is it just me or are these cars just a handfull to drive? i mean, when your in a hard corner, does the rear end ever break traction without warning? Iv had the rear end come around on me 4 times now. 2 where at a race track and 2 where on the streets, both in bad weather. one was in the rain, the other was today, its really cold out and slippery. But every time its happend, its been impossable to recover its like the rearend just says 'goodbye' and its gone. And its only happend o right hand turns. Because of this, i think my rear tow could be off, the inside of the rear tires had more wear. Also, i dont have the tow elminators. Iv taken left turns just fine and have had the rear step out and recover nicely. but never in a right turn. is it jsut me, or do you think something is off on the rear?

 

mine comes out to the right much more easily now that you mention it... did it today on the way to work, much harder to recover like you said, I almost ruined my new paint job on a curb

 

I was stopped at a light after destroying this twin-cam Saturn and he blew threw the red light so I sat and watched him hoping a cop would get him. never are when someone else does something stupid. but anyway the light turns green and I take a easy lefthand turn and the rear end just comes lose and the car is almost sideways before I get it pointed straight. now take in mind I have an 87gxl "auto". Well I step on the gas not hard at all just pushing it down a fraction of an inch and the rear end comes out and I try to recover but its to late I spin do a 180 and smack a curb 20 mph bent both left side rims almost in half. and looked at the road not one spot of ice or oil. now it sits waiting for new rims to come in the mail.

 

ive found when its wet its WAY harder to control than dry, dry you can slide the rear out predictbly, when its wet though, it just seems to snap around really fast, ive had it happen going like 20 mph barley touching the gas around a tight corner in the rain,.. i think that had soemthing to do with oil or soemthign thoguh cus it was completly random, i recoverd it though, only havnt recoverd once, which was when i first got the car and was making it kick out in the rain, was fun untill it spun, luckily i wasnt going to fast and didnt hit a thing, ive been lucky though, i was pissed once cus my G'fs friend was pulling some **** and like got pissed at my GF and was walking home and i was going like 80 down a lil side street trying to find her saw her, and spun it under breaking( VERY stupid on my part, i was pissed and wasnt paying attention to the car), got lucky and ended up completly parrallel to the curb facing the way i weanted to go,.. looked like i was a REALLY goo driver or soemthign lol

 

It sounds like it's time for a good alignment and a set of the rear steer eliminator bushings. Plus you shouls learn how to drive your car at and beyond it's limits on the track. It's not how the car acts, but how you react to it.

 

mines nice and predictable regardless of conditions. Just a good nick, low k's, stock t2 with koni shocks. with old cars being so cheap over there in the u.s it seems they don't always get the maintenance / repairs they deserve...

 

i dunno about that... my 90' gxl has 80,000 km on it. evrything is original. These tires i got are in pretty sad shape though, they done even make the dunlop D60 A2's anymore, and they are so dry that they have no traction. im pretty sure thats a major factor why the car slides so easily.

 

"with old cars being so cheap over there in the u.s it seems they don't always get the maintenance / repairs they deserve..."

you have to look at who buys these cars now... it seems half of the people on this board are under 21. they cant afford to maintain their cars properly. That makes me pretty sad since when these cars are gone, they are gone forever. People dont fully understand that.

 

Just makes the ones in good shape worth more in the end. 7's are far too common to get all worried about running out of right now.

The D60 A2's are what I run on my rears right now and I can slide them at will in either direction. I can spin them for a city block if I wanted to... They don't hook up for ****. (wet or dry)

A right hand slide is easier because theres more weight on the outside of the curve as far as the suspension loading is considered. Also, right hand turns tend to be tighter than left handed ones. (on the street anyways)

 

It sounds like you guys have some SERIOUS geometry problems in the rear of the car. My car is an angel when I drive it, unless I want it to be naughty. The factory built in some understeer (the front track is a bit wider than the rear, plus the spring rates) so there is definately something wrong there. Do you guys have a LSD???

 

I run a 4.10:1 lsd leaves nice parallel stripes on any surface you want them on.

