Tramlining

[tezza]

Hi guys,

Just trying to work out what I should be doing to fix the tramlining issues I have. By tramlining, the car tends to follow the road dips when Im driving around. Its got 16" aftermarket rims with a offset of 37P, which may be causing some issues although Im led to believe the utes come with either 37P or 43P offset as per another thread.

Ive done the swaybar bushes and all other front bushes look ok, as do the tie rods.
The rear panhard rod bushes need doing so I'll get that done and I was thinking of doing the front radius rod bushges too.

The tyres are 225/50/16 so the lower profile may affect that as well.

Any other ideas? I was going to get some genuine Holden alloys to see if they are ok, although I dont want to go and spend money on something thats not really the problem?

[GenReaper]

It's nearly always tyres that cause it, been there done that.
Try a different tread pattern on the front, borrow some tyres from a friend to try, then you will know for sure.

[tezza]

Yeah could be the tyres too but I need to find some to try.
I think the front rims currently have directional tyres on it.

I have my 15" spare steel wheel plus a 15" alloy off a Berlina or something, will that do for a day or two.

Means I'll have two 15" up front and two 16" at the back.

[old mate]

silly question, but did you get a front end wheel alignment when you put it on the lows?

mine wasnt aligned and due to the drop i had excess toe out when the car was at rest. when you lower vs's, the steering rack ends change angle (obviously) and give the car more toe out. also, when the suspension compresses more the change in toe out compounds.

so if you have a bit of toe out when the car is stationary, when you brake hard and the suspension compresses the car is very twitchy. i gave my car a tiny bit of toe in at rest (nearly 0 toe) so when under brakes its stable but it still steers ok. you lose the sharpness at turn in though, but i had issues with oversteer at turn in so this helped to fix that.

new tyres only fix the issue until they wear incorrectly because of the toe setting. then its all back to how it was.

to DIY check the toe, get you and a mate and a tape measure. have the car on the ground and measure the distance between the back of the front rims and then the front. if the front is longer you have toe out, if rear is longer its toe in. obviously have the wheels pointing straight ahead.

[tezza]

Thanks for that info. I'll check the measurements. Ive only had the car for about 3 months, and it was already lowered at the front when I bought it. I had it wheel aligned when I bought it because I had to replace the tyres (second hand ones) which may be causing some of the tramlining issues.

I got it aligned again and made sure they used the settings off a SS Commodore as they had the 16" rims on it from factory. Helped slightly, although still tramlines a bit.

Im also using two different brand tyres for the front and rear. Fronts are directionals and rears are normal. I might swap the tyres from front to back and also try some 15" stockies on the front for a few days to see how it goes and rule out tyre issues.

[Brett_jjj]

Worn front hub bearings can cause this too.Especially if the vehicle has done over 200,000 k's.These hub units are a sealed item so the bearings are non servicable, you have to replace the whole hub assembly to renew the bearings.Call around a few different places for prices as they can vary greatly.I got prices ranging from $200 to $500 for each side.I ended up getting genuine holden hubs for $190 each side from a local holden dealer.Also the hubs are different for ABS and non ABS equipped vehicles.There are some cheap brand chinese made hubs about that are cheap,Id try to stay away from them though.

[88GreenVN]

If you can "shake" the back of your ute side to side - fix that before you do anything else. Panhard rod bushed could be most of the problem.

[tezza]

Thanks couple of cheaper things I can try first. I'll swap the tyres around, plus also replace the panhard rod bushes.
I had a wiggle of the panhard rod and one side of the bushes I know needs replacing so I'll be doing that first.