Help, problems with steering/handling!

[Ripper]

Has anyone experienced problems with their steering? Mine feels awful light and skittish at times. The car is all over the road. I took it to the dealer and had them check it out. They say it's tire related.

Sometimes if I turn the steering wheel back and forth quickly a few times, it seems to go away. However, I had goodyears up front and Sumitomo HTRs in the back (goddamn nail in the sidewall had to replace rear tires) and recently bought 2 new Sumitomos to replace the goodyears. Do you think it's the tires? The dealer wouldn't say why it would be the tires, just that it's a characteristic of Sumitomos. Thoughts?

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1999 GT - Laser Red
K&N, Steeda pulleys, Steeda strut tower brace & Tri-ax
(Upcoming mods: subframes (bought), Bassani X (next), & FMS 3.73s

[Y2KGT]

Ripper,
Let me see if I understand correctly. Do you now have Sumitomos on all four corners or just in the rear? What size are your rear tires? Are they larger than the fronts?

Sometimes if you put a large tire on the stock rims the tire can cause the sidewall to walk some. I put 275ZR40 17s on the back of my stock 2000 rims and they walk a little, but not much. It almost sounds like you have a toe out condition. Perhaps you should try taking it to another Ford dealer.



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2000 GT -- Black, 5sp, Mach460, Bassani CatBack & X-Pipe, MAC Cold Air, 70mm Tbody, Hurst Shifter
1966 Mustang Coupe -- Tahoe Turquoise, Pony Int, A-Code, C4 Auto
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scott@pearland.com

[Ripper]

All four tires are Sumitomos, 245/45/17s. The front tires are a little older, about 5k more miles, than the back.

Can you explain the "toe out" condition. I'm assuming it refers to the tire or wheel set up/angle.

I'm wondering if a bump steer mechanism would be worth putting on. Thanks for your reply.

[Y2KGT]

When your wheels are in a toe out position that means that they slightly steer away from each other when your wheels are centered. A toe out condition would make your car twitchy, or "awful light and skittish" as you described.

All cars should come from the factory with a slight toe in alignment. That means that the wheels slightly steer toward each other when they are centered. That is what keeps your car in a straight line when you let go of the wheel.

This is kinda hard to explain without a graphic illustration, but I will attempt to try with a text illustration. The printed result ended up looking screwy and crude (after a few edits )...so see if you can make sense of what's in the code block below. Assume the slashes, "\" and "/", are your front tires at centerline, and the pipes, "|", are your rear tires. Also, assume we are looking at the car from the top.

-----------------------------
                FRONT OF CAR
TOE OUT ->          \  /

REAR TIRES ->       |  |
                REAR OF CAR
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                FRONT OF CAR
TOE IN ->           /  \

REAR TIRES ->       |  |
                REAR OF CAR
-----------------------------

Hope that helps some. I don't claim to be a suspension expert (I'm far from it actually), but with my limited knowledge pointed to this as a logical explanation to your problem.

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2000 GT -- Black, 5sp, Mach460, Bassani CatBack & X-Pipe, MAC Cold Air, 70mm TB, Tri-Ax Shifter
1966 Mustang Coupe -- Tahoe Turquoise, Pony Int, A-Code, C4 Auto
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scott@pearland.com

[This message has been edited by Y2KGT (edited 04-20-2001).]

[Ripper]

Thanks for your help. I know exactly what you're trying to say.