Wiggle While Driving, Tread Squirm?

[Joey D]

I'm having a rather strange problem with my 2007 Cooper, non-S. About 9,000 miles ago I upgraded the tires and wheels from the OEM 15's with 185/60/15 Yokohama tires with 16" MB Wheels Mesh X's and 205/50/16 Goodyear Eagle GT's.

Before upgrading the car drove fine, or at least good enough for skinny, non-performance oriented tires. After I got them the tires had a case of tread squirm or at least that's what I thought. I took it to Discount Tire and they told me that the tires just needed to break in and would do so in a 1,000 miles or less. So I drove it and after 3,000 miles the squirm still had not gone away. Took it back to Discount and they rotating and balanced the tires and told me to try having the car aligned. I went to an independent shop, a Goodyear Service Centre actually since it was next to work, and had them perform and alignment. I also have them inspect the suspension to make sure there was no issues. Everything came back good.

I had the car at the dealer at about 6,000 miles after the tire install and had them look at the suspension too, they said everything looked fine as well. They suggested the tires were probably from a bad batch or just bad tires flat out.

Any ideas? I don't mind buying new tires if these ones are causing me that much of a headache, but I'm more worried something might be wrong with the suspension that has been overlooked. The rims are also a bit heavier at 17lbs instead of 14lbs. but that shouldn't really make a difference. I've had aftermarket rims in the past which were much heavier with just acceleration problems.

Here is what the tread pattern on the tires look like:

[R56 Ed]

Not sure what you mean by tread squirm, but does it feel like the tires are pulling a bit to one side and then the other? If so, I believe that's called tramlining, and it's a relatively common side effect from wider tires with more traction than the narrower OEM runflat disasters. The tires try to 'climb out of the ditch', up the sides of the trough, where heavy traffic has compressed the pavement. Not usually present on concrete roads, but most often found on asphalt. If the problem goes away on concrete roads, then I bet that's what the problem is. Other than going back to skinny tires, there isn't much you can do to correct it... just hang on tight!

More thoughts? Anybody else?

P.S. I have the same car with exactly the same issue.

[Joey D]

I know when switching to something like winter tires you get "squirm" or a bit of a wiggle do to the spongier rubber and deeper treads. There is a bit of a wiggle while driving down the road.

The tramlining you described is pretty much exactly what I'm experiencing. The car does seem fine on concrete roads, although there is still a slight wiggle but I think that might be due to the way we comb the concrete on the road in Michigan. For the most part it goes with the flow of traffic and it does weird things with the treads of certain tires. I've learned to live with that.

Thanks for the clarification on this though, it's really been bugging me. I've asked around some other forums and no one else has seemed to suggest this, although I have been told putting a summer-only tire opposed to an all-season might help out too since it will have a stiffer sidewall.

Thanks again ! This is why I love the MINI community.

[Robin Casady]

Different tire designs seem to have more trouble with combed concrete than others. Next time you go to buy tires, call or email Alex at TireRack.com. You will find his posts in the Wheels, Tires & Brakes forum. He seems to be a MINI specialist at TireRack, and can recommend tires to suit your needs.

[Joey D]

Originally Posted by Robin Casady

Different tire designs seem to have more trouble with combed concrete than others. Next time you go to buy tires, call or email Alex at TireRack.com. You will find his posts in the Wheels, Tires & Brakes forum. He seems to be a MINI specialist at TireRack, and can recommend tires to suit your needs.

Thank you for the heads up, I'll be sure to contact him and see what he has to say.

[Capt_bj]

to reinforce .... yep sounds like trammeling

I had the 17" Pir' Euph' RF's on the 02 and grooved concrete or an open mesh steel bridge were real exciting .... had both on the way to/fm work..... on the bridges the car would literally weave across the lane

when I changed tires the problem virtually disappeared.

[Benibiker]

My 07 with the runflat Bridgestones did it but my 08 with Pirelli P Zero runflats don't. It's all in the tread, if most of the tread pattern is parallel it'll do it on grooved pavement.

[scottab36]

Try some NITTO Neo Gens. After about 300 miles you won't find a better tire for the price. Minimal tram-lining (squirm) also