 

My sugggestion would be to install the rear steer elimanator bushings. The parts manager at a local Mazda dealer tells my the stock bushings go bad all the time. You'll notice a big difference once you get rid of the stock bushings. I installed the rear steer elimanator bushings on my 90 GXL about a year ago. It's now a little stiffer in the back, but handling is much more precise now. Before I changed them, I've had occasions where the rear end seemed skitish too. I recall one scarey instance where I slowing as entering a slightly inclined sweeping ramp. BTW, the pavement was dry. All of a sudden, the rear end begins to swing around and I come to rest after doing a 180. I tought to myself: WTF caused that to happen? Well, after I got rid of those bushings, I concluded that they were probably the cause of that mishap. Like I said earlier, there's a big improvement in handling with that crap gone.

Hot_Dog
90 GXL
02 RSX-S

 

I don't have this problem on my convertible, but my suspension only has 110K miles on it. Very predicable in the rain & dry pavement. On dry ground, just floor it around the corner.

Now the TII is a different story. You have to feather the throttle in a tight corner to prevent the back end from breaking loose.

 

When i had my stock rims on the car the 60 series tires made my whole car feel like a fat woman waddling around everywhere. When i got my nittos there was a world of a difference, but now im seeing the limits of those tires, so its on to better things (tires.)
Backend wise my car is totally predictable now, I dont even break a sweat when my cars tail is trying to catch up with the front.

 

My car only has 59,000miles on it. when i got it i put a set of Pirelli 4000 super touring the Hr rated ones. The wet handling is great dry is even better as long as the road isn't real cold "freezing". the alignment shop said it was all factory spec but my front camb is -0.5 L&R, and its supposed to be +0.3. and my rear cast is +3.9 and its supposed to be +4.5. I was told that i needed my body punched up because i have frame sag and it would cause my tires to wear so fast that unless i rotated about every oil change my tire would be gone way before they should have been. anyone else had these problems any fixes they are telling me about.

 

frame sag??? Mabey if you drove in death valley every day and your car was exposed to 220 degree temperatures regularly.

My TII's front won't allign because the allignment arrow on the strut top is pointing the wrong way. I have no clue which way it's suppose to point.

Besides this, the middle part of the tire wears too fast on my convertible because I'm sure the OEM springs & shocks need replacing.

 

while were on the subject of suspension and the search function is no longer of use, can any one suggest a good set up, as in like shocks springs coilovers sways blah blah blah im looking to get into auto cross, and after I run my car stock for a bit I wanna upgrade.

- James

 

coilvers with adjustable tokico shocks is a great upgrade, but I'm not sure how streetable that will be even set to the softest setting.

www.nopionline.com

 

i always assumed that the tow bushings would be in bad shape, rubber just doesnt last that long! i dident know that inpact would be that huge though, i guess those bushings do more then i thoght. I plan on doing the elimanators, ill also put urathane bushings on the control arms and so on. Im going to put in new shocks/springs and everything as soon as i get the cash, too.

 

Frame sag? no... Spring sag? yes.
just go to an NTB and get an alignment. You will be fine.

 

i got a wierd guess. from my experience with open diffs the right wheel is always the one that spins. i got two friends one with a 70 lemans sport and and other with a 89 5 liter with worn out clutch packs. every single time going right its a lot easier to break the wheels loose.for the rx7 im guessing its cause because of the toe in and the right wheel pushing, its spinning the car around.

 

Hey vaughnc I got the same problem with my strut mounts, only one side has that little box and arrow...

 

I don't even have a T2 or an FC or an RX7 for that matter but I plan on selling my Z and buying one. I plan on saving up and putting Tein susp. on it...haven't looked into it too much though.

 

clutch type diffs ware always have the right tire spin over time. This is because the clutch on the right side wear out faster since on the street, theres more right turns and that wears that side out faster then the other side. But 89 and later FCs are the viscis type and dont have clutches. I can still leave 2 black line behind my car

 

The tokico's make for great handling, but suck for daily driving. Unless you have very very very well maintained roads, you don't want them on a street car.