to bring it round about 1pm today. Asked them about the balancing and they said that they put the weights on the inside if going on alloys rather than the out. Sounds logical to me but I’ve never seen it done like that before, is it normal practice?

[mike 318is]

yes that is normal

you might find the goodyears to tramline more due to the thread design

[fan168]

Just got back from the tyre place, the guy said it was definitely the tracking and charged me £45 + VAT to a laser alignment. Drove the car a bit and found it was still veering towards the left at 40mph if I take my hands off the steering wheel. Called him and he told me to take it back in about 30 minutes for another tweak. Am I dealing with some cowboys here?

[fan168]

Went back there, he put the alignment equipment back on and said the adjustments were ‘spot on’ 5.5 both sides. I said “how come it’s still veering to the left?” He called over one of the mechanics who took a look under the car and said that the bushes we’re not aligned equally, about 10-15mm out which is probably what is causing the problem. However the bushes look pretty new, no sign of wear whatsoever, the only thing you can do is replace them but as I say they look pretty much new to me. Best thing to do is drive around for a couple of hundred miles and then bring the car back and we will check the alignment again.

I’m on public transport during the week so only really drive during the week so it’s not too bad but still need it fixed. Any ideas what I should do from here?

[reaver]

have u checked pressure are ok ( same each side ..ect ) ?

ps- good choice of tyre :) :cool:

[wicksta]

Cars do normally veer to the left if you take your hands off the wheel, it's due to the camber of the road. Are you sure it's not just that?

[fan168]

Hi Reaver, tyre pressures were one of the first things I checked as I thought that could be it but unfortunately not.

Wicksta, I’m pretty sure it’s not what you were mentioning, I used to drive along these roads a lot and remember having tried this in the past and the car carried on pretty much in a straight line. I’m really more concerned about having to constantly adjust the steering when driving, gets a little bit scary on the motorways.

[LapMan]

The Goodyear GSD3 are at the front? What tyres are you running at the back?

[fan168]

They are Goodyear NCT5

[LapMan]

I was running on Eagle F1 GSD2 and had the rears replaced with GSD3 (as GSD2 were no longer available).

As soon as I hit 40mph or above, the rear end of the car swerved left and right – with the traction control coming on at random. The car felt extremely unsafe the drive.

Following some lengthy conversations with Goodyear – they said that the reason was down to the fact that the fronts were running “a different pattern” to the rears..

I had the fronts changed to GSD3. This improved. The rear end of the car stopped swerving left to right. However this created a new problem - the car would suddenly pull to the left and sometimes to the right.

I had the entire set changed to Bridgestones. This cured the problem.

[dodgyken]

Back to your original post - Dunlops are regards as some of the quieter tyres you can buy. When I put new tyres on my car a couple of years ago I knew I would be doing a lot of long motorways journerys, the guys at Micheldever recommended Dunlops - and they were quiet.

[fan168]

Thanks for the info LapMan

Hmm maybe that’s the problem I’m getting, haven’t had any signs of the traction control light coming on though. I am surprised that you still had problems when you had GSD3’s all round, that is where I was planning to get to when my rear tyres wear down to about 3mm. I opted for these tyres after reading all the rave reviews about them. Not too sure what to do know.

[madmatt m3]

The Goodyear GSD3 is an evolution of the goodyear eagle F1 which was a very noisy tyre under braking and as such GSD3 if anyhting is worse than the original eagle F1. The tyre tread is specifically designed as a wet use tyre which is why it creates so much road noice and it uses quite a hard compound for longlife.

Before you start thinking about changing tyres again (which is expensive) can I suggest 2 options to try.

Firstly, find a big empty space and throw the car from side to side rapidly to heat the tyres up and make them a little less rigid and then try driving up the road and see if that cures it. If not try swapping the fronts to the backs this will give you an idea if its the tyres or the bushes on the front.

Depending how the tyres have benn stored at the garage they could be a little out of shape which is causing your wandering to the left. If you can warm them up sufficiently and do 100 or so miles on them it may bring them back into shape. your tracking will probably need to be readjusted again afterwards tho.

Ive fitted several sets of goodyears to performance cars in the past and most people used to bring them back and change them for either bridgestone SO3's or michelin pilot cup sport whihc is now the cup sport 2.

Hope that helps a bit

[fan168]

Thanks for the advice I’ll give that a go over the weekend if I get a chance. Is it possible that when they jacked up the car to put the tyres on it could have damaged the bushes in any way?

