so when i got my car i had stock 14" steelies and winter tires on it and she drove fine. the car stayed straight and going over bumps, stable under braking and had no tendency to pull to either side. I could drive with one hand comfortably and even drive with my left hand and control the wheel with a finger or two (unsafe i know, but im left handed its my relaxed position while driving lol)

when i got my Si/SIR wheels (with Kumho Supra's 205/65/15 i think) on I immediately noticed that the car wanted to pull to either side, more to the left when driving straight, i got an alignment and it did nothing.

going over bumps or those grooves in the road from road wear, the car would also want to pull to either side, actually i would have to keep both hands on the wheel with a tight grip just to keep the car straight.

during braking the car shakes whereas with the steelies they dont.
when braking to a complete stop if i dont have a tight grip on the wheel the tires will turn themselves to the right or left and spin the steering wheel about 3/4 of a rotation.

i have to keep a constant iron grip on the wheel at all times or else the car would drift away. winter tires are on now so i dont have this problem right now.

sorry for the long post but has anyone else has this problem with their wheels on their car? i need help!

 

Well your tires are way too big on the 15" rim to begin with, you should be with a 205/50. Are the wheels balanced, tires properly inflated, even wear, etc?

 

hmmm like i said i was unsure of my tire size 50 sounds about right but ill dbl check when i get home to be sure. but i did see my car on a lift once and the tires did look uneven. my tire pressure was good i checked it regularly, but they werent balanced after i bought the wheels and mounted them.

well i think they were on their last legs anyways so ill probably be getting some new rubber this summer.

would worn bushings in the control arms affect this as well?

 

....bump steer is what your experiencing. Unfortunately I can not remember how your supposed to tune it out of your suspension I think it is adding postive camber. I'm guessing that your car is lowered because that adds to the problem. The other factor is that you've upped the size of the tire your running on so it makes the negative camber more noticable

 

actually my car isnt lowered, still at stock height, but it will be lowered come summer, should i get a camber kit to offset this?

 

In that case it shouldn't be that noticable. Camber kit is a good idea it's just too bad they don't make a good one for EF. I bought and installed one on my old CRX and it was a pain in the but to put in, it costed me twice as much money to get aligned after I put it on, and it took the guy several hours to get the specs I wanted. You really shouldn't be that bad off right now it sounds like something else is going on.

 

Something else you could check, which should have been fixed with an alighnment, is the toe. Stand at the front of the car and look down either side with the wheels pointed straight. If the front of the wheel is point out further then the back (relative to the side of the car)or vice versa then your toe is out. Some other characteristics of this problem is quick turn in....aka when you turn the wheel to the left or right just a little the car wants to start turning faster then usual.

 

also id like to mention that i currently i have a ES master bushing kit, CRX Si rear disc conversion and a set of skunk2 PRO S coilovers that still need to be installed. so ill see how things ride after all these parts are installed im assuming my handling will change afterwards.

 

I'll bet you just need to get your wheels balanced. I had a similar problem recently and this fixed it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wiZCo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'll bet you just need to get your wheels balanced. I had a similar problem recently and this fixed it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ya i was going to try that because it was starting to get really bad in around oct, but then it snowed suddenly and hasnt gone away so i never got around to it.
and that would be the quick and cheap fix!

 

That was the same experience I had when I first put phat fives on my '88 sedan. Had the same huge tire size as you, which is similar to the OE size of a toyota avalon. These tires were probably shittier than yours (full of fix a flat and multiple plugs and brands) but did alot of what you were describing. It was much harder to turn the wheel at any speed, it would pull to the side when braking and had a pretty bad shake.

Ditched those tires, put on some cheap 195/50/15s and it drove like a whole different car. Steering is much lighter and easier to control and no more pull on braking. The 195's are also very close in overall height to my OE tire size, so I didn't mess up the speedo's accuracy.