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attn: Hyundaitech Question about Sonata 2002 GLS and deceleration

Hyundaitech,

On my 02 Sonata, I've always noticed that when I am traveling at a fairly regular velocity >30MPH and let my foot off the gas it seems to begin decelerating instead of just cruising forward slowly. This action, if I can attempt to describe it, feels somewhere in between lightly depressing the brake to being in a lower or wrong gear; almost like engine braking. My tires are Yokohama Avid H4s and have no more than 20k on them. They've recently been rotated and it doesn't drive any different than before after rotation. As I never suspected the tires in the first place, and it's not the parking brake being engaged, is there something I should have checked out? Whatever this is, it seems to be affecting my gas mileage lately. Driving with the feeling that my breaks are slightly in use kinda sucks so I hope you have some suggestions. Many thanks in advance.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

Reply to
Thee Chicago Wolf
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That's because it IS engine braking. What's the problem with that?

I realize that a lot of cars with automatic transmissions provide virtually no braking when you let off the gas, but I see engine braking as a big advantage, as it provides more precise control over your speed than constantly getting on and off the brake and accelerator does. That's one reason I always owned manual transmissions. Frankly, I find it disconcerting to let off the gas in a rental car (the only time I drive automatics) and have it continue careening down the road unabated.

Reply to
Brian Nystrom

When they rotated the tires, did they maintain the direction indicators on the tires? Those Yokohamas can only rotate in one direction. Check it out if you don't believe me!

Reply to
Partner

Hmmm. I guess you've never put your car in reverse! ;-)

The Yokohamas are unidirectional tires, which means that they are MEANT to be used in a specific direction. However, reversing the tire rotation is not going to result in the car slowing down as the OP described.

Reply to
Brian Nystrom

At least not until the tire cords separate and the tire fails! :-)

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

I'm not sure if that's even an issue anymore. If you check out the recommended rotation pattern for tires, reversing direction is once again common practice for tires with symmetric tread patterns. The reason that some tires are unidirectional is to get the best performance out of their asymmetric tread patterns that often also use different rubber compounds in the center and outer edges.

Reply to
Brian Nystrom

I made sure before I left the shop that they were in fact pointing the correct direction and they are.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

Reply to
Thee Chicago Wolf

Effectively, yes. In practice, no. All tires, regardless of directionality, are designed to "function" in either direction. Though in the case of my tire, the treading is not parallel. The manufacturers these days are designing tires with non-parallel or angled treading to reduce the amount of water resistance and / or hydroplaning. It's classic "wedge versus brick analogy" so I don't need to get into it. What it does for traction or anything else is debatable at best. In any case, it's not the tires causing the problem. And yes, they are properly inflated all the way around.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

Reply to
Thee Chicago Wolf

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