[madmatt m3]

highly unlikely to damage the bushes from jacking it up but they should have advised you to come back in 24-48hrs to have the tracking done tho cos you cant get a true reading after the car has been jacked up it need s abit of time to settle back down to where its used to.

It is always possible that the garages laser tracking machine is out of alignment, it may be worth taking it somewhere else to get a secong opinion, most place are free to check and only charge you to put it right

[fan168]

The garage did say that it comes with a six month guarantee and I should take it back for re-alignment every six to eight weeks. Might try another tyre fitter, there’s National about a mile up the road.

[madmatt m3]

would advise anyone to stay well way from National tyres!! your best bet is a non franchised local tyre fitter.

A mate of mine is the manager of a local branch of a well known company (no names lol) when i ask him to look at my tracking for me he told me he wouldnt cos his guage is always calibrated with an error, that way everyone who comes in for a check has to have their tracking done as the guage will always show it as being out!

Its a cheap and underhanded trick but it happens unfortunately, the new laser alignments can be adjusted to give a false reading too easily, you cant beat an old fashioned manual set of tracking sticks which use mirrors and a slide guage

[fan168]

Thanks for letting me know that otherwise National would have told me there was an issue and then I would have been straight back to the original garage and lodged a complaint.

[madmatt m3]

No worries. Good luck gettin it sorted, keep us updated with anything progress

[fan168]

Still struggling with this one, went back to the tyre place and they checked the tracking again and said it was ‘spot on, you can’t get any better’. The manger came out and said ‘swap the wheels round’, I now have the GSD3’s on the rear. Its no longer pulling to the left but to the right instead :eek: if I straighten the steering wheel and take my hands off, drive at about 5-10mph the car just veers towards the right.

They said it’s definitely not a problem with the tyres so I’m wondering if it’s the tracking. Anyone know what values the tracking should be? He’s set it to 5.5 both sides.

[Kin Mak]

If you look at tyres they have a red line going round the tyre. It is to one side of the tyre. You must make sure the left and right tyre have the red line on the inside or the outside. If both are to the right side or to the left side it will cause the car to track to the side.

[J13JUT]

right ive worked in tyre centers for 17 years ... are you having to hold the steering wheel straight it sounds to me that when theyve set your alignment theyve adjusted it unevenly if you adjust one side of the steering rack more than the other it knocks the steering wheel of centre which always causes the car to pull ....... come on spill the beans what centre did you go to ....?

[fan168]

Thanks for the info Kin_Mak, I’ll have a look at the tyres tonight after work.

I got the tyres from a place called Iverson Tyres in Chiswick, they do tyres, exhausts, MOT, servicing etc.. Really busy place.

If I hold the steering wheel straight then the car veers to the right, however if I hold the steering wheel slightly off centre to the left then its ok. Not sure if it’s worth going back there as the guy who does the alignment is convinced that the tracking is fine. However he did say I should go back after having driven about 6-800 miles. What should I say to him?

[robinh20mrv]

hi m8,

i have goodyears on the front and toyos on the back (yes, i know its a mismatch) but it works for me, and i was doing some MENTAL things up to orkney and back at the weekend and she was TOTALY stuck to the road, superb!! however , i am not keen on f1s on the back as i feel they "go off" or start to slide before the toyos,

saying that,

i am changing my wheels and tires to a new set of oem csl wheels and pilot sport cup tyres for high days and holidays when i get the car back from the bodyshop in a day or so,

but goodyears i have always found very good.

cheers robin.

[J13JUT]

robin explain why is she in the body shop i hope its for bumper and bonnet and not cuz youve broken her ........

[robinh20mrv]

after a weekend of TOTAL MENTAL FUN, the flies were so thick i had to put her in for a new csl bumper and carbon bonnet ;)

the cars sooooooo alive now! and the corners, MENTAL!!:eek:

new wheels here thursday, up for my tires then bud!!

cheers robin.

[fan168]

Finally got this sorted, my brother’s friend is a mechanic and he re-tracked it for me. Money down the drain again but at least its now fixed.

[Chaos]

I hope you went back to the first garage and asked the guy you went to if he wouldn't mind explaining that bush diagnosis again... ;)

[fan168]

would prefer to stay away from that place to be honest but next time I'm passing by I'll pop in and have a word.