Pulling right and left

[mdsbch]

I'm fairly new to driving corvettes, just got my 85 last October. I've noticed that on the interstate it seems to drive straight with no puling to the left or right, but off the interstate on just normal paved roads it will somtimes pull to the right and then other times pull left. Just replaced the brake pads and had the rotors turned, so I don't think its that. Should I be concerned about anything in the steering anywhere, since it seems to be solid, or is this something that is common with wide tires? :confused

Mike

 

[6 Shooter]

Yes, wide tires track bad roads, my C4 did and my C5 does it.

6 Shooter

 

[EttevroC]

Mine does this too,

Over time the roads gets ruts pressed into them by traffic. The reason the vette is more sensitive to this is because or the width of its tires.

Thinner tires are not affected as much because they can completely run within the rut. Our tires are wider than the bottom of the ruts and so the edges of our tires are constantly trying to climb out of the ruts.

 

[gratuities]

Could also be the crown of the road.

 

[RedRagTop]

If it gets really bad I run the driver's side up on the yellow line and the passenger side up on the "hump" when I can, almost have to if I get caught in the wet stuff...

 

[BOPIII]

My 88 does the same thing. its worse when the Targa top is off. However after i adjusted the mounting plates for a tighter fit of the top most of it went away.

 

[mdsbch]

Thanks for all the replies. I thought it might be the wide tires, since I've never had a vehicle with wide tires and everything else is in good shape, but wanted to make sure I was on the right track (no pun intended)

 

[BOPIII]

I was just as surprised and concerned when it happened to me the first time. Fortunatly i looked up some of the post here in the action center and as one person described it as the front and rear of the car doing a Houla dance (unsyncronized). This is a great place for information.

 

[RedRagTop]

Wide tires, stiff suspension and direct steering=twitchy...

 

[slapshot]

Yup, it's every so slight imperfections in the road surface. Wide tires love to wander. Every vehicle I have had with a 245+ tire has done it, including the Vette.

 

[ßill]

When I had mine aligned I was told that I had a little slop in the steering gear ( 90K miles) which might allow some wondering on sloped roads

 

[Tuna]

You can increase the toe-in a little to cut down on the wander but not much. You might want to have the alignment checked just to make sure everything is within specs. Even if the alignment is correct, it will still wander some.

This is one of the reasons that GM switched to narrower tires on the standard 93 and newer Corvettes. (The Z51 and Z07 C4's still got the wider front tires.)