Darting back and forth

[cbrown9064]

The ol' snake seems to be wandering a bit lately. On roads where there are depressed wheel tracks the car grabs the tracks and pulls left and right. Sometimes you have to hold counter-steer in to go straight (like making a tractor ride against the furrow). It still grabs ruts on roads with less depressed wheel tracks, just not as bad.

68k on the car, original struts and shocks. I put urethane rack bushings in last year. Wondering if the tie rod ends and ball joints are shot?

The tires are BFG G-Force T/A (KDW) 245/45 ZR17. They have about 5k on them.

Any thoughts?
CB

[svtsilversnake]

a bumpsteer kit should fix it. if its been lowered any than that is the definithly the cure

[cbrown9064]

Never been lowered, totally stock. Don't know what to think. It is fine on perfect roads. When you get to one with any imperfections, it darts around following the grooves. Somebody over at stangnet said the caster may be off.


CB

[blk04cobra1]

have you had an alignement done recently? I would get that done first, then go from there...it's possible the tie rods could be going bad, but if you've never been lowered, I would hope they'd last longer than 68k miles.

[Lumpydogs]

Very common problem. Your tires are trying to run in the ruts (depressions) made by tractor trailers. They have a wider wheel base so your cobra wheels cannot find a good track to run. The wider your tires the worse this problem gets. Note, this is not true if your cobra only pulls in one direction. The above situation will result in darting both directions.

My friends Viper with 315's is like trying to drive the wild mouse ride at the carnival when on rutted roads.

[cbrown9064]

Good thoughts guys. I am going to take it to the alignment shop to see if anything is out of whack.

Thanks!
Chris

[ausie]

I had a similar issue with my 01 (only when I had Bridgestone Potenza pole position S-03's mounted on 18x8.5 F, 18x10 R). When I traded it in for the 04, I had the wheels swapped. The pull and wandering was the same on the new 04. Problem went away when I changed tires to Toyo which did not have a center rib in the tread. I also have 10th anniv. wheels with BFG KDW's and they will track differently but not as bad as the Bridgestone tires. Roads with tar patches makes it worse (usually at posted speed limits, but when going faster the tracking issue dissapears).

A wheel alignment should help some but car may still wander on roads with ruts or uneven surfaces.