Wheel offset, bushes etc...

[levymetal]

I just have a couple of questions about a few things to do with my car (91 VN V6). The story is this: the car handles like rubbish. It bumps steers and basically steers itself all over the road. And when I brake it's out of control. I take it in to pedders, they make a massive list of basically everything that could be wrong is wrong, but tell me the most important things to fix: lower bushes and radius bushes. They also tell me that my 17 inch VT SS wheels could be causing problems because they are the wrong offset, wider tire etc. So I decide to get my radius bushes and lower bushes replaced. This cost me $336. Did I get ripped or is this a normal price? I had a look and to me looked like about 6 bushes... $336 seems a bit much but maybe it's hard labour or something. Oh and also $55 for the wheel alignment too! Anyway I got the car back, and it didn't really make that much of a difference. Slightly when driving, but under braking it really helped a lot. Today I decided to put my 15 inch interceptors back on and it actually felt like a million dollars... Am I dreaming? Or is the offset of the 17 inch VT SS wheels that different? Also the VT SS wheels had directionals on them which again the guy said may cause problems. I don't know if I'm feeling placebo or the wheels actually do make an awesome difference. Oh and the difference in width, well the 17s are 235 and the 15s are 215(!).

[immortality]

sounds like it's tram lining, the wheels are following ruts in the road, this can get worse with wider wheels. i've been running VT SS rims on my VN for years and never had any issues. feels better on the SS rims then stocko 14's

what settings has he got on the wheel alignment? there are 2 different offsets but i honestly don't think thats the problem. directionals? are they running in the right direction?

[levymetal]

That's exactly what was happening! Yeah my directionals were running in the right direction, and I've had 2 wheel alignments done at different places and still same problems with the wheels. And I don't know what the settings were on the wheel alignment. Just strange that the slightly wider tyre really affected things :S. Or perhaps I am dreaming, I'll drive it for a week all around the place and see if it really does feel better. I mean, 215s on interceptors is pretty wide... So I don't really mind having them on my car if it is making a difference for the better!

[Morton]

I was under the impression that larger rims with wider tyres were supposed to be aligned with a little more toe-in. But I could be making that up.

Also, radius bushes tend to be more expensive to replace than other bushes. So that's about average for a pedders price.

[vn ss v8]

I Have a VN SS V8 19991 (hence name LOL).Anyway here goes I have same problem.
Details of work done
1) New Kmac bearings
2) New Rack and Pinion
3) King Springs + Monroe Gas Struts
4) nolathane Lower Arm Bushes + the 2 front Z bars with Nolathane Bushes
(lower control arm to front of car Dont know proper name)
5) New Ball Joints
6) Whiteline Strut Brace
7) I'm running Yokohama's 225/60/R15s Front and rear
8) Upper control arm nolathane bushes
9) Lower control arm Standard bushes
10) Adjustable Panhard Rod

I've had my car wheel Alighed 4 to 5 times over approx 10 mths,it's good for a couple of days then it starts to track. It really ****es me off - Any ideas of fix would be very much appreciated.

One more point,I've also put on Drilled-Slotted rotors now these seem to over hang the hub by about 1cm-1.5cm (Front).My Fr Wheels espec the right fr seems to work slightly loose where u kick tyre wheel moves slightly,infact i can nearly jump on the fr bearings with socket and the wheel can still turn hlf way.Do these rotors need slightly bigger wheal bearings.All this work.Thought I'd ask u guys because l read some of the reply's and you guys seem in the know

PS:Put this here because i couldn't find where to start my own thread.
A bit long winded but l'se need to know THANKS

[Cobez]

sounds like it's tram lining, the wheels are following ruts in the road, this can get worse with wider wheels. i've been running VT SS rims on my VN for years and never had any issues. feels better on the SS rims then stocko 14's

what settings has he got on the wheel alignment? there are 2 different offsets but i honestly don't think thats the problem. directionals? are they running in the right direction?

Yeah, i hear that, i have the 19" sigs with 235/35/19 tyres and they run all over the road.

The handling in my car apart from that is magnificent. I got the whole Pedders sports ryder kit fitted (shocks springs etc), new bearing plates, front strut brace, rear swaybar, every single bush replaced, wheel alignment and had the steering straightened right out. Every component is now Pedders gear.

Handles like a dream now. Best money i ever spent. Seriously man, save up, it's worth it.

[levymetal]

I was definitely thinking about it (lowered on stockies is about as good as FE2 on vt ss ), but then I thought about the future! If I get a job after tafe I've only got my car for another 9 months! And I'll never get the money back from lowering it!

[Jack87]

Then why do it if its only 9 months, its like buying a puppy and then giving it away for free.

[levymetal]

nah that's the point man, i want to spend it on my next car!

[immortality]

One more point,I've also put on Drilled-Slotted rotors now these seem to over hang the hub by about 1cm-1.5cm (Front).My Fr Wheels espec the right fr seems to work slightly loose where u kick tyre wheel moves slightly,infact i can nearly jump on the fr bearings with socket and the wheel can still turn hlf way.Do these rotors need slightly bigger wheal bearings.All this work.Thought I'd ask u guys because l read some of the reply's and you guys seem in the know

the new rotors should be dimensionally the same as the original ones, sounds like you don't have enough preload on the bearings, or maybe you haven't seated one of the taper bearing races properly. check you bearings, then, reset the preload. when you fit bigger/wider wheels you create more load/stress on the bearings. do you have any rubbing marks on the strut next to the tread?

also, when you get a wheel alignment done, when asks what model/year your car is get him to use the settings for a FE2 spec model or one that came from the factory with 17" wheels, like a VP HSV. also, you want as much caster as they can possibly achieve