Tramlining?

P

PTR101

Member
Okay, a week and a half and 1000 miles under my belt, i've come to notice something that's bugging me about my new Z4C.

At high speeds on motorways: no problems.
At lower speeds, on a or B roads: the car just wants to go wherever the road says, not where I want it to. It follows cambers in the road and feels like it's floating along.

Now, I've checked the tyres, I have Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's on the front (225/40/18). The tread depth is getting low and the inner side seems to be wearing a touch more than the outside. On the rear I have Vredestein Ultrac Vorti's (255/35/18) with plenty of tread and what appears to be consistent tread wear.

So the question is, is this a common thing? Is it due to low weight and low profiles, or is it that my alignment might be subtly out? Or do I want new tyres??

Many thanks.
Pete
 
PTR101 said:
Okay, a week and a half and 1000 miles under my belt, i've come to notice something that's bugging me about my new Z4C.

At high speeds on motorways: no problems.
At lower speeds, on a or B roads: the car just wants to go wherever the road says, not where I want it to. It follows cambers in the road and feels like it's floating along.

Now, I've checked the tyres, I have Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's on the front (225/40/18). The tread depth is getting low and the inner side seems to be wearing a touch more than the outside. On the rear I have Vredestein Ultrac Vorti's (255/35/18) with plenty of tread and what appears to be consistent tread wear.

So the question is, is this a common thing? Is it due to low weight and low profiles, or is it that my alignment might be subtly out? Or do I want new tyres??

Many thanks.
Pete
Click to expand...

I had exactly the same issue with mine when I got it. Worn, but legal, Vredstein Ultrac Sessantas (non-run flats) on the front and car determined to follow the road and not the steering wheel. Initially I thought that it was just what got with a stiffly sprung sports car.

However, I changed the fronts for Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetrics and wow, what a transformation. (Subsequently changed the rears for the same. Good, but not much difference.)

Even Mrs R, not known for being the world's most "sympathetic" driver, noticed the difference. The downside was that Mrs R now drives the Zed a lot more than she did. :lol:
 
I had the same issue, replaced front wishbone bushes has reduced it considerably but most cars with wide tyres do this to a greater or lesser degree.
 
greg1953 said:
I had the same issue, replaced front wishbone bushes has reduced it considerably but most cars with wide tyres do this to a greater or lesser degree.
Click to expand...

Your'e right, mine took some sorting switching from RFT's made a huge difference then bushes as you say, springs and several 4-wheel alignments later it's sorted. This is a good article showing just how many different factors are involved in tramlining

American article but tramlining is a universal curse :) https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=47
 
I just did a quick google, it seems that there is a run flat option for the Sessanta, i'm not sure if I have it. I'll check tomorrow.

Otherwise, it seems a pretty clear course of action. I'll look into new tyres, get it booked in for alignment and have the bushes checked.

Thanks all.
 
As above
Ms don't use nor come with runflats
But low tyres and that brand does seem to suffer on some cars
Is replace all tyres buddy with high end tyres as an M
And get a geo check
I love Mss
Only use on dry
So could use new mps4s or gyf1
 
Check tyres too see if you have non run flats would be my first port of call, you want all tyres to be either run flats or not run flats ideally.

Next I would check tyre pressures 34 front, 36 rear I found works well.

Next I would check your rear trailing arm bushes and front rear wishbones bushes (lollipops)

If all these things are good I would go and have a proper 4 wheel alignment and hopefully that will resolve it, if you give people an indication of where you are based you may get some recommendations too. Most fast fit tyre centres like kwik fit don't do a proper job so worth going somewhere who knows what they are doing.
 
Okay, checked this morning, there's nothing on the tyres to indicate that they are RF. I'll check the pressures before I go out tomorrow.

Thanks for all the great advice.
 
My Z4 does it too. It can be really bad sometimes and very twitchy on certain roads.
My 535D on Run flats also does it but nowhere near as bad.
 
When you get into the lorry troughs as I call them its does not matter what tyres you have on. The wide wheels on the todays cars just follow the lines :driving:
 
PTR101 said:
Okay, a week and a half and 1000 miles under my belt, i've come to notice something that's bugging me about my new Z4C.

At high speeds on motorways: no problems.
At lower speeds, on a or B roads: the car just wants to go wherever the road says, not where I want it to. It follows cambers in the road and feels like it's floating along.

Now, I've checked the tyres, I have Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's on the front (225/40/18). The tread depth is getting low and the inner side seems to be wearing a touch more than the outside. On the rear I have Vredestein Ultrac Vorti's (255/35/18) with plenty of tread and what appears to be consistent tread wear.

So the question is, is this a common thing? Is it due to low weight and low profiles, or is it that my alignment might be subtly out? Or do I want new tyres??

Many thanks.
Pete
Click to expand...

The article I posted earlier specifically mentions worn tyres being more prone to tramlining and it's been mentioned as a cause by several members before
"because tires become more responsive as their tread depth wears away (which is why tires are shaved for competition and track use), a tire will become more likely to tramline as it wears"
https://www.tirerack.com/content/tirerack/desktop/en/research_advice.html
 
Hope you get it sorted OP.

From my previous BMW ownership I tended to find tyres wore more on the outer edges, so maybe tracking is out?

But I always noticed that worn tyres made tramlining worse, and when they were getting worn any slight drop in pressure made it worse still!

My first Z4 was pretty bad until I got the lollipops changed, but even after that it was still more prone to wandering than my current one although I don't know why. :?

Sounds like a thorough suspension check and refresh as required plus new tyres and a Hunter alignment may be a plan - or just stick to high speeds. :lol:
 
They aren't runflats - don't even bother to look!
Vredestein specified running pressures are normally higher than the vehicle manufacturers specs. Have a look on the Vredestein web page.
 
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