Here's the story:

It's raining this morning (rush hour) in the northern burbs of Chicago and I'm cruising to work on the highway (294N, near Gurnee) doing about 70ish...and I can feel the car hydroplaning a bit, so I slow down and start to move to the right lane. As I'm doing this I LOSE COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE CAR. I'm sideways one direction, then sideways the other direction then I proceed to go into a full out spin (twice I think) across three lanes of the highway. I end up with my rear bumper about 2 inches from the right guard rail, and my front end sticking in the right lane of the highway...I look to my left and traffic in all lanes is dead stopped.

The car had shut itself off, so I restart the car after putting it into park and straighten myself out onto the shoulder. Needless to say, I'm shaking at this point and sat there for about 10 minutes to calm my nerves. Thankfully, I did not hit anyone/anything, nor did anyone/anything hit me. (I'm going to buy a lottery ticket today)

I have the OEM RE050 tires on the car that need replacing (an understatement based on today's events) and placed an order with tirerack.com for a set of RE760's on backorder back in April.

Here are my questions:

1. Why did the car shut itself off? What 'safety' feature allowed this to happen?

2. What kind of service will be necessary based on doing two involuntary 360's? I'm guessing an alignment check. Anything else?

3. I'm rethinking getting the summer tires and looking to all-season tires...what are your recommendations for the staggered set (i.e. Front: 225/50R18 Rear: 245/45R18)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

I hydroplaned once in heavy rain but was extremely lucky I only slid in a somewhat straight line.

Glad you're ok OP.

 

Dude, that's freakin' scary. Glad that you're OK. Pretty lucky that you didn't impact anything.

So far as your questions go, I got nothin'.

 

check the forums on that problem your having with the car shutting off i think i read about that on here somewhere before and good luck

 

I had goosebumps from reading that O.o very scary man then I laughed right after when you said you were buying a lottery ticket.. lol I'm glad your okay man.

 

I have hydroplane before and did the exact as you except my rear bumper actually hit the guard rails. You will definitely need alignment and new all season tires. When I hydroplaned I had the summer tires and it was raining. They sux huge ....

 

I don't want to start any bashing here, but going 70+ with bald tires when its wet is asking for trouble. Actually with bald tires I would not go over 60 in the wet. I'm glad that you are OK and no one got hurt, but please use common sense.

In Chicago, unless you will be changing to winter tires during winter driving, buy all season tires. Probably your best bang for the buck will be Pirelli P-Zero Neros all seasons plus M&S. I'm in StL and all I buy is All seasons. I actually went with Hankooks because it was the best that was available after I hit a curb and popped my tire during this winter, but if I had some time I would definatelly buy the Pirellis. You won't need to check the alignment after your incident, unless you actually hit something or have some shaking in the steering wheel. However, since you will be getting new tires soon, just ask your mechanic to check the alignment anyway.

 

+1 Tires tires tires...

you sound like you put on a quite a show for everyone else on the road.

Glad your ok..

 

Glad your okay!

But driving with bald tires in wet weather and speeding is not okay.

 

Agreed.

I really need to do a better job at paying attention to the tire wear. When I put the summer tires on this spring there was definitely some tread left...now, needless to say, they are bald.

I'm really not in the position to wait for the RE760's to come off of back order anymore. Time to compromise.

Thanks for the well wishes and advice!

 

I was under the assumption that most mainstream summer tire are good for wet and dry. Is this not true?

In any case, that definitely is scary. Thankfully, there was no impact but it definitely makes you think. Nowadays, I don't mess around with safety things I can control: good tires, good brake pads, etc. Life is too short.

 

You are right, most summer tires are good for wet traction, however some of the UHP Tires are not that good for wet weather conditions. Do your research, Tirerack and some other tire sites have good tire reviews and even keep track of the user experience on the tires performance.

 

Update: I just purchased a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports from Costco. Total price $911 installed (included a $70 rebate). They'll be in next week for installation...hopefully we don't get a lot of rain around here for the next few days!

 

Glad you are okay, of course. This was my experience with https://g35driver.com/forums/g35-sed...ydroplane.html ing. 2010 front end conversion I was in the same boat waiting on tires from tirerack. I ended up canceling my order and getting the firehawks. Im in FL got to love the summer tires.

 

The car shut off because of the spinning, the car probably rolled backwards as it spun and stalled the engine. Either that or somehow activated as a safety feature?

Take it easy and SLOW DOWN EVERYBODY!!!!!