Page 1 of 2

Steering fight

Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 6:05 pm
by wankys4
:cry: Help - Anybody get a lot of nervous steering fight on fast uneven 'A' roads???

On uneven A roads where the road piches left and right the steering wheel swings with the road, creating a very very nervous car.
Either I have a dogy steering rack, set of bushes - or - nobody talks about the atrocious steering fight on these cars.

Help anyone - its not my H&R's or all the new front bushes or the alignment - its something else . . . any one help with any thoughts or experiences.
I want to love this car but I am begining to dream of a 540i. :cry:

Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 7:16 pm
by bjacks
Tramlining is what you're refering too I guess? Try some different tyres. What are you using?

Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 7:20 pm
by bjacks
Tramlining is what you're refering too I guess? Try some different tyres. What are you using?

Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 7:29 pm
by wankys4
Thanks, but its not tramlining, the steering wheel swings from left to right depending on the UNDULATIONS in the road.

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:35 am
by johneroberts
Dear WANKY
RS4 do suffer from tramling and this sounds like what you have here, suggest you try a different tyre, and i would bet that its a Dunlop or a Pirelli on the car at the moment.
Cheers
jr

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:01 pm
by JohnW
JR,

if dunlops & Pirellis are bad for tramlining what tyres do you prefer that don't suffer so badly ?

Just thought I'd ask as I have S02s on the front of my RS4 (forget what is on the back) and it is okay, but on a bumpy B road at speed it is a definite 2-hands-on-the-wheel job.

Cheers,
John.

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:14 pm
by Bushy
Depends on the speed, two hands on the wheel is always good practise in an RS4 :jump:

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:16 pm
by johneroberts
Radials tend to worse than a crossply
but out of the radials ive used

Continentals Sport Contact II
Bridgestone SO3

But crossply

Yokohama AVS AML
Bridgestone SO2

Cheers
jr

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:41 pm
by JohnW
Cheers,
John.

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 6:28 pm
by Golich
Yup sounds like tramlining - I too have similar experiences with the worn P-zeros. In fact, the first time I drove my car home it was in the winter and upon overtaking a car and pulling back in I thought I'd hit a patch of ice the tramlining was so bad over the white line. Like Bushy says, two hands on the wheel are a must for these beasts at the best of times. I've had to really make my point to the girlfriend who has a serious habit of driving one handed. The car can take a real shimmy when crossing the white lines, power on or off!

The difference from the 225 wide S4 tyres to the 255 RS4 tyres is quite dramatic.

I'm getting four new Goodyear F1's this week on the advice from Steve. I thought about the Toyo Proxies, but I want to keep with the 94Y rating to maintain the wheel warranty as advised by Bushy some time back.

Steve swapped his P-zeros for the Goodyears and found a tremendous difference no more tramlining and he's also getting +12K miles out of them for £167 a tyre. I had the older model on my S4 and thought they were ok. Although I'm not sure if I got the miles out of them. We shall see.

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:46 pm
by Golich
Well I had the Goodyear F1's fitted yesterday - WHAT a difference!!

NO MORE TRAMMLINING, no more shimmies, twitches, grabbing on rough off-camber roads - in short a HUGE difference. I have never experienced such a dramatic change to a car. I can quite comfortably drive one handed if I wanted to now. Not that I will but I feel a lot happier given the car to the girlfriend who habitually drives one handed until she gets a fright!

All that remains to been seen is how good these F1s perform/wear.

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:52 pm
by johneroberts
All that remains to been seen is how good these F1s perform/wear.
hmmmm oh dear me :lol:
im affraid about 500mls and the set i had completely disintegrated, got a full refund too
cheers
jr

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 5:57 pm
by RS4_Barry
johneroberts wrote:
All that remains to been seen is how good these F1s perform/wear.
hmmmm oh dear me :lol:
im affraid about 500mls and the set i had completely disintegrated, got a full refund too
cheers
jr
Not unusual this either.... the Evo boys used to have a lot of problems with goodyears disintegrating too. - not a great performer imho!

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 9:50 pm
by Bushy
happened to me too

Got a refund though

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:30 pm
by kcsun
Sounds like a job for SO3's then :thumbs:

kc :nogarors4: