Should I be worried?

A

atreidy

Member
I've been driving my newly acquired '06si for a few days and have been noticing some peculiar behavior on the road with regards to a somewhat jerky steering wheel. Really need your opinions and advice.

I have the following tread depths:
Driver's Front - 6mm
Passenger's Front - 5mm
Driver's Rear - 5mm
Passenger's Rear - 3mm (Yes, I am ordering two Falken 452's to replace the rears as we speak) - It's not clear to me why this tire is so low on tread. I suspect the dealer swapped out the other 3 or swapped in this last one from a pile of used tires just to complete the car for sale.

The problem I am seeing is that the steering wheel jerks and sends the car left and right unpredictably when I am driving at steady highway speeds (60+ mph) without much acceleration and go over very slightly uneven roads. I'm talking about little hairline cracks in the road or discontinuous surfaces.

In general the steering wheel is tight and has very little play while parked or driving at lower speeds. On smooth straight roads, I don't feel the car pulling left or right, so I don't suspect the alignment, but will probably get it checked anyway.

Handling while going on and off freeway on-ramps and off-ramps is fine and I can take turns comfortably (although I hesitate because of the 3mm tread on the rear right tire)

Should I be worried? What should I do?
 
Sounds abit like the mix of RFT's and uneven tread. Although ive never noticed any jerks at high speed, its more low speeds under braking due to the quality british roads.
 
What you describe is a 'real' problem an by that I mean not imaginary as the dealer will tell you. It's nothing to do with tyre wear, tyre mix or the oft cited tramlining, although certain tyre types and pressures seem to improve or worsen it.

I would descride it as the car having minor involuntary steering inputs that result in the steering wheel moving a fraction left and right. Only occurs on pretty good roads and usually between 65 and 80 (overseas of course :) )

The exact same problem exists on mine and despite geo set up has never been eliminated. Falkens, correct tyre pressure and changes to toe in have virtually eliminated it.

Have a search and there are threads on this problem.

I'd go back to the dealer get the tech out on the road and demo it.
 
all z,s have these issues ,has to do with set up of the supention and stuff

less wide tires help a little bit and getting the car tracked right but otherwise

try and live with it !
 
and i'm not even sure if the electric steering doesn't get fooled sometimes, daft as that sounds? ever since new I've had the odd experience when after tramlining a bit, despite the road surface getting back to normal, its almost as if you've got a flat tyre pulling you over to one side at a constant rate....only persists for a few seconds then back to normal.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom