My Michelin XGT-V4 P195/55 were wearing bald so i replaced them with Falken Ziex 205/50 tires on my OEM wheels. I thought all was well until I pulled away and noticed, "hey, my handling seems a bit weird."

The car tracks straight, but it feels as if the steering is way off. The steering is *very* loose, and sloppy. It's as if I turn the steering wheel and then the wheels/tires say "oh, okay, now we'll react." Gone is my tight handling car. Now it sways about like a boat. I have grip, but at the cost of loosing nearly 90% of my handling. I'm very dissapointed right now.

Could you please advise me as to what is wrong and what will properly correct the problem? I'd really like to get my tight handling and steering back. I honestly hate driving the car in it's current state.

Looking for positive feedback. If you can't provide that, then please click the back button. Thanks.

 

the people that put the tires on ur car didnt balance the wheels correctly. take ur car back to them and tell them to balance it. also double check ur alignment

 

Check the tire pressure. An overinflated tire often shows these characteristics.

 

Or it could be because your sidewall has a bit too much flex, if you had bought the same tires in 195/50, I bet they would feel a lot different. When I went to a 205/50 from the stock size, it felt sloppier too.

PatrickGSR wrote this in another thread:
Your wheels turn the same amount no matter what tires are on them. The steering rack and steering ratio have not changed, therefore the turning radius does not change, either.

What you may be thinking of is that you can turn tighter and quicker w/ the 17's because the 14" sidewalls tend to roll over more, break traction, and cause the car to understeer.

However it's all about the tire, the width of the tire, and the width of the wheel. You could put a better 14" tire on those steelies and have alot better grip, even better than the 17's depending on what 17" tires you have.

Tire and wheel width also make a difference. Narrow tires on narrow wheels obviously will handle like crap. A wider tire might help some, but unless you use wider wheels, the sidewalls are still going to flex and roll over through corners. Stock 15" wheels really aren't the best choice, either, since they're only 6" wide. A 15x7 wheel w/ a 205 tire will handle better than a 15x6 wheel with the same tire.

IMHO a lightweight 16x7 wheel with a 205/45 tire would be a good choice. Some people like to run a 215/40 tire for a little wider contact patch, as well as slightly smaller diameter than stock tires for a slight increase in effective final drive, which helps acceleration.

If you want a 15" wheel, you would be alot better off going with a 15x7 wheel than a stock 15x6 wheel. If you do go 15x6, I would recommend a stock 195/55 tire size, or 195/50 if you don't mind a little more speedometer error, which again will effectively raise the final drive ratio.

 

id say an alignment too; but if it was fine with the old tires why would it change.... its gotta be balanced wrong thats all i can think of

 

Thanks for the quick response, guys. seriously, i appreciate it. I'll check my tires pressure, and call the shop.

 

Couple of things:

You're going to notice a bit of handling decrease when you put on brand new tires because the tread blocks all new pretty deep. This makes for alot more tread squirm than what you were experiencing on the worn tires.

Now, I don't know how the performance of the Ziex's compares to the XGT's (I think most everyone would agree that the stock XGT's suck **** in all conditions), but if the Ziex's have better traction in the dry, then the car is going to sway and roll more than with tires with less traction. The reason is that when you go around a curve, centrifugal forces act in a sideways direction with respect to the car. Something on the car has to give. If you install stiffer suspension but leave the same tires, the car will have a tendency to lose traction and won't grip the road as well. If you upgrade the tires but leave the suspension the same, the tires will grip while the car rolls more.

I would say check your air pressure (should be 35 front 33 rear, whoever mounted the tires may have left the pressure high after seating the tire beads and not let some of the air out), and also drive on them for awhile and see if they get any better after you put some miles on them.

 

its funny because when i had my 17's it rode like crap... u kno, the steering wheel felt very 'LOOSE"... but once i changed it back to my stock 15s w/stock tires it rode way better and the steering wheel didnt feel as lose...

 

i checked the tire pressure, and indeed they were overflated. the car handles a wee bit better, however the steering "slop" is still there. the car understeers horribly.

i'll buck up and go with a suspension drop if it will get my tight and direct steering back.

 

If you're going to run 205s on 6" wheels, you should really get something with a stiffer sidewall than the Ziexs. Even people with Azenis complain about "feel" and they have just about the stiffest sidewalls you're going to find in a non-R compound tire. Those Ziexs probably wouldn't feel so bad on a 6.5" or 7" wide wheel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SkyeC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you're going to run 205s on 6" wheels, you should really get something with a stiffer sidewall than the Ziexs. Even people with Azenis complain about "feel" and they have just about the stiffest sidewalls you're going to find in a non-R compound tire. Those Ziexs probably wouldn't feel so bad on a 6.5" or 7" wide wheel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I agree, that's another issue: going to a wider tire on the same width wheel. 195 tires really are better suited for the stock 6"-wide wheels.

