Weezzer

I seem to have really bad oversteer. Just a small amount of movement in the steering wheel at highway speeds seems to result in an over- response direction output by the front wheels. On a really rough road (Like interstate 65 thru Birmingham) it makes the car hard to control and sometimes hard to keep in the correct lane without severe concentration and attention.

I have a 2002 T/A. Koni SA (lower perch) on front set 4 from full hard, Koni's on rear 1/6 turn from full soft.

Anyone else experiece this condition or am I the only one?
Is it possible the wheels are slightly out of alignment and this is causing the wheel direction of the car to somehow over-compensate to the steering input?

This car has always had a sensitive steering wheel/steering ratio, but for some reason now it seems worse. Like I said, at low speeds its not bad but the problem seems to magnify as the road gets rougher and the speeds increase.
Perhaps I'm somehow getting too much feedback thru the steering system on a rough stretch of road.

Lately I've tried to be aware and observe other type vehicles around me on these rough sections and they don't appear to be having the kind of difficulty controling vehicle direction as I seem to be experiencing.

Any ideas will certanly be appreciated.

jyeager

Oversteer is usually meant to indicate that the rear end breaks loose around a hard turn before the front wheels do.

What you are describing is what I would call 'twitching' or 'wandering'. It could be incorrect toe adjustment, but you indicate it's a problem on 'bad' pavement. By 'bad' do you mean bumpy? It could be that you are experiencing bump steer. How much did you change your ride height?

Weezzer

My bad-wrong deffinition, yes it wants to wander. I only lowered the front by using the lower perch on the Konis, Its like 1/4" on the shock and I think it translates to like a 5/8" drop- if that much.

By bad pavement - yes I mean bumpy roads, roads with lots of little pot holes and cracks and such. On a smooth road its not too bad at all. It just seems I have to sometimes really fight it/manhandle the steering wheel.

I'm hoping the good members here can help me figure it out.

Dal1as

Did you get an alignment after the shock install. If not that is the problem, which sounds exactly like what my car felt like before I got mine done.

jimbo98z

iTrader: (3)

It's a long shot, but when my posi took a dump and locked up, this describes almost exactly what it did. I would evaluate pretty much every other option first though.

H8 LUZN

my vote: alignment


also did you disconnect the sway bars for any reason?

Weezzer

Why yes, matter of fact I did.
I was considering this last night as a possible problem.
I put Prothane end links and new Prothane main sway bar bushings on the car. Front end link kit # was 19-409, rear end link kit and bushing were 7-1129. What has bothered me so far about these items is the front and rear endlinks on my 02 were identical in length. The new front prothane endlinks were the same length as the original ones, while the new aft endlinks were approx. 1 1/4" shorter. This makes the aft swaybar sit at a more pronounced angle than before.

I bought these parts from Thunder Racing and have sent them several emails on this discrepancy but have not heard from them as of yet. I'm going to call them about it and I'll probably need to get a set of the front stock length ones for the rear.

Getting back to your premise, since I did remove the sway bars (one at the time) I take it I need to get another tire alignment?

BTW- I did get a realignment after the Koni's were mounted.

jyeager

He was asking if you were driving your car without the sway bar on. If you simply changed it you should be fine.
Sway bars will not do anything to your alignment. When you installed them, you did tighten everything down with the car on the ground right? I'm not sure if that could cause a problem like this, but it sometimes results in bind on the bar.

We might want to question whether the alignment was done right. If the shop flubbed that up you can experience this problem.

Killah3084

Check your tires - if they are bold, overiflated, or underinflated the rear end will wander. If doesn't help - get an alignment. If it doesn't help, stiffen up your rear shocks.

Hope it helps,
Valera

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

I'll post anyway ....

Sounds like your alignment has a lot of caster and close to zero toe.

Back the caster to around +3* and add 1/16" of toe in. that should help ...

Weezzer

Mitch,
I appreciate your info, can you give me the total alignment specs that your prefer?
I have an alignment scheduled for next Tuesday and if I recall correctly the helms manual isn't the most ideal set -up.

Thanks..