MX-3.com

Well my (old) mx-3 has bit the dust, a month after I sold her.
The guy is ok.
He spun out on a rainy day and hit a pole. Backwards.

Cop said he would have been no more if 1. He hit anywhere but the back 2. the pole hit anywhere but the side with the sub box and glanced off it

cool tip - a MTX super woofer can fly 50 feet after ripping out of the box and down the street and still work. Only has a little dent on it. Got to get a pick of it. Not even warped

anyway here are the picks.

How fast was this guy going in the rain??

Time for him to sell some parts. Ill buy the sway bars if its a GS

He's lucky that he is ok. Especially with the sub box as that is dead weight flying around, a kid I knew died because he had a head on and the sub box flew over his seat and hit him in the head. Make sure you bolt those suckers down. When I had my crash, my huge subbox basically made my rear seat cave in about 1.5 feet haha.

wow...seems like everyone is macking jp there cars. Just glad there was no people badly hurt.


just so people know the car is an rs so no sway bars. It had a bp swap

solo_ryder wrote:He's lucky that he is ok. Especially with the sub box as that is dead weight flying around, a kid I knew died because he had a head on and the sub box flew over his seat and hit him in the head. Make sure you bolt those suckers down. When I had my crash, my huge subbox basically made my rear seat cave in about 1.5 feet haha.

I know what you mean. And yes the box was actually a large fibreglass box I made, in the side of the vehicle. I screwed it down with a lot of screws. That thing weighed like 20 pounds - imagine that thing flying around!!!!

Illa Killa wrote:How fast was this guy going in the rain??

turns out earlier that day he had his brand new tires slashed, so he had on old wore out ones to get around.
He was taking a turn on a newly paved road going about 15km over, and the back end spun out.
I've had it happen twice, but never ended up hitting anything.

I say always have the grippier tires on back - if there is a difference in the wear.

My friend says different - says put your grip up front. (he's had four insurance claims in the last year, so I don't know)

what do you guys say? front or back?

Most vehicles are equipped with the same size tire at every wheel position. Ideally all of these tires should also be of the same type and design, have the same tread depth and be inflated to the pressures specified by the vehicle placard or owner's manual. This combination best retains the handling balance engineered into the vehicle by its manufacturer.

However due to the front tires' responsibility for transmitting acceleration, steering and most of the braking forces on front-wheel-drive vehicles, it's normal for front tires to wear faster than rear tires. If the tires aren't rotated on a regular basis, it's also common for pairs of tires to wear out rather than sets. And if the tires aren't rotated at all, it's likely that the rear tires will still have about 1/2 of their original tread depth when the front tires are completely worn out.

Intuition suggests that since the front tires wore out first and because there is still about half-tread remaining on the rear tires, the new tires should be installed on the front axle. This will provide more traction, and by the time the front tires have worn out for the second time, the rear tires will be worn out too. However in this case, intuition isn't right...and following it can be downright dangerous.

When tires are replaced in pairs in situations like these, the new tires should always be installed on the rear axle and the worn tires moved to the front. The reason is because new tires on the rear axle help the driver more easily maintain control on wet roads because new, deeper treaded tires are more capable of resisting hydroplaning.

Hydroplaning occurs when the tire cannot process enough water through its tread design to maintain effective contact with the road. In moderate to heavy rain, water can pool up in road ruts, depressions and pockets adjacent to pavement expansion joints. At higher speeds, the standing water often found in these pools challenge a tire's ability to resist hydroplaning.

Exactly when hydroplaning occurs is the result of a combination of elements including water depth, vehicle weight and speed, as well as tire size, air pressure, tread design and tread depth. A lightweight vehicle with wide, worn, underinflated tires will hydroplane at lower speeds in a heavy downpour than a heavyweight vehicle equipped with new, narrow, properly inflated tires in drizzling rain.

If the rear tires have more tread depth than the front tires, the front tires will begin to hydroplane and lose traction on wet roads before the rears. This will cause the vehicle to begin to understeer (the vehicle wants to continue driving straight ahead). Understeer is relatively easy to control because releasing the gas pedal will slow the vehicle and help the driver maintain control.

