Help: wandering front end!

Hello I have a 996 cab bought new in 03. For the last few months the front end has been wandering. If the pavement is uneven in a lane change, even slightly, the car tends to pull and dart to one side or the other and sort of shimmy slightly back to a more nutural position when the pavement becomes more even. This happens at low and high speeds. The only thing I can compare it to is when I had a broken sway bar on my subaru years back. So far I have checked and evened out the tire pressure and taken it to Porsche North Scottsdale twice. They have found nothing. Any thoughts???? This is frustrating as hell! jbd

Mine does the same thing, I think mine needs an alignment though, goign to have that checked, did you check that? at first Ithought it was just because there isn't as much weight in the front as I was used to (previous car was a 350z) , otherwise not sure what it is? Dr Jeremy B

I noticed more of this on my previous car when I went with a wider tire up front. I think Narrower tires have less tendancy to veer.

What kind of tires? Some are more noted for "tracking" the road than others.

for whatever reason, the previous owner decided to use 265 for the front. it floated llike crazy. i put on 2 new front tires, and happy ever since.

What suspension do you have on your car? It is possible that you have too much negative camber set for the front and that if you drive mostly highway miles the inside of the tires would wear out quicker than the rest of the tire creating a less of a contact area and create the wondering problem. As I assume it was fine prior and then gotten bad over time.

conti's i got them about 10k miels ago (front and rear) b/c i couldn't find michelins anywhere tread is excellent jbd

My car hunted a lot and would pull left and right depending upon the pavement. I had it aligned but it didn't change anything. My tires were really worn on the inside and I thought OK on the outside but I fitted new ones a few days ago and the difference is much more than I coud have imagined. It feels like a new car and doesn't push like it did before when driving aggeessively. No more wandering and pulsing steering wheel at high speeds, braking seems much better as well.

My car wandered when the rear toe in was off.

yeah though the tires look good...i suspect they may be the cause. another local p-car buddy suggested that. that makes me feel...a little better... thanks all! jbd

My car wandered a fair amount. Took it for an alignment and found the fronts were toed way out. Set back to spec and it is much better but the front sometimes still feels a little light at highway speeds.

So just had the rear conti sport contacts replaced with p-zero roso's (i am still runing sport contacts on the front with at least 60%tread) Now the car is even more all over the place!!! Question: 1)Do mis-matched tires make this much of a difference? I am ordering roso's for the front today!!!

I think you just answered your own question! Advice is NEVER mismatch tires on an axle, and AVOID mismatching tires front to rear. The tracking you have described is almost certainly tire related - tread and tire width will effect how this manifests itself, as will road surface conditions. Chris.

It is probably not so much that the mismatched tires are causing this, but rather the wear on the Conti's on the front. Some tires have more of a tendency to �trammel� as they get wear out. I recalled that this was a frequent complaint about the Conti's a while back. I found this thread about Conti tires. There are not really many positive remarks on the Conti's. Pay special attention to post #23, it covers exactly the problem that you described. https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ighlight=Conti

I just ditched some Contis as well. I can tell you that my car drives 100% better. The wife even said that to me after she drove it and she really doesn't pay attention to much.

Dude you have no idea how happy you have made me!!! I will be pulling these MF's Off ASAP!!!!! That guy described my problem to a 'T' . I took this GD car to Porsche x3 with no F'ing results!!! AHHHAAAHDFHDAHHAD!!!!!! thank you...will keep you posted

You are welcome. I'm glad I could help!

i recently replaced a damaged front tire on my 01 C4...Once installed i notice a significant pull to one side...tread on my original tire was down to 9/32nds v.s 11/32 on the new tire ( Dunlop SP Sport) Porsche recommends replacing both tires on the axel if the tread wear is more than 25%...however even 2/32nds (20%) in size diff. in tread can cause a sign. pull!

OH Great, I just installed 2 new CSC2's on my rears. As for the front tire sways, I've had those on the C4S as well as the BMW 540i. Always happens on uneven roads especially on intersections where trucks damage the road surface most. It has to be the wider tires, coz' my Chevy S10 with narrow tires just slice thru' whatever surface straight on. With the bimmer's wider tires (fronts are 235's) it did the same with whatever tires I had used, Michelin PS, Toyo Proxes, Yoko AVS ES100, Fuzion ZRi.

After 10 days on the new rubber (p zero roso's) I can safely say my car has stopped wandering entirely!! I since spoke with a work friend (not a sports car guy) regarding my wandering front end and he asked, "Are you running Conti's?...b/c the same thing happend to me in my SUV with those damn tires!" Thanks Again!!!

bump

Yes, alignment and tire wear are always the first places to start looking when one has this problem.