I just upgraded my front wheel/tire from stock 205/55-16 (16x6.5) to 215/45-17 (17x8). Now my car pulls right or left following bumps and grooves on the road. I spoke to one of the Goodyear Manager by Green Acre Mall and he said this is to be expected on such a wider wheel. He also said bringing the PSI up would help.

Prior to this, there was no pulling at all.

What do you guys think?

 

I know this is a stupid question but I have to ask... you make
no mention of upgrading your rear tire/wheel package I hope
your not running two different sizes.

Assuming that your running all the same size you shouldn't
have any problems I'm running 18's and I only have bump
steer issues if I'm driving hard and I hit a bump

You will experience some differences in handling ie grooves
in the road but that is normal

You may want to get an alignment, but if you haven't done
anything else and there wasn't a problem before hand I
would get it checked out

 

Rears were upgraded as well from 225/50-16 (16x7.5) to 245/40-17 (17x9).

I got an alignment done, which is another problem on its own. But it's done.

Anyway, that's the thing that's bugging me. It was fine before. It wasn't like I went crazy on the width of the front tires (205 vs. 215). Could the size of the front wheel be the issue (16x6.5 vs 17x8)?

I also hear tire humming when rolling on neutral...

 

The tire width shouldn't be an issue I have 225-18x8 in the front
and 255-18x9 in the back and I'm lowered

And I don't have any issue except occasional bump steer which
can be fixed just haven't done it yet

And what I like to call tramlining which is when your on the highway
and the car wants to go into or out of the ruts or grooves in the
road and as far as I know completely normal the price you pay
when you get bigger tires and a larger contact patch (more traction)

That noise you mentioned might be normal depending on the tires
you have most of the cheaper tires have noticeable road noise as
compared to the premium brand tires

 

Tramming! That's EXACTLY what's happening.

How do you fix a bump steer?

Tires actually went from Hankook K106 to Kuhmo Ecstas MX, I think that is also an upgrade. Although the Hankooks had about 90% thread life compare to maybe 50% on the Ecstas.

 

On my old car, I did a +2 upgrade from 195/65/14 to 225/45/16 and the difference was huge. I really had to pay close attention to the steering wheel. I later downgraded to 205/55/15 and the tramming was gone.

 

you can buy a Bump Steer Kit from a few different manufactures
its a common upgrade after you lower the car because you
loose some of you suspension travel click the link for more info

http://www.aj-racing.com/catalog/product.p...7&cat=81&page=2


and with those tires I think you can expect tire noise assuming
there isn't some other issue and its truly coming from the tires

hope this helps good luck

 

it's tramlining.

but check your tire pressure and alignment.

 

werd

 

not to be confused with "trannying", which is what Snipes or Ducman do when they go and look for he/shes down on Christopher St.