wandering car??

i have a leg gt 5spd and it seems to like to wander above 70mph. it likes to kind of steer a bit on its own at highway speeds. i am constantly correcting it. i thought maybe a slightly blown strut-like a bit of oil has seeped out due to a seal leak... it make me a bit nervous but when i drive quickly in corners it feels fairly well planted. could it be the caster/toe/camber settings from the factory? anyone else get this "wandering" sensation at highway speeds?

nope none here, and i drive 70+ back and forth to work everyday.

nope, not at all

where in ny are you driving scubie02? i am wondering if i am just feeling the undulations of the roads. i am commuting to and from greenwich connecticut from manhattan.

i get those at anythng above 40 when i let go of the steering...does tht count

i have a leg gt 5spd and it seems to like to wander above 70mph. it likes to kind of steer a bit on its own at highway speeds. i am constantly correcting it. i thought maybe a slightly blown strut-like a bit of oil has seeped out due to a seal leak... it make me a bit nervous but when i drive quickly in corners it feels fairly well planted. could it be the caster/toe/camber settings from the factory? anyone else get this "wandering" sensation at highway speeds?

 

 

Yes my car is the same as yours and recently in the past 2 weeks, has been doing the same thing. I have RE92's with 7300 miles.

Mine has done this since day 1 (now at 2500) and I believe it is out of alignment. I'll have the dealer do the alignment checks next week when I drop it off for its first service.

 

SBT

I had a similar problem when I first got the wagon, above 100 kph it would pull to the right. I rebalanced and realigned everything ( total cost $128 local monopoly money or about $20 greenbacks ) they found that the rear right wheel was "bent out of round". Physically looking at the wheel it looked straight, just something to check since a regular wheel balance won't pick this up.

My LGT did the same thing...got it aligned and it improved...but it is doing it again. Darn potholes...

thanks guys-it probably is the alignment-the roads around the manhttan area are horrendous-i hit a few f-ing potholes every day-they are difficult to avoid. one dasy they get filled, then it snows and they return. on this note should i get toe in or out on rears??

Mrlantra did you have to replace the wheel... mine does it too just thought it was the way it was made...

I had a machine shop repair the rim, they heat it up and put it on some machine that turns it straight again. Check for shops that do rim repairs, mine was repaired easily.

I had an *interesting* road trip this weekend, from Detroit to Toronto and back. The drive up Saturday was awesome: sunny, clear, and traffic on the 401 was autobahn-like. First time I've had a chance to let her loose a little, and the car felt amazingly fast and amazingly stable, even up to 105mph or so - no lane wandering at all. Coming home Monday was a different story!! It was stormy, and there was a very stiff cross-wind, and the car was EXTREMELY darty in that wind. I couldn't believe that it was just the wind doing it, so I stopped once to check the air pressure in all the tires. Everything was fine, so I continued on, but driving at 80mph in that wind was a two-hand-on-the-wheel, white knuckle experience.

I concur, side winds are a bitch in this car, maybe its just the RE92's. Also I called the Suby Dealer I purchased the car from, I asked them to give me a price on a 4 wheel alignment. After a lot of hemming and hawing they said the could not do one because they do not have the software on their alignment machine. They told me to call another dealer. I called a another Suby dealer down the road a bit and they said they don't even do alignments, they send everyone down the road to STS tire and Auto. He also said I should just rotate my tires and see if that works before paying someone to check the alignment. My car has 7500 miles and has not had a tire rotation yet.

Alignment should be cheap and simple! all they did for mine was put these silly looking reflectors on each wheel, point some kind of laser at them, mount one on the steering wheel and check if all the wheels point straight, then put the car on a thread mill thing. Tire rotation and balance have nothing to do with alignment, yes you should check the tire balance etc as well or before checking the aligntment but a big pot hole will throw the alignment off easily!

 

As for the 401 Scooter, try the 407 next time! I used to " follow" the traffic up to 200 kph and the cops didn't even bother anyone as long as your were not obviously over doing it.

I believe one alignment is allowed under the warranty. I had an alignment done a few months ago because of the wandering and was not charged by the dealer who said it was covered.

 

I agree that the car does not do particularly well in the wind. It is a bit better than my WRX was, but not much. My car is wandering again...not sure if it is alignment, wear on the RE-92s (over 6K miles), air pressure, or some combination. I did let some air out of the tires and it did improve a bit.

 

I'm thinking of replacing the tires and getting another alignment.

