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  1. #1
    Junior Member milburnr's Avatar
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    Sep 2010
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    Kansas
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    Silver
    2002 Firebird T/A WS6

    Steering follows ruts in pavement badly

    Our Firebird has only 58,000 miles, seems to be in very good shape, we've only had it for a couple of weeks. I rotated the tires front to back, has stock 17" rims. So now the front tread is fairly worn (but not bald or at the wear indicators), rear are almost new. Front struts seem good, tie rods/ball joints/etc seem tight and good. On a good highway, the alignment seems straight, car does not pull left or right. But on local roads, or the transition from on-ramp to highway, the steering wheel pulls back and forth. I know with other cars I've had, this indicated struts. But this car is a lot different from the others I've had. Any ideas of what to check, or is this a common indicator of something?
    2002 Firebird TransAm WS6
    K&N Filter, PaceSetter LT headers/ORY, Hooker catback exhaust
    CarPC project underway

  2. #2
    Member xmarkx's Avatar
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    Mar 2010
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    EAST bay area Cali
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    634

    black
    1999 camaro SS

    welcome to the world of F body. it's normal and what's worse is the better your tires are (for handling) the more they want to follow all those mysterious lines in the road

  3. #3
    She Moderator KahanaReef's Avatar
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    Arctic White
    2000 Camaro Z28

    My car will do the same. Only on certain roads though.

    I also say it's my tires

  4. #4
    Junior Member milburnr's Avatar
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    2002 Firebird T/A WS6

    Ok I guess that's good to know lol!

    I painted the front calipers, had to take the rotors off.. and it seems that I didn't get the right one back on tight - I think the rotor was not all the way on the hub when I put the wheel on. That caused the alignment to be way off, and all sorts of weird feeling in the steering - realized right away and found that the lugs were all very loose - very scary. Fixed that, but the wandering persisted and keeps making me think the wheel is loose.

    Does upgrading the stock struts to Bilsteins help any?

  5. #5
    Junior Member bluonblk99's Avatar
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    Apr 2010
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    cincinnati
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    black/viper blue
    99 WS6 M6

    my car does the same thing i just thought it was because the tires are so wide. its kinda scary sometimes lol

  6. #6
    Member
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    Pensacola
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    Red
    1998 Trans Am WS6

    Perfectly normal.

  7. #7
    Member mike171562's Avatar
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    Feb 2010
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    Houston, Tx
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    Black
    1998 WS6 T/A

    Same Thing here

  8. #8
    ʢ ൧ ൨ ൩ ൪ ൫ ൬ ൭ ൮Ր Ց Ւ Փ Smittro's Avatar
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    Pittsburgh
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    White
    2008 Hummer H3

    Auto-x super stickies here and the effect is greatly amplified... Normal tho..
    :\Users\Steven\Pictures\d6ftg5nh.gif


    Suggestion: If you are particularly irritated by another member's posting habits and are constantly fighting the urge to flame them, you can click on that person's profile, and select "Add to ignore list." This will make that person's posts invisible to you.

  9. #9
    Junior Member dans96ss's Avatar
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    Nov 2007
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    central ny
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    55

    white black stripes
    1996 camaro ss

    trough

    my 96 ss manual has a warning in it when equipped with the bfgs 275 40 zr tires you will experiance trough it will follow any uneveness in the road. i switched to kumhos with a different tread design and it helped but did not disappear all together.

  10. #10
    Senior Member JaycenK's Avatar
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    Holiday,FL
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    Green
    1997 Camaro Z-28

    I have seen that some guys are able to help this problem by adjusting the toe in or out a little. All of these places that do alignment do it by degree insted of inches (Why I have no freakin clue) but if you take the time to learn how to do your own toe adjustment you may find something that works for you. Only thing is the camber and caster need to be adjusted before you adjust toe. I have made the decission that I am going to do my own adjustment and buy a camber gage and a wheel mounted frame to messure toe infront and rear of the tire. The shops wont make the toe adjustments I want to try they only do it "By The Book" at least around here. I am done paying 80 bucks everytime on a rear wheel drive lol.

  11. #11
    Senior Member INMY01TA's Avatar
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    Black
    2001 Trans Am (sold)

    My car does this more when the front tires are worn. I'd keep the newer ones on the front and the more worn ones on the rear. Also better if you wanna do burn outs to use up the older ones.

  12. #12
    Senior Member Hurley711's Avatar
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    414 RWHP 395 RWTQ
    00 Black Ram Air Trans Am

    as stated above I always chalked it uo to wider tires grabbing those grooves in the road

  13. #13
    Member DaddySS's Avatar
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    Bergen Co. NJ
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    Black
    2000 Camaro SS Conv.

    When I had the BFG KDWs on, it was bad. When I went with Firestone Wide Ovals it was 100% better.

  14. #14
    She Moderator KahanaReef's Avatar
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    Arctic White
    2000 Camaro Z28

    Quote Originally Posted by DaddySS View Post
    When I had the BFG KDWs on, it was bad. When I went with Firestone Wide Ovals it was 100% better.
    That's what I've got. g-force T/A KDWs. But, I"m used to them, and like the way they handle otherwise and will stick with them.

  15. #15
    Senior Member INMY01TA's Avatar
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    Black
    2001 Trans Am (sold)

    KDWs here too but I hear they discontinued the original patern.

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