At work I recently installed a set of sportmax 006 17x8, mounted on 225/45/17 Falken 452's. I took my 87 t2 out on the freeway afterwards, and at 100km/hr the car sways. Sometimes it feels fine, and when it does it vibrates. I believe the vibration is due to no centering rings, so that isn't a huge issue. When I balanced up the wheels, they balanced up perfectly. The most weight was like 1.5 ounces, and the least was .25 ounces. I asked the mechanic at work and he says the front end could be loose. Haven't gotten around to checking that out but will soon. Could the problem be going 1'' wider and in diameter from stock wheels, with stock springs and kyb shocks cause swaying? That's what i'm thinking. And no the wheels are not falling off, I have already retourqued.

 

Have you check the wheel bearings?

 

so describe this "swaying" lil more detail please

what did you have on the car for wheels and tires before?

 

It could just be tramlining. This happens moreso with wheels of lower offset than stock (which these probably are), wider, stickier, shorter sidewall tires (which these probably are compared to before).

Tramlining is just the car being affected by the ruts in the road. They don't have to be particularly big to have a big impact, even just a shallow depression will cause the car to pull to one side or another (this occurs due to all the traffic weight being along two strips of each lane, packing that down more than the rest of the road).

 

that's about what I was thinking... and why I asked what I did...

just put my summer tires on my beater... from 185/65 studded snows all the way round to 205/55 BFG "GeForces" and as anticipated am feeling just that.

haha ever seen a Saturn TURN?! lol rain, snow or shine baby!! that car gets DRIVEN...

also an over all more stiffly constructed tire with larger tread blocks will have the same effect even if the tire size remains unchanged...

 

I know my front steering sways a bit, but it's my beat to hell stock tie rod ends. Check the tie rod ends and steering rack for play as well.

Lower profile tires and lower offset can bring out gremlins that were not seen or felt with a tire that could absorb more

 

The swaying happens in the steering wheel, and I can feel it in the car. If I keep my hands on the steering wheel in one spot, the steering wheel still shakes. When it doesn't shake the wheel just vibrates, which like I said is due to no centering rings.

The old setup was 16x7 stock t2 wheels, 205/50/16 for tires I think. Might have been a 205/55/16 can't remember.

Has anyone had problems with wider 452 falkens?

 

Wheels that are not hubcentric can induce a "darty" feeling.
The car tends to subtlely shift a little at higher speeds.
This doesn't sound like the problem you are having.

Are your wheels identical front to back?
If so, try rotating them front to back?
This would isolate if it's the wheels or the suspension...

I would tend to blame the "full thread" nature of brand new tires.
This tends to give the response a "squishy" feeling, and it can feel like the car is wandering at higher speeds.


-Ted

 

what kind of road tops do you have over there? here in cali we have grooves on the freeways for safety reasons I think but when I run directional tires the car tends to sway the direction of the groove... most grooves aren't 100% straight. its more of a wander...

 

Running without centering rings is ok, but you have to be careful about how you install your wheels. You MUST torque them with the wheel in the air. Do it in stages so that the wheel has a chance to properly center. Do this and any vibrations will be minimized.

 

First off, it would be great if someone with falken 452's could confirm a wandering issue.

17x8 all the way around. I could try a rotation I guess.

Today the mechanic at work took my car for a drive, it was raining and he came back and said there's no wander. So i'm thinking the tires are sticking too much, might have to go loosen them up a bit.

You got me on the road tops. That makes sence about directional tires, the 452 falken is directional. BUT, the front tires on the stock wheels were directional as well.

Here's a pic of the falken 452:

 

It's highly unlikely to be due to that exact tire type. I ran 225/45/17 FK-451's (the predecessor to the 452) on my 17x8 30mm offset wheels with no problems, but it did tramline.

It's not just grooves in the roads that do it, it's ruts from all the traffic. It doesn't have to be very noticable visually to be quite noticable from the steering wheel.

 

If the steering wheel shakes from side to side repetitively, would that still be considered tramlining? Thats basically how it's, the steering wheel is just repetitive. I'll get the occassional time where it doesn't sway, but then it vibrates.

 

If it's a fairly high frequency and entirely speed dependant (ie once per wheel rotation) then it's likely just a balance/out of round issue. Who knows, maybe the wheels themselves aren't quite straight (they should have caught that during mounting/balancing, so that's unlikely), or maybe the tires are somewhat out of round (it happens, but again, should have been caught, so it's unlikely).

Basically, remount the wheels being very careful to get them nice and centered. Get some centering rings if you like, it makes it easier. That should help get rid of that.

 

Come to think of it, one of the wheels had a very very very slight wobble to it. Hardly visible to an amateur. All the other wheels were straight as a ruler. The runout on the tires was AA++

 

I have a set of 452s (215/45/R17) on my car right now with about 1500 miles on them. I do get some wandering, but as mentioned before it is only on crappy california highways with grooves that don't line up properly and at 70+ mph. On normal paved streets, they're as smooth as I could ask.

 

i would check your ball joint and grease them if they have the nipples
wandering can be a sign of a worn ball joint
When was the last time you had an alignment????