Fishtailed

T

Troika

New member
I fishtailed my 2013 SR5 this weekend. We hadn't had rain in a while and got enough to make the streets wet, which I know is the slickest time, but from a stop light, turning left in the intersection, the back end slid out on me (accidentally). I live on a hill and was able to spin the rear tires sort or at will going up.

I purchased Cert Pre-Owned and it came with some Yokohamas that I think may need to be replaced. Or, is there some other culprit?

I haven't fishtailed a car since the '80s and was only going maybe 15 mph.
 
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This is very common with rear wheel drive. It could also be several variables. Sometimes it could be oil in the asphalt. But key is not not jam the gas when turning. Rather turn then gradually accelerate into the turn. Right after a quick sprinkle the roads are the slickest. The rain pushes the oils up. I once spun out completely on a highway off ramp when I hit slightly damp pavement that was slick from oil. It was like I hit a patch of ice. Lastly, it could be the tires. Some tires are just plain terrible.
 
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CO-Cygnus said:
Obligatory tire related questions here -

  • What Brand and Model?
  • How Old?
  • How Worn?
Click to expand...

Yokohama YK-HTK
I assume that since 2013 that the stock Dunlops wore out and were replaced by these, so ... 1-2 years old, I guess.

Lots of tread, so visible signs of wear.
 
Pretty common in any RWD truck with worn tires. My BFG K02 are terrriiibbllle in the rain. Just be thankful you have a good traction control system.
 
salong53 said:
Just be thankful you have a good traction control system.
Click to expand...

The traction control system really is awesome. I'm surprised anyone even gets the chance break traction or get sideways in a way. I didn't realize how good of a job it did until I snapped my ABS wire recently. At a stop light my tires would spin from the slightest amount of gas on the one rainy day. Took me a while to get some traction.

Before then, and now that I fixed it, I can barely break traction at all.
 
I dont believe you! HA :moon: LOL

These trucks are SO gutless I didn’t think it was possible to fish tail.

I have intentionally turned off traction control and tried to hooligan it up in fresh rain and got very little, (no) action.

Disclosure: My other vehicles have more than twice the HP and Torque of the T4R and I drove RWD cars for many years in northern snow conditions, one car even that had no traction control and an open diff until i put a detroit tru trac in it. hiding:

If you did have an unexpected problem, I think you are on the right track to think about replacing the tires.
 
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salong53 said:
Pretty common in any RWD truck with worn tires. My BFG K02 are terrriiibbllle in the rain. Just be thankful you have a good traction control system.
Click to expand...

That's the one thing I dislike about the KO2s. They wear well, and are great off-road, but on damp (or even just slick) pavement they slip too easily.
 
Mick1 said:
I dont believe you! HA :moon: LOL

These trucks are SO gutless I didn’t think it was possible to fish tail.

I have intentionally turned off traction control and tried to hooligan it up in fresh rain and got very little, (no) action.

Disclosure: My other vehicles have more than twice the HP and Torque of the T4R and I drove RWD cars for many years in northern snow conditions, one car even that had no traction control and an open diff until i put a detroit tru trac in it. hiding:

If you did have an unexpected problem, I think you are on the right track to think about replacing the tires.
Click to expand...

especially w/ VSC and all these electronics these days its hard to fishtail anything newish
 
I fishtailed once on stock tires, but stability control worked very well. But it never happened again since I replaced tires - could be that I make left turns more carefully though : )
 
Follow up on this issue. I replaced the tires today. The post above was my only fishtail, but I was spinning the tires regularly from a stop. The streets are wet here in Seattle and I live on top of a giant hill, probably 500 vertical feet of gain over a 1/4 mile. Virtually every time I started up it from that direction I'd spin tires, especially if it was wet. I sometimes turned traction control off just to amuse myself, but it happened to my wife and we have some travel coming up, so I felt like I needed to address it.

Put some new Cooper AT3 4S on today. Light rain and I couldn't get the wheels to spin, even with traction control off. I didn't come up from that same direction, which will be the ultimate test, but it feels like problem solved, plus I have snow rated AT tires on now, which is appropriate for the vehicle and better on forestry roads and mountain passes, which is not daily for me, but not uncommon either.

I would warn people off of those particular Yokohamas, not that I've seen anyone express interest in them. Maybe someone will search for them some day, find this post and save themselves some pain.
 
After I bought my wife her 4Runner SR5, it became apparent that she loved the 4Runner so much that she was no longer using her Mercedes SLK 280. Another reason for giving up on the SLK 280 was the 6 speed manual no longer played well with the arthritis in her shoulder.

While my commute Honda Accord was down, I used her SLK 280 to drive the 3 miles to the train station. That thing was very squirrelly in turns and would cut loose on drive pavement if you moderately got on the pedal in a turn. It was even worse on wet pavement.

I finally got around to selling the car last year. The buyer was from St. Paul Minnesota and he was buying it for his wife. I was in no hurry to get rid of it and suggested that he wait until April to pick it up because I did not want to see him driving through snow in that car. He picked it up in April and on the drive back he took I 70 through Colorado. Sure enough hit snow around Vail and he said I was right about the car being pretty squirrely. He made it back to St. Paul and was promptly greeted by a snowstorm that dumped 2' of snow there. He sent me a nice thank you letter commending me for the maintenance and care taken on the car, which really showed. I'll tell you, a Mercedes is a car that you lease and return at the end of the lease as the repairs can get costly. That car forced me to become a mechanic again as the stealerships will eat you alive. Toyotas are a walk in the park by comparison.
 
Shortly after getting my 4R I thought I'd give my son a little scare and hoon it a bit while making a left turn onto the wet highway.


After that very brief test of the traction control system I was sorely disappointed and he was mildly confused.
 
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