mike3605

I didn't know if this was the right forum to post this, but here goes:
I put new tires/rims on my car, and got an allignment done. It's been about 4 months since the allignment, and my car seems like it wont drive straight. It 'floats' from left to right. I brought it back to get "realligned" for free, and it came out with the same problem. Is there something wrong?

Brains

iTrader: (7)

It could be the tire choice. Some tires will tend to wander more than others. Some will want to follow road irregularities more than others. Did you switch to a new tire brand/model?

mike3605

Yeah I went from Goodyear Eagle (16's) tires to Michelin Pilot Sports (18's) - have about 1500 miles on them so far.

BURN'EM

iTrader: (11)

THtat the problem 16's have side wal that flex to hide wondering 18;s have little side wal so it follows the road.

wildz

iTrader: (1)

I went from 245/45/17 to 285/35/18 on the front and it really follows the wheel depressions in the road with the wider tire. I suppose it would annoy some people but i really dont mind it because i like the looks and the handling of the wider tire on the front.

pimpmaro

It's because of the 18s.

joblo1978

iTrader: (14)

Yeah dude, everyone is right, I noticed the same thing when I went with taller and wider wheels. You will get used to it, or it will go away with tire wear.

pimpmaro

Never heard of it going away with tire wear... the trammelling is caused by the aspect ratio of the tire (height x width) wanting to follow ruts in the road. The tire wear won't help it at all.

joblo1978

iTrader: (14)

I was led to believe on another post that the wandering also has alot to do with the tread pattern. Patterns like the F1 and Toyo Proxes T1S, you know, those V tread tires?

Mine wandered at first for awhile, but don't anymore.

pimpmaro

Some tires will more than others due to the tread pattern, but the major player in that symptom is by far the aspect ratio.

Foxxtron

iTrader: (1)

couldn't agree more or less with pimpmaro. I guess I feel more secure with the road feedback character or "wandering" from the road imperfections as opposed to a luxurious but disconnected sense of the bumps.

Both my 1996, and 1999 with smaller sidewall aspect ratio responded very similarly, as my Nissan 1988 300ZX Turbo, and my cousin's E46 M3.

My guess is this will be one of those "no free lunch" dilemmas.

pimpmaro

I want to clarify that it's not necessarily the sidewall aspect ratio, but the overall wheel/tire aspect ratio... the overall assembly's height when compared to it's width. That's the reason a Semi can get away with such wide tires and not having severe problems with trammelling. Their tires are tall enough to offset the width.

Foxxtron

iTrader: (1)

actually that's what I meant, not the sidewall ratio, or the tire rating.

pimpmaro

No worries, just checkin.