So, I recently bought a daily runner in the form of a Seat Leon TDI Fr 150.
Cannot fault anything so far, previous owner looked after it well, engine is good, box is good, interior is ok (for a spanish motor) and it doesn't leak. Bonus!
However, when I got the car, the front tyres needed changing and as I was driving up to Liverpool the following day, I got them done immediately. The rears are effectively new Sport Contact 5's but the tyre place did not have any, so I had Eagle F1's put on the front. All seems ok as far as I can tell in the dry but in the wet, something is not right. In a straight line, it sometimes twitches offline slightly without warning. It is not linked to speed. In the dry, it tracks perfectly well and does not tramline. I cannot fault the handling as such but in the wet, it is borderline dangerous. It almost feels like the car moves slightly sideways for a split second before gripping again.
Tracking is fine, tyre pressures are fine. I have no experience with these cars and reading up on them, they do seem to have some skittish handling tendencies but nothing like I have. Uprated ARB's are talked about but this is a daily, I am not hammering about in it like the S2.
Could mismatched tyres cause this issue do you think. I didn't really give it much thought as each corner has £100 of new rubber on it. Historically my tyres always match but I needed to get them done, so thought new tyres (even if different) would be better than the bald Conti's that were on the car when I got it.
The S2 needs new tyres, so if it is this, I will swap the F1's to the S2 and buy another 2 to match it and then find somewhere with the same Conti's for the rear of the Seat.
Anyone have any views on this or any experience of twitchy Leon's?
Tempted to take it to my mechanic to check for suspension issues as I cannot imagine what could be causing such bizarre intermittent twitching in wet conditions.
Cannot fault anything so far, previous owner looked after it well, engine is good, box is good, interior is ok (for a spanish motor) and it doesn't leak. Bonus!
However, when I got the car, the front tyres needed changing and as I was driving up to Liverpool the following day, I got them done immediately. The rears are effectively new Sport Contact 5's but the tyre place did not have any, so I had Eagle F1's put on the front. All seems ok as far as I can tell in the dry but in the wet, something is not right. In a straight line, it sometimes twitches offline slightly without warning. It is not linked to speed. In the dry, it tracks perfectly well and does not tramline. I cannot fault the handling as such but in the wet, it is borderline dangerous. It almost feels like the car moves slightly sideways for a split second before gripping again.
Tracking is fine, tyre pressures are fine. I have no experience with these cars and reading up on them, they do seem to have some skittish handling tendencies but nothing like I have. Uprated ARB's are talked about but this is a daily, I am not hammering about in it like the S2.
Could mismatched tyres cause this issue do you think. I didn't really give it much thought as each corner has £100 of new rubber on it. Historically my tyres always match but I needed to get them done, so thought new tyres (even if different) would be better than the bald Conti's that were on the car when I got it.
The S2 needs new tyres, so if it is this, I will swap the F1's to the S2 and buy another 2 to match it and then find somewhere with the same Conti's for the rear of the Seat.
Anyone have any views on this or any experience of twitchy Leon's?
Tempted to take it to my mechanic to check for suspension issues as I cannot imagine what could be causing such bizarre intermittent twitching in wet conditions.
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