I recently traded in my 2008 LE V8 Pathfinder for a brand new 2013 V6 Mustang. The exchange was more for saving money on gas but I always liked the mustangs.

Ever since I got the vehicle, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of slip, drift and lack of traction.

My Pathfinder had a feature that I knew the mustang had which allowed me to drive rather safely during a snow storm as the feature would alternate power to and from slipping wheels.

Last Monday night I was coming home on a nice evening, no rain or condensation and made a right hand turn onto a three lane road. Suddenly I lost control of the car and the vehicle slid across three lanes until it hit the center median.

As I'd noticed slippage before, I thought that maybe after a while the tires would develop better traction control. The tires on the car are low profile Pirelli Zero Nero P235/50 ZR 18.

The vehicle is not drivable right now and I've contacted Ford and my insurance but I'm not sure who to take the car to. The service engine light didn't come on, no airbags deployed but I'm certain that the front driver's side wheel has been knocked out of alignment.

The following day after the accident, I returned to the scene and could clearly see where my front and rear tires made contact with the center median, however there was no evidence of any skid marks.

I've been reading as much as I can and have heard stories about traction control and advancetrac systems causing problems when attempting to pass other vehicles, but this just doesn't seem the same. Also, I don't know how to disable these devices so the assumption would be that they were engaged at the time of the accident.

I wasn't injured (except my pride) in the accident, however I'm wondering if I need to bring in someone to represent me in the event that a component on the vehicle was operating poorly or not at all.

My fear in letting my insurance company begin to fix the vehicle is that they will only want to return it to an operating condition and couldn't care less if there was a vehicle flaw. With regards to the Ford dealership, I'd fear that if they did find a design flaw, they'd either cover it up or blame it on me. In addition, if they aren't looking for a design flaw and one does exist, I'll be out the $1000 deductible where if ford finds the accident was a result of a design flaw, they'd be responsible.

I've had the car for about one month and yes was planning on modifying it, but the only thing I've done so far is to was the beast.

Any advice and knowledge would be appreciated. I'm hoping to move on this soon as sharing a car with another person in the house can become rather stressful.

 

Not knowing how hard you took that turn, what the temperature was, how wet the roads were, it's difficult to say what happened. I'm also not sure if your tires are summer-only or all-season, as I can't find the size you listed as an option on 2013 V6 cars.

The traction control/stability control do make a huge difference, but they don't prevent everything.

 

I've had similar experiences with mine and I can assure you it's the tires not gripping. Hard right turns are often unpredictable once every so often. It was ok at first because I was pleased to see the little car kick like that. It got old quickly though.

I swapped the tires out for wider Goodyear f1 supercar tires in hopes of making a larger "print" and its even more unpredictable. They look great though.

Respectfully, Make sure your running all seasons or consider letting a bit of the air out of the tires. Drive cautiously and anticipate roll with hard turns.

 

I am assuming you completed a report to your insurance company. With that said, if they repair the vehicle they will want to know if an equipment failure caused the incident.

We recently had a water problem in a lower level of the house. A valve failed on the washer. My home owners policy paid for all repairs.. However, after the washer was repaired they requested I send the part to their lawyers. Two months later I received my deductible back, as the washer manufacturer settled with the insurance company.

Believe me, if they can find some way to make some one else pay, they will.

As for the car, we do need more info, as noted above. What type of tires were you driving on? Having lived in the DFW area, I am familiar with the icy conditions that can show up...so, was their frost or ice on the road? Was it wet, and what speed were you driving?

 

what speed? temp? type of tires(all season or summer)? pics?

are you driving the car lik you did the path finder? First rear wheel drive car? remember this is a very powerful v6 and it can get out of control if you have a heavy foot.

 

The time of day was approximately 9:30 PM. The temperature for the day was a high of 85 and overnight temp was expected to be 74 degrees.

The road conditions were favorable, when I reviewed the road the following day I saw no indications of oil streaks or any other debris on the road and took pictures.

From the off-ramp of the freeway to the street where I made my turn was approximately 300-400 feet two lane so I had to merge one lane over. Additionally, the exit ramp was on a slight incline (approximately 5-10% grade)

The mustang has a feature to prevent the vehicle from exceeding 80MPH which was engaged.

Lighting conditions were excellent and the only wet weather occurred about 4 hours earlier about 20 miles away from this location. There was no reporting of any precipitation in the area and the dew point hadn't created any condition where the roads would have been damp.

I confirmed the tires claim to be All Season and the numbers from the sidewall are: p235/50 ZR 18 97W.