 

Patrick I'll follow-up here to keep from overloading your IMs.

I just had the car rebalanced. the tech said the tires were "way off". the car seems a little better now, but not by much. if i gently swing the wheel to the left and right the car seems to sway around very loosely. there is no direct path anymore. if i was approaching an object in the road and needed to make an emergency lane change, or swerve around the object, i would react with the steering wheel and then the rest of the car seems to "catch up" with the steering wheel seconds later. the car handles much like a luxury Cadillac now. maybe my best bet is still sell these tires and cut my losses, and buy a set of 195's. shame i was told by Discount Tires that the 205/50's would "fit perfectly". sure they may fit perfectly, but handling is totally compromised.

 

I had 205/50 ES100's before my current set of 195/50's, car handled great for the most part, but then again the car was slammed to the ground on H&R Sport springs and Koni Sport shocks (the H&R springs were too soft, though IMHO).

Maybe Falken Ziex's just suck (H-rated I believe?)

 

Hmm.. I guess I'm stuck with these tires though. I guess i'll get used to the granny handling.

 

Hey man,

New tires always feel weird. Don't over think the problem and you'll probably get used to them. The same thing always happens to me, the new tires usually will feel sloppy, but after a few days I get used to them and never notice a problem. I've got Yoko ES100's in 205/50/15's on my car now stock suspension and it works well. I just ordered Kumho ASX's in the same size so I'm sure I'll be going through this again in a week when my new tires arrive.

 

Yeah, I think it is just the newness factor. I got 17's Kuhmo Ecsta 712s and the first 3 days I felt like I was swaying back and forth when driving, especially on the highway--it was downright scary. Since then either the tires have improved, or my brain has readjusted itself, but I don't even notice it now.

 

You guys could be right, I may be over thinking the situation. But my steering still feels very loose. I'm not sure what might have caused this.

 

dont like new tires have this ultra shiny layer of super slippery stuff on them when you first get it. i know when you buy a new car the tires look all nice and shiny and if you press your finger onto them it feels like oil i say prolly give it a couple 100 ks =P

 

Give the ziex some time, they handle great. I'm getting my second pair on Tuesday. By far the quietest tires i've ridden on as well.

 

i wonder how the car would fair with ITR springs/LCAs/shocks. i have a friend on H-T selling them. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

 

Dude, I would wait and give the tires some time before laying down more money for a new suspension that might not correct the problem. In that case you might still need new tires I dont know I think you should drive on them for a few more gas tanks and see how they feel So from what I understand, us guys who have stock 15x6 wheels, we need 195/50's? I want some yoko es100's but I am afraid that the sidewalls ar too soft. How are these tires for daily driving?

 

ES100's

soft sidewalls? Where'd you get that idea? I put some cheap V-rated Nankang 205/50 tires on my car shortly after buying it. When I got my next set of tires, 205/50 ES100's, we had them sitting side by side at my friend's shop and the ES100 sidewalls were quite stiff compared to those other junk tires. It took us several tries to even get the things mounted, as the stiff sidewalls were giving us some trouble.

There's nothing wrong w/ using 205/50 ES100's on stock wheels. However I would not want to run something like a 205/50 Azenis tire, which is alot wider than most 205/50's, on stock wheels.

The only reason I'm running 195/50 is because 195/55 ES100's were on world-wide backorder at the time when I needed tires. I was going to go with the stock 195/55 size since they were quite a bit cheaper than 205/50, but instead went with 195/50, which was even cheaper.

 

okay, i'm not understanding sizes. how is a 205/50 ES100 different in size than a 205/50 Falken? they're both 205/50. that means they're both the same size (not talking tread patterns here).

&lt;-- confused

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ES100's

soft sidewalls? Where'd you get that idea? I put some cheap V-rated Nankang 205/50 tires on my car shortly after buying it. When I got my next set of tires, 205/50 ES100's, we had them sitting side by side at my friend's shop and the ES100 sidewalls were quite stiff compared to those other junk tires. It took us several tries to even get the things mounted, as the stiff sidewalls were giving us some trouble.

There's nothing wrong w/ using 205/50 ES100's on stock wheels. However I would not want to run something like a 205/50 Azenis tire, which is alot wider than most 205/50's, on stock wheels.

The only reason I'm running 195/50 is because 195/55 ES100's were on world-wide backorder at the time when I needed tires. I was going to go with the stock 195/55 size since they were quite a bit cheaper than 205/50, but instead went with 195/50, which was even cheaper.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Hmm, I am probably thinking of another tire that has notoriously soft-side walls. Thanks man, I have another question in another thread about yoko es100s for you. I dont wanna *****-up this guys thread

 

***** it up! i don't mind. as long as patrick sticks around.