AmitZ06

Someone please help me understand this. I was going honestly 50mph on the highway in the rain and then my car started correcting it self with traction control. It drifted right and then I kind of saved it and it finally spun all the way around..... luckily there was no one by me and I landed right by the barrier w/out hitting it. This happened 2 years ago as well. My tires are Invos...they have normal tread.

I feel like my car has a problem....can anyone chime in?

Im honestly scared and prob never will drive that car in the rain.

pewter99

haven't experienced any issue close to that however I always felt my 07Z was unsafe with teh stock GY tires after the first 4K...the General UHPs were worlds better in the rain..Invos now and no issues yet

I do think these cars don't handle as well as the C5's in the rain....YMMV but I drive more conseravtively in the rain with my Z

Gearhead Jim

OP-

The big question is; did the Active Handling or Traction Control go crazy and cause you to lose control of the car, or did something else (hydroplaning, excessive throttle, speed, etc) cause a situation that was too much for Active Handling/Traction Control to save?

Once you know the answer to that, then finding a solution may be easier...

Tonylmiller

In think I would disable TC and AH when on wet roads, which is kind of ironic. Two things:

1) You mean you drive your Corvette in the rain?!?!
2} Yes, I think something is wrong with your car. Has anyone else seem this behavior?

07blkvette

Check wheel alignment....

corvette C6 Z51

I have a coupe and the same exact thing happened to me, but i have the crappy good years. Luckily no damage was done.

boost2na

A couple of times with the stock GYs the rear has come out on me for apparently no reason (constant steering input and constant light throttle). The only explanation I could come up with was a combination of road imperfections and a really slick surface. Even if you're at say 5% throttle, if you hit a small bump/imperfection that moves the rear tire even 1/4 of an inch, for a split second that tire has lost some traction and is moving sideways; a split second later when it settles even though you haven't changed the throttle input at all it basically has the same effect as blipping the throttle on a perfectly flat wet road.

I've always suspected there's an even rarer case where you could be under a little more throttle and the upset is worse, triggering TC/AH. It could cut everything and then suddenly when it disengages it's like you blipped the throttle even harder.

Just a theory though.

miami08VETTE

You likely hydroplaned. It can happen at speeds even lower than you report. It depends on how much water is on the road surface.

AORoads

Besides rain, standing water possibility, what are the tread depths across all four tires? What is the inflation on all four? Are they the same size as stock wheels and tires? Any spacers?

Silver99v6

Was your cruise control on? Also, when you felt the car break traction, did you hit the breaks?


I never had a problem with my Invos, and I drove them through several heavy downpours.

TOBASCO

I've never actually spun the car as you did, but I have definitely noticed that on OEM Goodyears (at least), given the huge footprint and tread, that hydroplaning potential is not only increased, but almost likely.

I've learn to drive VERY carefully in the rain - regardless of how much is coming down.

glenB

It's called hydroplaning, the wider the tire the more apt that it's going to happen. Nitto can claim good traction in the rain with Invo's but I didn't find that to be the case. My experience has been that the Invo's made the rear feel light and squirrelly in rain condition, especially if there's any wind. I fixed the problem by putting Bridgestones on.

HOXXOH

I've had no problems at 75+ in light rain, but I've pulled over and waited out heavy rain, due to hydroplaning at 20 mph.

The volume of water, the road surface/construction, and tire selection dictate the speed.

Wide tires on a Z06 tend to hydroplane easier, especially worn ones.

It's not the car that lost control, it's the driver who exceeded conditions.

glenB

So true ....

Rogers 07

It doesen't take much standing water to make that happen !!

hig4s

With my stock GYs my coupe felt sketchy in the rain at anything over 60mph, now with Pilot A/S tires if feels much better in the rain.

That being said, if my car ever did anything that radical I would turn off the nannies and get it checked.

My old Jeep Wrangler did strange things, so I turned off the nannies permanently. I had larger than stock tires for off road, and per Jeep, the computer could not correct properly.. They even provided the computer procedure to make it so they would not come back on after shutting off and restarting.

bud miller

had that issue in my c6z several times..cold weather, cold tires especially the GY, went with nitto NT-05's which helped alot...the c6z is an animal, and it will kick out easily in circumstances like yours without much warning..from my experience it seem easier to drive the car spiritedly with the traction control off, but active handeling on, tires would spin but easier to bring the car back straight..often when WOT in 1st and shifting to 2nd..it was a handful.... many times unpredictable snap-out sideways.......................

Vette5.5

Guess driving my ZO6 home from a track day on Hoosier R6's in a torrential down pour, wasn't the best idea. Luckily, I had the forsight to do some light grooving to these tires, or doubt I'd made it. And it was raining bad too, to the point wear all traffic had to slow 30 mph at points, just to see the road. Still shaking from that one. Not a single water leak anywhere in the car though.

383vett

I agree with the others. The Z's footprint is so wide that it is easy to hydroplane if the road surface is not grooved. It can happen at 50 or at 30.

pewter99

yet my C5 with the same size tires up front as the Z and 335 in the rear doesn't have the issue