[oneillchris]

Can you tell how excited Canadian drivers get in Spring.....Anyway I wanted to talk about braking and tires. I changed my pads last year and bled the entire system. The brakes work great maybe too great. When at high speed I brake too suddenly the car slides like it was on ice...Is it tires...Do old hard tires react this way. I'm worried my boy likes driving the car with his Italian girlfriend (Calabrian), which of course, has nothing to do with the post but I am worried. I am talking about pure sliding. Then if its Tires I want to start another Tech war which cheapo tires work the best.

 

[mcola]

I'm excited for Spring too. It got to -2 here in the Hammer.
Yes, old tires get dry, hard and don't offer much grip in the dry and nothing in the wet. Old dry tires can crack also, and blow at any time.

Not sure what size you need, but Canadian Tire has Pirelli P4's on for $110 (195/60/15) right now. You can probably find flight by night Chinese brands for $80-$90, but the little savings isn't worth the risk.

 

[maseratiguy]

I believe if the tires are old or even if they are cold and not warmed up by driving them a bit, yes, they will slide. Old tires the rubber can harden and be inflexible similar with cold tires too. Cheap tires I have found don't seem to get good traction for stopping.
my 2 cents and observations. (I'm not an expert)

 

[Legomedic]

There are a few great threads on tire sizes, brands and comparisons on the board.

My 2 cents worth is that you can save money on stuff that makes the car go, because the worst thing that can happen is you'll stop when you don't really want to; but that you shouldn't save money on stuff that makes the car stop (brakes, shocks, tires), because you won't stop when you REALLY want to...

I hope that paragraph makes sense.

 

[mcola]

A couple pretty good lower cost brands that I'd recommend, because I've had them before are Falken's and Sumitomo's.