Hey guys, my S drove completely fine then i put some brand new tires on the rears and it started swaying all over the road...sometimes violently. The rears are different than the fronts and it is lowered with some camber. Anyone dealt with something similar?

 

Are your tires balanced?

 

no idea.......Les schwab did it. I just assume they did everything well

 

Yes I’ve experienced this in the past. What tires are they?

Years ago I picked up some inexpensive Proxes 4 from Scwab, (any of the proxes line up handle like shit)which I learned are a very bad choice, especially with any amount of reasonable camber, they are thin single ply sidewalls, very flexi, and made the whole rear end sway with minimal steering inputs, felt like the rear could come around on me if I wasn’t careful on hwy. It was unbelievable bad. I returned them the next day and got some proper dual ply sidewall tires.

The OEM Bridgestone’s are some of the stiffest sidewall tires, and so it’s important to not stray to far from that sidewall construction to maintain a safe and precise handing S. The bigger the rim ie; 17-18” this isn’t obviously as pronounced as the 16's with the less sidewall profile.

 

not sure if it keeps happening on the same stretch of hwy or not, but my S is bone stock (including tires) and on some parts of I-5 (from Smokey point to north Everett) I have had my S get pulled from side to side so hard that I've almost ended up in the other lane. I have told hold the wheel with both hands, because of the massive wear grooves in the lanes (junky knows the area). It never happens in my Element or my wives TL, just the S.

 

Oh yeah, those ruts on I-5 up north especially are a problem for sure. They jerk me around in my truck when changing lanes also. As soon as a tire gets up on the sides of one of the ruts the tires grab it and yank the wheel. The s has the wrong axle width for those ruts too, have to drive to one side of the lane or you fight the wheel the whole time.

 

They are the cheapest federals i could buy. I went from dunlop star specs to those....maybe thats it. Thanks guys, so much knowledge!

 

That could do it, although for more budget tires, Ive found the Federal 595's to be a decent handler and not a bad choice if your wallet is low. I'm not sure which Federals you have.

And if your running any more then about -3 camber in the back, then your asking for it no matter what tires you run.

 

especially when you have star specs in the front and a much lessor tire in the rear.

 

It might be a good idea to get an alignment just to make sure something screwy didn't happen. It's also possible that there is a more pronounced crown in the tires that you just bought. What width are the tires? Negative camber + tire irregularities + alignment + extra with + road conditions = car tracking the profile of the road.

I just added more negative camber all around the car and I could definitely feel it track a little more. Actually, pretty much all cars I've owned that I've messed with in regards to suspension/wheels/tires have done this to some degree.