Sheesh, nobody mentioned tire pressures? That is generally by far the biggest culprit! If they pressure bias is close to even (say 35F/35R), the car will in general with stock suspension ride all over the road. Great for a handling course (although can get a bit extra tail-happy), but for cruising a bane. Now, keep a 3-4psi front bias on the car and you're good to go for cruising. I've tried this and it's worked on both my old 97 GT BD Sedan and my new 05 GT BP Wagon. The old GT with 16" wheels I would run about 38-39F/35R. The new GT with 17" and Toyo Proxes 4's I run 41-42F/38R. Having that 3-4psi bias makes all the difference! I personally think tires and the right pressure settings are by far one of the biggest components to the proper handling of any car.

Before I left the dealership with my new car, I personally checked the tire pressures, with my own TP gauge, to make sure that I was running at least the two psi stock variance f to r. All of the tires were off by at least 5 psi (lower than stock) and I set the fronts to 36 and the rears to 34 cold. The wagged its tail the whole 100 mile trip home from the dealers.

 

My first thought was, the TP is off because it pulled just like TP was off. So, before I drove it the next morning, I checked TP again... still 36/34 and still wagging.

 

Steering wheel also does not center either, which leads me to believe it alignment

I'll take the car in next week for its first service and I'll have them check alignment hopefully at no charge.

 

Will keep you posted.

 

SBT

i have a leg gt 5spd and it seems to like to wander above 70mph. it likes to kind of steer a bit on its own at highway speeds. i am constantly correcting it....... anyone else get this "wandering" sensation at highway speeds?

 

I experience the same thing im my GT wagon. A trip to the dealer confirmed that the alignment was in spec, but they tweaked it anyways to get it closer to ideal. This improved tracking stability slightly. Playing with tire pressures has not improved things. Next step will be to get rid of the RE92s.

 

There was another thread about Subaru suppossedly working on new alignment specs for the Legacy. Anybody hear anything about this lalely?

I still have a problem with the car drifting right. Third set of wheels/tires - still there, so we know we can't blame the RE92's. The dealer said the alignment was in spec. Weird.

Is your steering wheel centered? If it's not then you are probably compensating while driving at the 10 to 2 position and that causes alot of the swaying, pulling.

 

The steering ratio is far faster than any other Subaru that I've owned so little adjustments on an off-center wheel are really amplified.

 

As SUBE555 mentioned, out of spec/ration (F-R) tire pressures are one of the single biggest culprits and really need to be checked at least once per week to make sure all the potholes you've hit, while you were trying to miss them, haven't driven critical air out of the tires.

 

Are you tires holding the same pressures, F/R and S/S? Set them cold at night, check them again cold in the morning, and then check them warm, preferrably immediately after a complete cold check. Tires should be balanced and the same ratio of separatation F/R on both sides.

 

Also, are you using adjustable end links? Are they the same length S/S? I found that there was length variations between my L/R end links (rear) and that was causing some of the issues. Replaced them with stock and the symptoms cleared up considerably. Performance alignment took care of the rest.

 

SBT

I have had the issue since I drove the bone stock car off the lot. It went back in the first week to check the alignment. I have had three sets of wheels and tires on the car. With the Volks and S0-3's, it seemed fine (though they were only on a week or two), but with the stock and the current Prodrives, it pulls again. The steering wheel is centered. Driving on the highway and letting off the wheel, it will drift to the next lane in about ten seconds. Obviously, the slope of the road causes some of this, but even in the far left lane (which slopes left), it's still there. It tracks straight with just a bit of pull. Very strange.

I have had the issue since I drove the bone stock car off the lot. It went back in the first week to check the alignment. I have had three sets of wheels and tires on the car. With the Volks and S0-3's, it seemed fine (though they were only on a week or two), but with the stock and the current Prodrives, it pulls again. The steering wheel is centered. Driving on the highway and letting off the wheel, it will drift to the next lane in about ten seconds. Obviously, the slope of the road causes some of this, but even in the far left lane (which slopes left), it's still there. It tracks straight with just a bit of pull. Very strange.

 

Haven't you demonstrated that the problem lies with the RE92s? The car pulls to the right with the RE92s, but not with SO-3s?

Nope. The RE-92's are on a new set of wheels doing winter duty on the MINI - they work fine. I have Prodrives with Kumho ASX on my LGT now and it pulls. The small amount of time I had the So-3's on the car may have not been enough to get a good assessment - I don't drive the highway to work and commutes are filled with weaving in and out of drivers who haven't had their morning cup-a-joe yet.

I just passed 12,345 miles yesterday, and I haven't felt any wander. Regularly drive a 150 mile route at 80 and had one trip cross-country at 75-85.