Lots of wandering (tramlining?) after installing cobra wheels
03-21-2016, 03:08 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 7
Lots of wandering (tramlining?) after installing cobra wheels
Hi guys, im very new to this forum so thanks in advance for any help.
Alright, so i got new wheels for my car in an attempt to make it prettier and get rid of the awful stock wheels. After doing so the car has started to wander badly on the highway, but handles fine in town for the most part. I beleive the wheels are off a Cobra or a Saleen, they are seventeen inch rims with a 9 inch width. The front tires are nearly bald at the moment, im going to schedule an appointment to get new tires soon. If anybody has any input or suggestions on the matter i would greatly appreciate it.
Alright, so i got new wheels for my car in an attempt to make it prettier and get rid of the awful stock wheels. After doing so the car has started to wander badly on the highway, but handles fine in town for the most part. I beleive the wheels are off a Cobra or a Saleen, they are seventeen inch rims with a 9 inch width. The front tires are nearly bald at the moment, im going to schedule an appointment to get new tires soon. If anybody has any input or suggestions on the matter i would greatly appreciate it.
03-22-2016, 04:50 PM
#3
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 7
Alright thanks for the input, i'm going to take my mechanicaly inclined friends advice and get it aligned tomorrow, he said if the wheels have a different offset (which i'm almost positive they do) that it can throw off the alignment and i'l try to get new tires as per your advice while i'm at it. Hopefully one of those things or the combination of both will get the car driving straight again. i'l post back once i get that stuff done, thanks again for your input, man!
03-22-2016, 07:27 PM
#5
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: ohio
Posts: 3,628
03-23-2016, 07:58 PM
#6
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 7
First Step
Took the car to an alignment/tire specialty stop. I didn't get a chance to drive it around a whole lot but it seems a little bit better i think. Tomorrow i have a 30 minute commute to work on the highway (PA route 81), which is where i was experiencing the wandering the worst, so i will post back again tomorrow and let you know if its been resolved, or at least improved. It is probably worth noting also that the mechanic said that one of my ball joints as well as one of my pitman arm ends had play in them. I told him not to change them as they wanted 250 dollars to do so (which admittedly is not bad) but i can do it myself for a fraction of that. SO if its still badly wandering, changing those out will be the next step i suppose.
03-23-2016, 08:29 PM
#8
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 7
i do, they were 7s before and now they are 9 inches wide, and after doing some research i came to realize that they would be following the road grooves more than the originals, however i just feel like it is a lot worse than it should have been. hopefully when i go to work tomorrow i will find that it has improved. Thanks for your input, i appreciate it.
03-23-2016, 08:45 PM
#10
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 7
alright, right now it has 245's on all fours so i'l definitely have to keep that in mind then. I'm probably going to make an attempt to change the ball joint and pitman arm end, or was it tie rod end, ****. Anyway, i like to learn and i can probably get some help doing it, so i might as well try and see if it makes a difference.