Winter tyres fitted = ESP lit up liske a xmas tree!

[berg]

Fitted my vreds this morning, thinking traction would be better than my pilot sport 2 on front and conti SP2 on the back, ESP on in 1st and 2nd. Is this purely because it is actually too warm to have these tyres on yet as was 12 degress this morning and with the harder compound traction is worse?

[Phil Miller]

this could be due to the tyres being new, i fitted some new tyres to the front of mine last week and for the first few days the esp flashed like a good un on the cattle grid on my way to work, its now back to normal so im thinking the newness of the tyres has worn off

[ub7rm]

In my experience winter tyres are noticeably vauger at higher temps like 12 deg c.  By 3 deg C they feel pretty tight.  I suspect your problem is more to do with being brand new tyres and not being scrubbed in yet though.  My Nankang Snow SV-2's dont have this issue (on  a standard ko3s...).

[berg]

ahhh ok so give it a few hundred miles and see if settles down, thanks chaps

[JackG]

It's your cars way of having a Xmas tree 

They come with all sorts of crap on them from
The factory,should think all the oils etc left on them will come off and your be ok

[john87]

I've had my winters on for 3 weeks, and the GTi still flashes away in 3rd when its damp, whereas it didn't on the pzero rossos..

[calculon]

Also having the esp light up like crazy. Running dunlop wintersport 3Ds from last year. I don't think it was this "bad" last year, but then it was also a lot colder :-)

[LouCyffer]

New tyres come with a releasing agent on them. This is used to allow easier removal of the tyre from the mould during production.

The tyre will 'sweat' off this slippery covering during it's first few heat cycles, as it warms and cools during normal use. It will also lose some (but much less) due to abrasion. Some folk try to 'sand' off the releasing agent with a wire brush or similar, but without heat cycles, this isn't effective.

So you should find your tyres will improve over the next few days. Also, the softer compound in cold weather tyres allows the tread blocks to exhibit greater movement, which causes a feeling of floating, or vague steering feel, particularly with coming from semi worn summer rubber.