Car sways on new tires
 

Hey guys, I just installed 225/45/17 Riken Raptor HR tires on my stock wheels. Car was straight as an arrow so I decided to skip the alignment. When I'm driving, I can feel the car swaying, it almost feels as if I removed my sway bars. I'm trying to troubleshoot this but I do not have too much experience in the tire/wheel dept. Should I just get it aligned, or could this issue be from putting tires the are too wide on the stock wheels?

Check the air pressure. I'll bet it's high.

I was thinking that too but I checked and all 4 are at 35psi

Drop to 32 all around and redrive the same stretch of road that you noticed the behavior and see if it improves.




EDIT: just googled 'Riken Raptor HR' as I wasn't familiar with them...these seem to be a big step down from the OEM tires. You might just be finding out why they're only charging 65 bucks per tire...

"I just installed ... on my stock wheels. ... so I decided to skip the alignment. ... Should I just get it aligned"

Alignment or suspension adjustment is not needed when wheels or tires are changed and won't help (with exception of case if one installs too wide tires/wheels and alignment changes are needed to enhance fender/strut non-rubbing clearance). Issues are due something else. 225 is also not THAT wide to cause much issues on stock x7 wheels. There might be a bit more sidewall flex then on eg. x8, but not killing amount imho.
BTW, when tires were remounted, where wheels rebalanced? And what exactly you mean with "car swaying"? Maybe it's just more roll due stickier tires then stock primacies?

So the car just feels unstable, especially on the highway as if I were in a buick or something. Pulls to the left under gas, and then to the right when I push the clutch in. I guess "floaty" would be the best descriptor I can think of to describe it generally.

Tires oriented the wrong direction maybe?

Or just a case of getting what you pay for?

You bought absolutely garbage tires and are surprised that your car handles like absolute garbage?

I'm not sure what to tell ya homie.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...odel=Raptor+HR

They are grand touring all seasons, designed to be plush and comfy.

The 86's have fairly stiff suspension compared to most cars, so they are going to be pushing down into these tires fairly hard. These cars benefit from a slight sidewall stretch, or a stiff sidewall. I run a 225/45-17 on a stock sized wheel, but I do it with the Bridgestone S-04, which has a very stiff sidewall. They feel slightly more direct than the stock tires.

My guess is your alignment was bad on the last set of tires, but you were able to correct for it with the fairly direct stock tire setup. Now that you've gained a bunch of compliance in the sidewall and tread, you've lost that control and it's feeling mushy/wishy washy.

My suggestion would be to go to a reputable local alignment shop and get a good alignment.

Add camber bolts up front, get a bit of camber, and have the toe zero'd out F/R.

This is a great upgrade for all 86's, as the factory alignments are pretty weak.

If this doesn't correct the issue, I'd see if you can exchange the tires for something more appropriate for your car.

Good luck!

Trust me, didn't want to cheap out on tires but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. My stock tires were absolutely bald and I just bought a house so funds have been super tight. I wasn't expecting racecar handling out of them but it seems way more off than I was expecting. Definitely going to do the alignment sometime this week, thanks for the info!

If car didn't steer to left or right with accel on off on previous tires, then imho alignment (which doesn't change on wheel/tire swap) probably is ok.
Check things, what may have changed, and why grip is uneven. Different tire pressures (you did reset reading if using gauge which needs that?) imho is most probable culprit for new set of tires installed by shop, as they rarely pump back carefuly with same pressure. Yes, such weering off straight line may be caused not just by uneven grip, but also due alignment off - but why it wasn't on stock primacies before that then? I'd also drive some hundred or more miles for tires to brake in, for oils used for manufacturing and storage to wear off from new tires. Though imho as they were bought as set, they should be similar anyway .. for similar reason i wouldn't blame them being worse or better then some other tire models. Overall grip/handling/comfort may differ, but car still should track straight on any tire set, if tires in set are matching.

Totally understood, I bought a house about a year and a half ago, so my FXT has been getting way less love than normal...I drive it sparingly just to conserve the sticky icky tires she has lol.

There are some inexpensive tires that are a factory upgrade that may do well for you, look at the hankook V12 in stock size. They do pretty well for the money.

New tires have to be broken in, so my guess is that since they are so new, they still have the film/release agent from when they were made. Give it a few miles of easy driving and it should be ok. I got my tires replaced a few months ago and I remember them being "floaty" on the freeway for a little bit. I just took it easy until they were broken in.

Yeah, this. Tread squirm. Should go away in 500-1000miles.

Although that tire is a budget tire and probably has a really soft sidewall as well which isn't helping.

Pull to one side on accel, other side on decel usually indicates a low tire. If both rears are 35psi, one of your rear tires is bad. Swap rear tires left/right and see if the direction of the pull changes direction. If it does, something's definitely wrong with the tires, and I would try to return them all and get some reasonably decent make/model to replace them.

Extremely low-performance tires, so yeah, they're going to be a lot more "floaty" in any case. Going up in width and sidewall height on stock-width wheels doesn't help either.

There are tires that perform well that don't cost a ton of $$$, you just need to do some basic research. Tire Rack has a ton of info on many tires, test data and customer reviews. Your tire make/model is apparently too new to have any data on it, though, but as a "Grand Touring" tire, guaranteed to be soft and low-performance even if it's a good quality tire. It's just not appropriate for sports/sporty cars, more for buicks and oldsmobiles...