I don't have a digital tire gauge and can't be 100% sure my readings are correct but the tires show pressure of about 40PSI in the two impacted tires.

I did do a synch report and nothing came up unusual in that.

Right now I am just wondering if I should take it to the Dealership and have them check it out before I have it repaired to see if there is anything that may have caused such slippage.

Looking at the tire treads there's something that just doesn't look right about them. I can't exactly put it into words, but the just seem so "FLAT." Of course they curve around the rim, but if I took a straight edge at any point on the tire and ran it from the outside to the inside there would be no gap because of how flat it is.

Obviously the Pathfinder drove differently than the Mustang, but past cars have included a BMW 330, BMW M3, and many other "sports" type cars. We currently have a 328I that I drive while I'm waiting to decide who to consult first and I drive it the same as the mustang and I don't have ANY of the associated problems.

My extended warranty offers road-side assistance and car rental, but I don't think the car rental would cover an accident situation unless it can be proven that the accident was the result of a defective item on the car.

 

I would call the insurance and have them get the car inspected. Maybe first take it to a third party mech.

 

I barely have enough traction coming out of 1st with 17s, I can't imagine how hard it'd be to control low pros, especially with the weather being below 40 lately.

 

Hi pcgumshoe,

My name is Deysha with Ford Service. Glad to learn you’re ok, but sorry about your new ride. I recommend you contact the CRC again and ask what’s recommended in your situation (Ford dealer, wait for insurance or independent mechanic).

Deysha

 

Well, it was warm enough that the tires shouldn't have had an issue with the weather. The only things I can see might be at fault would be A) your tire pressure is too high. My '11 GT is supposed to be set at 32 and I've seen other guys say their '13 cars are 35 (I think). I would doubt a V6 would get that much higher tire pressure. Having your pressure that high could make your car a little more susceptible to sliding but not that much. Which brings me to B), maybe you just took the turn way too hard. Not trying to criticize your driving but we all test the limits once in a while, I think, and you may have exceeded them here.

 

I agree with the air pressure being too high. Lower to 32psi, traction will be better.

 

Air pressure is way too high! Ford posts a label in the driver's door jamb for the recommended inflation pressures as these cars are tested and designed to work with those pressures for optimal safety and performance.

 

Tire pressure way to high....you screwed up....just get the car fixed and learn from this. I was sideways a couple of times in mt '11 GT/CS before I got the handling of the new car figured out. Now I can do it when I want to.....

 

Though I agree that 40psi is a bit high (I like 35), my new car (V6) came from the dealer like that. Measured "cold" at ~70F, same tires as OP. So no accident it's like that, not even close to the labelled 32psi. I wonder what others have found i.e. there may be a reason why they do it (slight gas mileage improvement?, a known issue that impinges on their warranty costs with the tires at low Ps?, TPMS issue?, etc.).

Oh yes, I should have said that there's a slight but noticeable traction improvement at 35psi, at least in the wet. I don't think it's stopped raining since I lowered the pressure, almost a week...

 

Yes, your mileage might get better but your ride quality will get worse. Since the car was engineered to run at that PSI, there shouldn't be any kind of issue with the car caused by that pressure.

I have to think your belief that traction gets better at higher PSI is a placebo effect - the physics of it would say that's impossible. Putting more pressure in the tires means there's less rubber on the road to create traction. It's why off-roaders run at less than 20 PSI frequently (and because there's less chance of blowing tires).

 

^ Please read what I wrote again. I said the exact opposite to what you think I said...the car came at 40, label says 32, I use 35, 35 slightly better in wet than 40. I would have tried 32 but temps are dropping rapidly now so 32 wouldn't "last" very long and I'd have just been bumping it back up to 32 almost daily.

 

Checking the air pressure on the tires is part of dealer prep before delivery to the customer. This was done improperly and no Mustang should have 40 psi ever. I found my tires to be overinflated when i took delivery of it used. It was very skittish until i dropped the pressures to the correct amount.

 

I understood what you said - 3 PSI isn't much difference but all the things I said would still hold true, just to a smaller degree. It's not a big enough deal to debate - let's not get into

Happy Friday!

 

Interesting. My tires are not the stock ones that came with it, but I run sumitomos at 40psi in 47° daytime temps here in Wisconsin and I haven't been able to get them to lose grip. It hasn't been for lack of trying either.

 

this is a heck of a strange issue to have, I can't imagine having the car lack traction that bad, especially with a v6, no disrespect intended. I hope it gets investigated.

To the poster above me, I grew up right next to West Bend!