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

[kuma]

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. 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.

[dnL]

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.

[elenien]

Originally Posted by dnL

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.

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

[eifer]

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.

[Bonburner]

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

[Davyator]

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.

[rice_classic]

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".

[Gen]

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

[atledreier]

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

[#87]

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

[kuma]

Originally Posted by dnL

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Bonburner

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

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

Originally Posted by rice_classic

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".

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.


guys for all your input! This forum rocks!

[cmspooner]

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.

[firehawk]

Originally Posted by eifer

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.

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.

[Bonburner]

Originally Posted by kuma

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

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