FWD Oversteer, whats going on?

Simon said:
Why, that's all that's changed by the sounds of things, probably still have some release agent on, or maybe haven't scrubbed in yet

What were the old ones
Click to expand...

Originally i had some goodyear excellence tyres fitted to the rear then went through some F1's now onto these, when i had these tyres fitted i took a holiday in the lakes and down all the country lanes even in the damp it didn't feel like this, i've even changed the fronts and backs this weekend to no effect.

Only other thing thats changed with the rear is i fitted a new set of pads about 3 weeks ago, these have also been fine but i'm wondering if i've overheated the caliper and something is sticking, time to take them apart and check i think!

Grad said:
You're not completetly coming off the throttle mid corner?
Click to expand...

Nah, neutral or no throttle the whole corner :)
 
Hows your fuel consumption been since the pad change? If one was sticking I'd expect to see the average drop and the wheel to be hot after a run
 
Fuel consumption seems fine, no wheels are getting hot during normal driving but my wheels always get quite warm under other conditions, i feel the brakes might not be binding all the time due to the two factors you pointed out, however one of them could be failing to fully release till after the corner causing a slight drag on one wheel and the oversteer situation, going to take them apart tonight and clean everything back up.

Still need to take one of the shocks off and check for leaking, thankfully all of the above are quick jobs, i hope its not the rear bushes which have gone :(
 
My Clio 172 has a very twitchy rear, it feels quite scary at high speeds actually. I have had it step out and didn't even realise until it caught and the car shook.

Oversteer is certainly better than understeer imo, my Saxo's used to understeer at high speed if you lifted off, scary if you were not expecting it.
 
digitalwolf said:
My Clio 172 has a very twitchy rear, it feels quite scary at high speeds actually. I have had it step out and didn't even realise until it caught and the car shook.

Oversteer is certainly better than understeer imo, my Saxo's used to understeer at high speed if you lifted off, scary if you were not expecting it.
Click to expand...

Yea my saxo was the same, most french cars i've driven feel very light at the back end, i kind of expect it from something like that but a Passat Estate shouldn't want to oversteer all the time :p

Zip said:
From my experiance, FWD cars really dont seem to like this that much:p
Click to expand...

If you come off the throttle before you turn into the corner i fail to see how this will cause a problem, other than the car slowing down through the corner.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Fuel consumption seems fine, no wheels are getting hot during normal driving but my wheels always get quite warm under other conditions, i feel the brakes might not be binding all the time due to the two factors you pointed out, however one of them could be failing to fully release till after the corner causing a slight drag on one wheel and the oversteer situation, going to take them apart tonight and clean everything back up.

Still need to take one of the shocks off and check for leaking, thankfully all of the above are quick jobs, i hope its not the rear bushes which have gone :(
Click to expand...

You could always try coming into a corner at a sensible speed and using engine braking to slow down to see if it happens then. If it happens sans-brakes, you can start to look elsewhere
 
Any form of slowing mid corner, is going to throw the weight of the car forward, and provoke oversteer.

However in this instance, the driver is saying that the feeling is more pronounced. This is likely to be due to some sort of change, or failure. Perhaps get the alignment checked somewhere decent. If there is a failure somewhere in the suspension, it will probably show up in the alignment.
 
Matt82 said:
id go with this. my latest tyres are about 700-800 miles old and ive had a fair few sideways moments on them. gonna pop the rears on the front to get them worn in too
Click to expand...

Yea i did a swap yesterday to eliminate the tyres and its still doing the same thing, front seemed fine on the new tyres anyways so i switched them back.

iaind said:
You could always try coming into a corner at a sensible speed and using engine braking to slow down to see if it happens then. If it happens sans-brakes, you can start to look elsewhere
Click to expand...

Good idea actually, will try that out tonight, thinking back its always on the slower corners so the ones i've braked harder into anyways, its just logical with me recently changing the rear pads that its a rear caliper sticking very slightly.

Malt_Vinegar said:
Any form of slowing mid corner, is going to throw the weight of the car forward, and provoke oversteer.

However in this instance, the driver is saying that the feeling is more pronounced. This is likely to be due to some sort of change, or failure. Perhaps get the alignment checked somewhere decent. If there is a failure somewhere in the suspension, it will probably show up in the alignment.
Click to expand...

Been holding off getting an aligement check done, my fronts have negative camber on them and whoever i took the car to would moan that they can't adjust it out, was waiting on adjustable front control arms to become available in the uk before i got a full check done.
 
Simon said:
Why?

Rear tyres on a fwd take a while to scrub in.
Click to expand...

Yea they did take a while but everything felt fine running those rears before a week or so ago and then it all went wrong, i had the car to the lakes about a week after i had the tyres fitted and gave it a good thrashing over kirkstone pass (lolz by some no doubt) everything felt normal and as planted as you could expect for a large car.
 
Firestar_3x said:
If you come off the throttle before you turn into the corner i fail to see how this will cause a problem, other than the car slowing down through the corner.
Click to expand...

Engine braking is the same as light braking really, you are taking weight off the rear tyres and weight is what gives you the adhesion between road.
 
All my driving is country roads really, bit of motorway but not a whole lot, will report back with what i find tonight, hopefully its an easy fix!
 
Neutral / constant throttle through the corner produces the same results.

Going to take the calipers apart tonight just ordered some Bilstein Sport rear shocks to rule out my current items, even though they've only been on a year.
 
more likely to be the front according to this..

Sus5.gif
 
I had small oversteer "problems" last year and after I had my front engine mount fixed (as it was rather broken from frequent hand time) it went away again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom