Twitchy front end when turning/uneven roads

**hot93rod** · 08-22-2009, 05:17 PM

Has anyone ever had trouble w/their car feeling like it wants to jerk straight again, almost whip-like when coming out of a turn, or really pulls at the wheels when going over uneven roads. As a little help my susp. mods are as follows:
Tubular k-member
non-adjust. poly lca's
non-adjust. poly phb
strano springs, and agx shocks (had problem before and after these were installed)
poly swaybar bushings/endlinks....

thats it, so where could I be having this problem? It almost feels like the front end is super weak.

**tep98ws6** · 08-24-2009, 05:38 AM

check tie rod ends... mine was doing the same thing and it was wasted tie rod ends.
also if you have wider tires, that could cause some erratic movements on uneven roads

**third_shift|studios** · 08-27-2009, 05:27 AM

+1 on the tires. I have 275 Goodyear F1's and they tend to walk A LOT on uneven roads.

**tep98ws6** · 08-27-2009, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by third_shift|studios

+1 on the tires. I have 275 Goodyear F1's and they tend to walk A LOT on uneven roads.

same here, it's almost like the car is deciding where it wants to go and STL is NOTORIOUS for horrible roads.

but none the less, def tires if they're wider than stock, tie rod ends, check the rack if it's leaking and get it aligned! mine was out almost 2 degrees which is horrible, ahah

**hot93rod** · 08-27-2009, 10:39 AM

yeah... i'm half tempted to get new tie rod ends on it... only problem is that i'll have to get it aligned again.. That's not terribly cheap either. I wonder why it only seems to be our cars that walk around so much w/wider front tires, there's other cars/vehicles out there w/much wider front tires, and you would never have that problem... i don't know if the steering rack components are just too small for it or what? Thanks for your help!

**DaddySS** · 08-30-2009, 08:15 AM

I had the problem with the KDWs, when I replaced them with the firestone wide ovals the problem was gone.

**hot93rod** · 08-30-2009, 01:01 PM

whats kdw's and firestone wide ovals?

**DaddySS** · 08-30-2009, 05:38 PM

KDWs - BF Goodrich performance tires
Firestone Firehawk wideovals - Firestone performance tires

The KDWs I assume because they are a sticier tire and stiffer sidewall were very twitchy over uneven pavement whereas the Firestones completely got rid of it.

**GatorSS** · 08-31-2009, 03:17 AM

Wider tires and uneven roads will always cause the steering to be somewhat erratic. I have 285s and get a forearm workout on the uneven roads. I'm going to put the new Corvette ZR1 wheels on my SS--the front wheels are a good bit narrower than the rear wheels.

**hot93rod** · 08-31-2009, 12:59 PM

so the kdw's actually sound like a better tire based on your description... but still the issue I have is why does it seem to affect only our vehicles so much, when there are other sports cars out there that come from factory w/tires these wide in the front, but I've never read a review where they mentioned anything about this... This may be more of a rhetorical question, but just wanted to put it out there, lol

**Stevenix** · 09-05-2009, 05:25 PM

If a wider tire is making your car want to follow every rut in the road, try to dial in a little toe-in, maybe 1/16" on each side, or 1/8" total.

Toe is easiest to measure if you have the correct tools, but can be done fairly easier if you don't want to take it to and pay for an alignment. Pick out a spot about 1/2 the way up the back side of the tire on each side, about the middle of the tire. Mark it with a piece of painter's tape, and measure the distance between the marks. Move the car forward until the tape is 1/2 the way down on the front side of the tire, and measure the distance between the marks. For toe-in, the distance should be narrower on the front side of the tires relative to the back side of the tires.

If that doesn't make sense to you, take it to an alignment shop.

**hot93rod** · 09-06-2009, 03:53 AM

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, I just may try doing some other things first, because after increasing the stiffness on the shocks, it's helped a fair amount, so I may continue down that route (sway bars, or stb for instance) to help firm the front end up... Thanks for the help!

**00LS12LS6Z28** · 09-06-2009, 05:31 AM

Originally Posted by hot93rod

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, I just may try doing some other things first, because after increasing the stiffness on the shocks, it's helped a fair amount, so I may continue down that route (sway bars, or stb for instance) to help firm the front end up... Thanks for the help!

Yes, try the strut tower bar and see if that will improve/eliminate the issue. They will def firm the front end. But like others have said, this could be an alignment issue..