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It was raining and I was in the center lane and was driving under the speed limit, went through a curve and then suddenly hydroplaned and suddenly spun out. The car turned 180 degrees, the front of my car ended up facing traffic as I ended up on the shoulder. Luckily there was nobody behind me...there was a big line of traffic further back. It was a miracle that the car didn't hit the guard rail.
I just recently bought the car and the tires have 35,000 miles on them. I did the Penny test and can see most (but not all) of Lincoln's head. Should I be replacing the tires? Figured I would get 50k out of them but after this I think maybe it would be best to just replace them now. The mechanic who did the PPI didn't recommend changing the tires when I first bought the car. Another mechanic that I know said they should be good for awhile longer. I don't think I was going too fast as I had never done this in decades of driving. I do remember hitting a puddle a month or so ago with the same car. It hydroplaned for a split second but I was able to regain control right away.
I am going to get new tires just to be safe but is it normal for original tires to not last beyond 35k miles?
I'm lucky to get 5k miles out of my rear tires for one of our cars, it all depends on the tire and the car it's on.
Personally, 25k miles is about the max I let any of our tires get on them. We don't drive very much per year, so we either wear them out through use, or we replace them because they've gotten older than I trust.
It's also possible that whatever tire you have the car may still have acceptable tread, but it just is a crappy tire in the rain. Not all tires provide good traction and can channel water away efficiently in the wet.
It's a good idea to get the tires checked out. Also have them test your traction control. These days, the spinning as a result of hydroplaning is rare as the car's computer will sense slippage on one tire before it reaches the other(s).
It's also possible that whatever tire you have the car may still have acceptable tread, but it just is a crappy tire in the rain. Not all tires provide good traction and can channel water away efficiently in the wet.
Agreed.
What kind of tires do you have and what size?
We're on our 5th or 6th Honda Accord over the last many years. The new one has something like 215/50-R17 for the tire size. Those low, wide tires suck in weather. I just ordered new winter tires and rims for the winter and will be going with 216/60-R16.
We had no problems whatsoever with the older accords with narrower tires.
I've hydroplaned at ~35 mph before with the Prius on stock tires. That was at curve I normally take at around 80 if there's no traffic as it's coming down from the Caldecott tunnel into Oakland and I just let gravity do its thing and 80 is about where it ends up. This is the second winter and the tires have about 32,000 miles on them now. They still have tread but wet weather performance is noticeably worse this year than last year. You just need to be aware of conditions of the road and your vehicle. Hydroplaning at 35 mph definitely surprised me. It was raining heavily and most of the traffic was moving along at 30-40 and that wasn't a safe speed for me to be going in those conditions.
you can hydroplane with brand new tires ..wet driving traction is not the same as flooded driving traction ...
yep, and road conditions also play a big part. perhaps the temperature was down low enough that ice started to form on the roadway, its called "black ice" because the road seems to be wet, but otherwise passable without paying anything more than normal attention to the road.
All tires are not created equal. I'd be willing to bet the OP's car is equipped with low performance, inexpensive tires (just about all OEM spec tires are marginal, at best). The only thing connecting you to the road is your tires. The price difference between good tires (which is NOT the same a long-wearing) and mediocre tires, when considered in the context of the overall cost of car ownership, is nothing. Spend the extra money. The importance of quality tires simply cannot be overstated.
We're on our 5th or 6th Honda Accord over the last many years. The new one has something like 215/50-R17 for the tire size. Those low, wide tires suck in weather. I just ordered new winter tires and rims for the winter and will be going with 216/60-R16.
We had no problems whatsoever with the older accords with narrower tires.
Top quality "low, wide" tires do fine in bad weather. I'm running 245/40-19 summer tires on my car and they work wonderfully in the rain. I switch to 255/40-19 winter tires when the weather turns cold and have zero issues on ice or snow.
I applaud your decision to run winter tires. Too many people don't realize that "all-season" really means "no-season".
This happened to me with new tires except I spun 360 and kept driving. I wonder what the people behind me thought! So scary, I was shaking the rest of the way! Still, best to have the tires checked.
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