2003 VW Jetta is trash in the snow?

[Mongler98]

Think of it this way. if you had a material, like a carpet, when you vacuum it, its easy to go in one direction vs the other as the grain is going one direction. this is how your snow tires work. your running them the wrong direction. The high point of the angled tread is supposed to go into the wheel against the road, causing the rubber to deform and cause excessive grip. If its backwards the tread deforms with the grain and not against the road surface and would act like a slick tire. For now just drop your PSI down to 25psi and hope for the best until you get it done. Go to pick up some bags of sand or something heavy and put it in your trunk if you can to add some traction.

[1.9ZOOK]

According to the photo and your description,that would be the left side of the car...

[turbobrick240]

Originally Posted by Mongler98

Think of it this way. if you had a material, like a carpet, when you vacuum it, its easy to go in one direction vs the other as the grain is going one direction. this is how your snow tires work. your running them the wrong direction. The high point of the angled tread is supposed to go into the wheel against the road, causing the rubber to deform and cause excessive grip. If its backwards the tread deforms with the grain and not against the road surface and would act like a slick tire. For now just drop your PSI down to 25psi and hope for the best until you get it done. Go to pick up some bags of sand or something heavy and put it in your trunk if you can to add some traction.

I think it has more to do with channeling slop away from the contact patch.

[GoFaster]

Originally Posted by KLXD

Maybe but if the sidewall says right or left it doesn't need an arrow.

It does if there is a distinction in the tread pattern between the inside and the outside. Having both also helps for situations in which people can understand symbols but not words, or vice versa, and there are more than enough of both!

In this situation, it's simple to fix, because the tire not only has the rotation arrow the wrong way but it's also on the wrong side of the car, which presumably means there's at least one the other way 'round on the other side of the car, so it's fixable simply by getting the whole car off the ground and putting the wheels marked "right" on the right and "left" on the left, and (hopefully) the rotation arrows will be all sorted out.

I had a similar issue with the summer tires on my current car, which aren't directional but are "inside/outside" sensitive. It had a vibration that I couldn't track down ... until I noticed one of the tire sidewalls that I could see from outside the car, clearly had the word "inside" written on it! I took it back to the tire shop, had them flip it around, the vibration went away and never came back.

[boodles]

At Canadian tire now! They said they could “squeeze in” a last minute rotation... so. Here’s hoping this fixing averything!!

[aja8888]

Besides rotation, instruct them to make sure the tires are on the correct side of the car and that the direction of rotation is also correct.

[Mongler98]

fantastic.

[Mike_04GolfTDI]

Check that your parking brake is releasing. It’s common on these cars for it to stick on.

On dry pavement there’s enough traction to make the wheel spin even if the rear brakes are dragging. Imagine what it would do on ice.

[Dannyboy]

Originally Posted by maxmoo

Keeping your tire pressure on the low side of the recommended range increases traction, especialy in snow! eg. 29psi in the front and 26 in the rear.....check your fuel door sticker.

Quality snow tires make these cars awsome to drive in the snow....as long as the snow isn't so deep that the car's underbody rides on top of the snow and the tires can't reach down to solid pavement.
Best snows that I have had on these cars is the hakkapalitta R's...
https://www.nokiantires.com/winter-t...kapeliitta-r2/

As stated above, proper alignment makes a big differance.....you don't want the tires already "skidding" when driving in a straight line.
Also a dragging brake or brakes, especially on the rear can cause huge traction issues, obviously.

I'll second both your statements, nokians R2s are awesome. I have them on my 2014 and they are best winters I had. I thought they were lousy at first but found the pressures were at 40 psi. Dropped to 28 psi on fronts and it took on quite a bit of winnipegs snow storms. Only had problem with bottoming out during very heavy stuff. Even 4x4s had problems then

[VincenzaV]

"Best snows that I have had on these cars is the hakkapalitta R's."

-I'll "third" maxmoo/danny boy. I used hakkapalittas in the snow when I lived in Connecticut. The Jetta wagon drove as well (almost) as my 4WD Cherokee!

The company "Nokian" is from Finland, they GET some snow-so they now how to build and test winter tires.

[najel]

Just to add another little hint, I have found that turning the traction control off helps as well (when there is snow/ice continuously). Wouldn't do it on partially covered roads, though.

[20IndigoBlue02]

Originally Posted by najel

Just to add another little hint, I have found that turning the traction control off helps as well (when there is snow/ice continuously). Wouldn't do it on partially covered roads, though.

Traction control is a mixed bag.

On one hand, you have EDL, which brakes the slipping wheel to regain traction.

But you also have ASR, which is a fuel cut.

If you're going to go a climb a steep hill, turn it off, as you need all the momentum you can muster to get up a steep hill

none of this applies to MK4 TDI's, since we didn't have traction control. Late MK4 TDI's had optional ESP though.

[pdq import repair]

This may get derisive comments sent my way, but on my 2WD cars I install the best tires I can find for winter. My favorites being the Hakkapetia, Blizzak, and x-ice. A good tire makes a lot of difference.

If the tires are directional I install them according to the arrows on the front (driving) wheels. If I install them on the rear, or undriven wheels, I reverse direction so the the directional traction scheme is used for braking. In actual usage the braking wheels take better advantage of the traction tread when installed backwards.

When I rotate them as they wear I cross rotate them to keep the tires going the way I want.

On my Quattro, it goes without saying they all run the direction of the arrows, though the same argument could be applied there as well.

I do this on my dual sport motorcycle too, and have for years. The idea of that actually occurred to me there as I noticed some brands actually reversed the arrows of the same tread design, depending on whether it went on front or rear. I now look at the tread and run them backwards to the arrows if applicable.

[UhOh]

Originally Posted by pdq import repair

If the tires are directional I install them according to the arrows on the front (driving) wheels. If I install them on the rear, or undriven wheels, I reverse direction so the the directional traction scheme is used for braking. In actual usage the braking wheels take better advantage of the traction tread when installed backwards.

Interesting!

Wondering, however, are winter tires' directionality also not related to belt orientation (in addition to tread pattern)? I might be out of touch with what "directional" is now days, but I recall in the past it having to do with belt orientation (not sure if tread direction was also involved- I suppose it depended on what era).

[pdq import repair]

I think belt orientation in relation to direction is a myth. My preferred method of tire rotation on non directional tires is cross rotation, which also changes direction of tire after rotation.

Have done this for many many years on all manner of tires, including motorcycles. I think tread pattern is the determining factor.

As mentioned earlier, some tires have and inside and outside mounting, and that should be followed, but that would not change with cross rotation either. That is also tread pattern related, and not internally different.