here i am thinking i am being a prudent Z owner. Last september I bought an alignment package from the local Firestone place, the only place around with a Hunter machine. I bought the package thinking that every 4-6 mos i would have the alignment checked and re-done as needed. Thus doing everything i could to try and maximize the life of my tires.

well now that my 19's are back on I went there to have it done, specially after the winter driving. Now the handling feels twice as sloppy/loose, and she feels like she is pulling to the right.

same thing happened last time and i took it back the next day and they showed me how everything is to spec. i have the printout from the alignment and eveything is what it should be.

i am lost, any thoughts???

only thing can think of is i have an 03 and never had the TSB done for the pulling to the right/compression rod. could this be the case. does that cause a steering wheel that feels loose to the left and tight to the right???

 

Could it be tire wear? What did you have on before the 19's?

 

Tire pressure?

 

both are very good responses. cant say it is the tire wear. cause i had the 19's on for about a month before getting the alignment, i was waiting on some spacers and now that i got those on i did the alignment.

tire pressure could be a cause. reason why i say this is because that is what fixed or rather made it feel better last time. but i am at that tire pressure now. or at least i think. i will double check when i leave work. i will go on a drive tonight, about 20 miles or so and if it still sucks then i will call them back tommorrow.

any other ideas out there???

 

Yah, check your air pressure. From doing a search here, I found running 40 psi front and 38psi in the rear seems ideal for me.

I seems with low profiile tires, as little as one 1 psi difference left to right can make the car want to pull to the low pressure side.

Since yours is pulling to the right, it may be your passenger side is a little low. If your passenger side is low, road-crown will make the pull even more evident.

The roads I drive on most are so severly crowned, I run about a .5lbs less air on the drivers side to compensate.

 

the more cornering "a car" has to do the weaker the car is b/c of the flexing effect, to the body and frame. eventually it weakens it that's why your car handles not as good as when it was new. plus other thing mentioned above.

 

I have 18/40/245 fronts and 18/40/275 rears... I should be running staggered PSI?
What would you suggest for my sizes?

 

The Z chassis can take a lot more cornering than we can give on the streets.

 

I don't know if you need the same psi since yours are 18's, you may be able to run a little less air.

The best compromise between the best handling and ride quality for me is:
-245/35/19 fronts @40psi.
-255/40/19 rear @38psi.

My tires are Dunlop SP9000's, different tires may also need different pressures to get what you want as far as handling/ride quality goes. It's all about sidewall stiffness. From what I can tell, the dunnies are kinda on the soft side so they needed the 40psi in the front badly to prevent roll etc.

Generally a 2-3 psi stagger front to back should be plenty regardless of size and brand tires.

Running a little less air in the rears helps with the "bounce" that the rear sometimes has, but mainly helps overall ride quality.

Also, like I said above, I run a little lower psi on the drivers side to help counter act my area's severe road-crown.

 

Maybe if you're a seasoned racer and have beaten the car to crap in the last year and a half or so. C'mon now, his Z is not that old.

(Someone's been playing too much GT4 )

 

When I got my new front tires installed (oem) the dealer did the new spec alignment. After that, the car did not handle as well as it did, not as responsive. Other people have mentioned the same thing. The original alignment specs seemed better for handling, but ate the tires like crazy. Oh well.

 

point taken. but after giving this some thought i have figured out a way to sum up my frustration into one simple question:

should i expect my Z's steering wheel to be at "12 oclock" when driving down a regular street in a straight line.

cause if i should, then what i had before the alignement was way better. granted not perfect cause of the road crown, but at least 2-3 times better than now. and also, is this a product of whack alignment or is the steering wheel thing a product of the compression rod.

where should i go to find a piece of road that is flat. to test the seven second lane change that nissan requires to say its the compression rod.

is anyone else's steering wheel straight???

getting

 

hahaha actually i havent played that game since last sunday.

 

I think 'you get what you've ordered'. Wide tires, spacers etc. What's your current effective ET with your wheels and does your alignment suit your current wheel setup.

 

not quite sure i am understanding what you are asking. my main concern right now is that i feel as if my steering wheel has gone "soft". feels like it will respond with a turn to the right but loose to the left.

to drive straight down the road my hand is at the 11 oclock position, with the Z emblem cocked to the left, as if you were reading it "uphill". If i put the steering wheel at 12 oclock with the Z emblem perfectly level, i change lanes or run off the road.

 

You changed your wheel setup compared to last fall by adding spacers - right ? How thick are your spacers which make your front and rear tread wider and change the suspension geometry. The added spacers decrease the effective offset(ET). Can you try the setup without the spacers ?

Your current alignment sucks if the steering wheel isn't at 12 clock in a straight line driving.

 

Sounds like both front wheels are pointing more to the right, your compensating by turning the wheel left 15 degrees, right hand turns are easy and crisp to turn into, and left feel like its pushing?

 

Get the TSB for the right pull done on your car. It made a big difference in my 03. Depending on the road, sometimes it would pull really hard to the right that I had to drive with the wheel pointed slightly left to keep it straight. The TSB fixed the compression rod problem.

 

well i think that is what i am going to have to do cause i have done someresearch and it seems like i might have a mix of things going on. first the soft feel on the handling is just something that happens with the latest alignment specs. my settings post alignment for toe-in are:


front left: .04 front right: .05

total toe in: .09 (damn near the specified .1 of total toe in)

from other alignment threads throughout this board the end result of the toe in is soft handling, although it does seem to prolong tire wear.

before the alignment i was actually toe out on the left which counteracted the pulling of the compression rod, thus giving me perceived good handling, and a straighter steering wheel. now that i have the alignment correct and equal on both sides i am getting the pulling to the right. so its time to head to the dealer for the TSB for compression rod.

does this make sense? am i drawing correct conclusions or am i just trying to talk myself into something.

 

Unless the number you are reading have a negative in front of them, what you are reading is toe out. But you are within factory specs, Nissan recomends .0 to .1 of toe out, with a total toe of .2 . Caster may very well be the culprit. I would recomend taking the car to the dealer for the tsb, what are you current caster readings, or better yet post the whole alignment spec for both front and rear.