Handling a little weird? Pulls/slips while on freeway.
 

Hello there.

I've owned my fair share of cars (2 '92 240's, '87 e30, '11 gencoupe) as a brief background of what I've driven and what I know.

To my main concern. I have ~550miles on my whiteout FR-S and when I've been driving it on the freeway at about 70-75mph, it feels like the rear end keeps on slipping around and feels really loose. It also starts to pull in one direction or another. :iono: It just doesn't feel right...

Mind you, the freeway is pretty much straight most of the way.

Yes I understand that the car is fairly light but I've owned a 240 which weighs just about the same and I've never felt the handling to quite loose like that.

I'd definitely like to hear your input and if any of you have felt anything like this while driving on the freeway with this car or if there's really something wrong with the car.

Thanks in advance guys.

I think the "pulling" you're describing is tramlining. I feel it some on roads that have fairly defined grooves. Seems kind of pronounced in the FR-S compared to other cars I've driven, but eh... doesn't really bother me that much.

As for the rear feeling loose, I don't feel that. Seems fine to me. The rear does feel a bit bouncier than I expected, but it doesn't feel like it's coming loose to me. I guess you could be feeling it come loose if the rear is bouncing around.

I'm going to second this thought. I've noticed it slips around a bit depending on the road, not necessarily dependent on speed.

My Acura tends to tramline a lot, but it's FWD, so I'm a little surprised to hear that about the FR-S. Most likely that's what is happening though.

I haven't found this happening on my FR-S :X

It is especially pronounced on newer roads that are grooved in the direction of the flow of traffic. I bounce all over the map on roads like that, and it is significant enough to be disconcerting at times.

Check your tire pressures. About the tramlining (didn't know it was called that), the S2000 did that pretty aggressively. When I had someone else drive my S2k I would tell them it's a "2 handed car".

I've always noticed it in lighter cars. A lotus tries to throw you into the median.

Noticed that with my MR2 mkII as well. Tramlining bad, and the rear tried to scoot over occationally. 2-handed car indeed.

Assuming alignment is in spec I thought tramlining meant tires would catch the grooves in pavement and was different with every tire? My last set of summer tires did that a lot but my winter tires drove straight as an arrow. hmm, i dont have this problem in BRZ though

Ah... Tramlining... Never knew such a word existed! Thanks man!

It does feel bouncy but my R-spec gencoupe was quite bouncy and I had no issues. But then again it does weighs 7-800lbs more than the FR-S.



I've been driving on the 405/118/210 freeways and I feel it on all of them. :(

Thanks rice_classic. They were up at about 37psi when I checked them 10 minutes ago. I dropped them down to about 32 since it gets pretty hot where I'm at(hit ~100F today). I'll see if that'll help.


:thanks: guys for all your input! This forum rocks! :thumbup:

My BRZ is perfectly well behaved on the highway. Of course I am used to deriving a Scion xA that felt like a sail-boat.

Yeah, my EP3 Type-R does this too. I've been under the impression that it's the LSD combined with tyres that have fairly square shoulders that give the car a more pronounced tendency to follow even fairly shallow grooves on the road surface.

atledreier, my old SW20 Turbo didn't do that at all. It had an open diff, though.

Yeah I've driving on the 101, 5, 405, 22, 55, 57, and a few others and I haven't found this yet :X

I have the same thing happening to me, but it's always on the LA freeways once I get to a certain speed and it's always around the same areas of the freeway.

My BRZ does that also. You really feel the grooves in the road with this car. It was weird at first but I'm used to it now and it doesn't bother me.

Sound like the the rear toe is out. I've had it happen on other cars of mine after lowering but it is possible to be off from the factory.

Feels planted to me. Though I am coming most recently from a jeep wrangler so that could be a big part of it.

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I agree with GenkiElite, to me it sounds like the rear tracking may lean too far towards toe out when driving...
From looking at the suspension walkaround there are rear track control arms so it should be pretty easy for a garage to adjust... Will make it more stable going forwards but less keen to turn-in...
And always make sure your tyre pressures start off from the manual guidelines and are balanced side to side...

Sounds like the roads. A lot of cali roads cause cars I've driven to do this.. Plus a lot of freeways have a slight slope to let rain run off to the sides. Its especially bad on the 10 between Santa Monica and LA. Anyone ever do the transitions from 2-5-110 or vise versa? How does the Frs/brz handle those wonderful bumpy sections?

If you are talking about occasional twitching of the rear end to the left or to the right while cruising on the highway, I felt that on my MkIII MR2 Spyder after I added an OEM LSD to it. You might also be feeling your LSD actively transferring power to the wheel with most grip as you tramline. It's very subtle though and could just be the wind or slight imperfections in the road.

I just got back from a 1200 mile trip through Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri and I definitely felt this too, but only on the newer stretches of road that had the grooves, like others have said.

^^ This.
On the concrete sections of freeway the car really does tend to track the grooves in the freeway.
To me, this makes the car feel even more planted and connected to the driver.
Maybe you never noticed it before because you never had a car that was so tight?

i dont feel that stuff, the only time i felt the back end a little lose is when i was around 120mph and it was a windy day.

Yeah when I got my WRX I was wigged out by the tramlining until a friend explained it to me. I thought something was messed up with the alignment, but it's just following the grooves in the road. Personally I prefer this to having a numb steering wheel.

Tramlining: Coping with the ruts on the road - A good read

Never notice this in Canada.. but when I go to the states, there's a section of the I-5 just south of the US/CAD border where I feel this big time... it always weirds me out.

My stock alignment had either 1/16 or 1/32 toe out in the front, forgot which. Really made the car feel a little nervous on the highways so I always had to pay attention otherwise I would end up in another lane! I didn't mind much though.

I've noticed this, specially on the 60 west. I figured it was just the crappy freeway

I know what you mean..
 

You live in Northridge so you're definitely driving on that 118 East. Though I don't have an FR-S (yet - on wait list), I get this all of the time driving out of Simi and into the valley. It usually picks up right after De Soto and ends around Tampa.

HEY GOV. BROWN!! SHUT THE HELL UP WITH THAT HIGH-SPEED RAIL CRAP AND PAVE OUR FREEWAYS!!!!!:sigh: