Steering follows ruts in pavement badly

**milburnr** · 09-08-2010, 11:33 AM

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?

**xmarkx** · 09-08-2010, 03:15 PM

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

**KahanaReef** · 09-08-2010, 03:25 PM

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

I also say it's my tires

**milburnr** · 09-08-2010, 04:55 PM

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?

**bluonblk99** · 09-08-2010, 05:10 PM

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

**weberje** · 09-16-2010, 08:46 AM

Perfectly normal.

**mike171562** · 09-16-2010, 09:09 AM

Same Thing here

**Smittro** · 09-16-2010, 10:44 AM

Auto-x super stickies here and the effect is greatly amplified... Normal tho..

**dans96ss** · 09-16-2010, 11:17 AM

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.

**JaycenK** · 09-16-2010, 08:10 PM

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.

**INMY01TA** · 09-18-2010, 03:11 PM

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.