Jason B

Chunks in tires on the bead are ok. That bead is there for a reason, if you hit curbs, etc, and is meant to get marred up and will be fine.

hyperion667

man, never seen anything like it, good luck

oldsinner111

I hate winter too.I plan to retire in Brazil,near the Amazon river.I have only been comfortable driving in winter,with 4 studded snow tires.

hyperion667

it's not winter's fault we as humans can't drive LOL

Tall Paul

Truer words......

We drive in "winter" conditions for up to seven months of the year. You learn real quick when to drive and when not to. First consideration: is your vehicle road worthy for the conditions? Second: are you? If the answer to either is no, don't drive.

Surge

Not quite - all season tires CAN be used below 7C. It's Summer tires that shouldn't be used below 7C.

You said your tires were "almost new". How new? Do you know that new tires need about 200 miles to properly break-in? During that time they will have less traction than normal. 200 miles is an estimate, it may take longer, depending on how you drive.

Let us know...

Tall Paul

Hey Surge - my bad. I should have been more specific in the use of all-season tires. You are correct, of course, that all-season can be used below 7C. But, there are better choices. The following is an excerpt from Autos.ca:

I asked a tire engineer with one of the tire companies what the best winter tire on the market would be. He answered me honestly, saying that probably the newest tire on the market would likely be the best. He based this on the rapid changes in rubber and tire technology. Newer tires simply have newer technology, but no matter what you choose, any winter-specific tire will outperform even the best all-season tires when temperatures drop.

mb1000

Even snow tires do not have great traction sidewise on the ice.


Also modern cars have weak hardware design to save weight for gas and protect structure My other car got same hit but only damaged wheels, not suspension or structure.

Surge

This is odd - was ESP off?
Otherwise, I think the tires were too new and not yet broken in.

A soft right at 10-15mph lead the car to spin or slide sideways until it hit the opposite curb?!

Either esp wasn't working or those tires were really new.

1bad540

are u guys serious? any tire on ice slides period.unless u have studs which u don't. even the best snow tires slide on a sheet of ice.

Surge

Slide laterally/sideways? At 10mph? with AWD?
I live in Toronto, so I know snow & ice driving…
I have never seen or heard of that.

Not with good snows and working ESP/traction control.

Maybe the OP was going a lot faster than 10-15 mph.

jattsingh

I can assure you I was going very very slow. I knew the road conditions were not good and I was on my own residential street approaching a turn with my 5 year old son in the back. I was being extremely cautious.

Even the tow truck driver started to lose control when he was coming to tow my car. It was just a bad patch of ice right under the snow.

jattsingh

tires were about 6 months old, maybe 3000 miles on them.. I did not turn ESP off.

Surge

That's really crazy. Glad you were alright.

Jason B

This is easily believable. I don't care what car you are in, on ICE and with a car as heavy as that, it's like a heavy metal safe on rollers. I've been in situations like this in 4wd vehicles. Ice is ice, doesn't matter how slow you are going.

Is the car fixed? IS is back to normal?

Surge

Not really - because it is 4matic. So ALL FOUR wheels must have been on ice, and not just ice, but with a similar coefficient of friction, so that none even one wheel had grip.

Driving in Canada for almost 25 years, I have to say this has Never happened to me, and most of those 25 years have been with 2WD cars.

Jason B

I'm willing to bet all 4 tires were on ICE. With all 4 on ice, it doesn't matter. Now, with snow, 4matic is awesome.

jattsingh

All 4 tires hit the patch of ice at the same time. It was the strangest feeling with the car just sliding like that, I have never experienced anything like that before. I have been through many harsh winters and occasionally had times when the car I was driving would slip slightly, but never like this. I had absolutely no control whatsoever.

jattsingh

Car is fixed, 100% back to normal. Luckily not as bad as I thought, all they had to do was replace the strut and a few components in the wheel area. No damage to suspension or drivetrain or 4matic system. Biggest cost honestly was replacing the amg rims. No work done in the body shop, everything was done in the service department.

Bill-W221

Glad to hear they were able to get it fixed up

natcahd

Jatt...I would take to another shop for peice of mind. I had an accident where they supposedly fixed everything on a E430. It didn't feel right after a couple of weeks. I took to another reputable Mercedes body shop. They showed me where the frame didnt fit on their rack. It wasn't off by much, but enough for my insurance company(Geico at that time) to completely write the car off.

Hd

jattsingh

I may take it to another dealer, but I think they got it fixed fully. I talked to the service rep and they said they fully examined everything and if they saw more damage they would have fixed it. The frame of the car was not touched at all, everything was isolated with the rim and strut. Good advice though, I may take it one more place just to make sure. I have been driving it around and it seems 100% just like how it was before.

natcahd

Jatt...Good to hear.

Hd

Nuru

You can slide on ice at very low speeds, especially when in turns, one thing to do is if you can make those turns as wide as you can. So that you can avoid the suspension moving the body of the car in a way that moves the Cg into an area where the rear or front wheels don't have enough weight on them for an instant and then you can easily slide if that happens.

Gee I hope this run-on diatribe makes sense to everyone

Bill-W221

Or for us simple folk

Ice is slippery