However, if the front tires have more tread depth than the rear tires, the rear tires will begin to hydroplane and lose traction on wet roads before the fronts. This will cause the vehicle to begin to oversteer in which the vehicle wants to spin. Oversteer is far more difficult to control, and in addition to the initial distress felt when the rear of the car starts sliding, quickly releasing the gas pedal in an attempt to slow down may actually make it more difficult for the driver to regain control, possibly causing a complete spinout.

Members of The Tire Rack team had the chance to experience this phenomenon at Michelin's Laurens Proving Grounds. Participants were allowed to drive around a large radius, wet curve in vehicles fitted with tires of different tread depths - one vehicle with new tires on the rear and half-worn tires on the front, and the other with the new tires in the front and half-worn tires on the rear.

It didn't take long for this hands-on experience to confirm that the "proving grounds" name for the facility was correct. The ability to sense and control predictable understeer with the new tires on the rear, and the helplessness in trying to control the surprising oversteer with the new tires on the front was emphatically proven.

And even though our drivers had the advantage of knowing we were going to be challenged to maintain car control, spinouts became common during our laps in the car with the new tires on the front. Michelin advises us that almost everyone spins out at least once!

Experiencing this phenomenon in the safe, controlled conditions of Michelin's Laurens Proving Grounds rather than in traffic on an Interstate ramp in a rainstorm is definitely preferred!

In case there is any doubt, when tires are replaced in pairs, the new tires should always be installed on the rear axle and the worn tires moved to the front.

Thats from tirerack.com

Man that car is screwed!

Must of been more than 15km over to end up like that.

95 rs wrote:
Thats from tirerack.com

OH ok I was like "man this guy is an expert!" LOL

but seriously I agree with rotating to have all 4 go out at one time... after I have spun out twice with bad tread on the back... I was pretty fortunate both times with hardly anything to show for them! Don't put your bad tread on the back on an mx-3 for sure!

yeah the mx3s backend is like a slingshot when it starts to come out. And due to steering up front basically pushing the tires sideways, the tires tend to become rounded at the edges, leading to a little more body roll when mounted in the rear.
I replace in pairs bout every 6-8 months and always put the new ones on back. The stores always argue with me about it. "its front wheel drive, you want the traction up front" The rears are almost new when i change them so it really doesnt make a difference up front, and besides, it would proly take a whole month for the fronts to have less tread anyways. I take it easy on the burnouts for a while and when they start wearing down I just burn em off quick. I don't like to have nearly bald tires and deffinitly don't want all 4 bald. This is why I don't rotate till I buy two new tires. Its also easier on the wallet only changing 2 at a time instead of getting hit with a big bill all at once.

HOLY CRAP! yeaaaah, so how is the motor? lol It would be cool if the motor was fine seeming I would love to have that motor

ruthless_mx3 wrote:yeah the mx3s backend is like a slingshot when it starts to come out. And due to steering up front basically pushing the tires sideways, the tires tend to become rounded at the edges, leading to a little more body roll when mounted in the rear. The stores always argue with me about it. "its front wheel drive, you want the traction up front"

Actually if you read what the experts say, what you do is correct. Usually it's in reference to getting snow tires, but your reasoning is correct for any FWD car...

Nd4SpdSe wrote:

ruthless_mx3 wrote:yeah the mx3s backend is like a slingshot when it starts to come out. And due to steering up front basically pushing the tires sideways, the tires tend to become rounded at the edges, leading to a little more body roll when mounted in the rear. The stores always argue with me about it. "its front wheel drive, you want the traction up front"

Actually if you read what the experts say, what you do is correct. Usually it's in reference to getting snow tires, but your reasoning is correct for any FWD car...

I used to live in snowville usa and most tire stores would not sell you studded snow tires for just the fronts. I come down here to Florida and I catch hell from every tire store I go to. It makes perfect sense but NOOO they're the experts.

What happened to "the customer is always right"?