Front tires squealing on Toyota

#1

Tom and Ray just discussed a husband’s driving and squealing the tires while in turns. While I note that the husband said he was driving “too fast”, I’m not convinced he was driving hard at all, and there are some possible causes that weren’t discussed.



Squealing from tires can often be caused by (a) worn tires, (b) cheap tires, and/or © underinflated tires. Speed is not always the issue. On a used car, I’ve inherited Uniroyal tires that squealed like crazy just idling around corners in parking lots. I got rid of them and eliminated the tire squeal.



And for that matter, it’s no fun to drive 3 MPH around every corner! Why not have some fun now and then?? Tire squeal can be a way to remind you that driving can be fun!



Also - there was a discussion of physics and when to brake relative to a corner. I’m not a physicist, but there’s more at work in this answer than the arc and the tangent. A car’s entire handling is controlled by four small tire contact patches - and how much traction each contact patch has. I have been through the Bondurant School of High Performance driving and a State Patrol Instructor’s school, and using the vehicle’s weight through braking can be a critical part of maintaining control. One should indeed do the hard braking before entering a corner, but getting completely off the brakes before the corner is not always a good practice. It’s fine for relaxed driving, but if you are surprised by a corner or if you are simply driving hard, it’s worth noting that Bondurant teaches “trailing brake”, in which the driver lets up on the brake pedal, but slight presure is applied to the brake up to the point of the corner’s apex. This keeps more weight on the front tires, thereby increasing traction to the tires…and the vehicle’s ability to corner. After the apex, it’s time to transfer smoothly from brake to accelerator.



Of course, just as Tom & Ray would probably say on the show, “…these answers are worth every penny they cost you”.



Cheers…

#2

You forgot “D”.
Tyres squeal when you drive on the painted lines that seperate lanes on curves and circular on-ramps.

My mother taught me the best time to accelerate was not on the apex, but on entering the curve, ie accelerate through the turn, ie brake on the straight, then accelerate into and through the curve.