DarkJester

Let me start with the car:
2000 Trans Am. 25K miles. (not a typo)
Previous owner installed Hotchkiss tower brace and some sort of Knock Off Corvette Wheels. Michelin Tires XTG's. 245/45/17.
The car sat for a while as I was thinking of selling, I have come to my senses and decide to keep it.
now the problem.
She wanders at speed, follows the road, in a bad way. At slow parking lot speeds, when turning for a parking space I get a weird out of round feeling from the front end, sort of like when you have a really bad CV joint that locks up when turning lock to lock, if that makes any sense.
I have not played with it yet. I turn my own wrenches, and have for many years, and this just happened at lunch. I'm just pissed about it I guess.
Anyway, I'm thinking since the car sat for a while (Months) that things have either dried up, or just gone bad, or my tires suck, or a combo. Perhaps dried out bushings? Ball joints? Tie rod ends?
Have any of you guys had a similar problem?
And I did do a search. I'm not that guy.

Thanks!

Jester.

GlennT

I really have no suggestions, besides going through everything and making sure it all looks good.

I do have one thought though... How old are the tires? If the tires were in direct contact with pavement the whole time it was parked, that could cause premature tire issues.

My truck, although a completely different animal, behaved very similarly when the tires got to 8 years old. I just never really thought much about it, but I had only put 32k miles or so on it during that time, so the tires *looked* fine with plenty of tread. I put new tires on it, and it drove like new again.

DarkJester

That would be cool.
It did sit on the tires the whole time.
I hate these Tires anyway, and the wheels are nice enough, but the "chrome" is peeling off the inside of the wheel. I would like to go wider, but not until I'm positive I don't need some suspension pieces.
So, up on the jacks tonight. Sounds like I'm going to be crawling around on the garage floor.
How much was that lift again?....

Jester

farmington

iTrader: (14)

I had tires go bad from sitting. car would pull to the left. alignment was spot on. switched front tires side to side, it pulled to the right. New tires and it drove like a Cadillac.

BrittleSpeed

iTrader: (1)

Can you try rotating the tires and see if you get the same results?

StealthFormula

iTrader: (35)

I once had the same weird out of round feeling at slow speeds turning into a driveway etc. and it ended up being the tires having choppy wear. In addition to looking those over I would also take a look at the bushings on the front a-arms, ball joints, etc. since worn bushings can also cause a car to wander.

WS6wanted

you can also check for sticking/dragging brake calipers. ive had the car wander a bit before changing a dragging front caliper

therealcreeper

iTrader: (37)

Both could be due to alignment, if the toe is way out the tires will fight each other in tight turns and cause that weird feeling. Best bet is checking out bushings and then getting it aligned.