Just like the title says, the steering twitches out and feels as if I hit a patch of ice when I'm doing more than ~35-40mph. So holding it straight on the freeway it'll switch to one side and then I have to correct ~3-4 tiny movements to keep going straight again. Doesn't seem to happen when I'm in a turn.

I just finished a 5-speed and 5-lug swap, so I'm wondering if that could be something.. I had a shop check the alignment yesterday and it's slightly better but still happening.

The rear tires are 215/60/16 @ 30PSI and the fronts are 205/60/16 @ 33PSI [Seems pretty small.. and I've had tires further off than this before with no problems..] The wheels are GTS-T R32 Skyline wheels.

This is on my base-turned sport [pictured below], with an original manual steering rack. [Nothing changed up front except for: wheel hub/bearings, calipers, dust shields, discs]

Any idea what this could be?
Before you ask, no it is not the road - it feels totally different than ruts.

 

check your ball joints and tie rods ends

 

Do you still have the dtss bushings? Inner and outer tie rod ends are in good shape?

My first thought was tramlining...but if it just happened I guess not. What all did you replace during the 5 lug swap?

 

When did this start happening? After the swap or before?

 

DTSS is still in place [I believe..]
I swapped the entire rear subframe/diff/hubs/discs/etc from my old GXL.. But it didn't have any wandering issues.
On the front All I replaced were: hubs/bearings/discs/calipers/pads [all parts from the GXL except for the pads]

Could the tie rods/ball joints go bad just from sitting for ~3 months?

Before the swaps this car was dead straight..

Maybe the wheel hubs aren't at the correct tightness? I don't have a pull scale to test though.. I think the pass wheel does spin a bit easier than the driver's when I have it in the air.

 

Tie rod ends and ball joints don't go bad from sitting.
More likely it's the wheel hubs/bearings.

 

ooh.. I just remembered a useful bit of info: the front pass wheel got hit by a Tahoe on the GXL that I got the hubs+etc from...
http://derekcat.dyndns.org:81/temp/i...ou_sousuke.jpg [sorry if you can't see stuff on port 81.. Some colleges/etc block it "for security"]

The wheel only had a small scratch on it, but it was bent in towards the car about 20 degrees.. Think that'd damage the wheel bearings or the hub or both?

 

Assuming the bearings on that wheel hub are bad, what all would I have to do to fix it?

Replace both bearings [Mazdatrix? They seem to be implying that something else has to be replaced when the bearings are.. but they only list the seal and the two bearings >_<]

 

Assuming the bearings on that wheel hub are bad, what all would I have to do to fix it?

Replace both bearings [Mazdatrix? They seem to be implying that something else has to be replaced when the bearings are.. but they only list the seal and the two bearings >_<]

 

When was the last time you checked your tire inflation? What you're describing has happened to me a couple of times on the highway when one or both rear tires are low. The rear will feel like it has shifted, almost snapped, to one side and I'll have to correct for it.

 

Both rear tires are at 30PSI the fronts are at 33PSI
Think I should try equalizing them?

 

Equalizing tire pressure wont do anything.

If a car was hit and the tire bent in 20 degrees that hub is probably screwed up. I don't bother replacing the bearings, I just go to the junk yard or on craigslist and buy a used hub for 10-20 bucks and slap it on.

 

Nah, what happened to me was when they were 15psi low.

 

wheel bearing is likely
to replace it, thers a step by step on mazdatrix

another likely cause is a blown strut on one corner...

 

The Mazdatrix walkthrough is rather terrible.. >_>

Anyway, I just got it back from the shop I was recommended to for the alignment and they said that it's not the wheel hub/bearings.

Their thoughts: Probably tires or bushings.
The front tires are Bridgestone and the rears are Goodyear. He said that he's heard of a few problems with the Bridgestones and that perhaps the sizes being wrong is part of the problem.

I'm going to swap the wheels with my vert's wheels and see if it acts normally, then I'll look into swapping the tires somewhere..

 

Ok, tried swapping out the wheels/tires with my vert's and it was the same..

I'm going to have a friend look at it with me tomorrow and I'll let you guys know.