[s-cars] Wandering like a drunken sailor

[Fred Munro]

Hi Nic;

What you are experiencing is called "tramlining". The wider your tires, the
more prone the s-cars are to following ruts and cracks in the road. Some
tire brands are worse than others for this.

I run 225/50-16 Dunlop SP9000s. They tramline a bit at low speed but it's
not something I can't live with. When I put on my 205/60-15 winter tires,
the car is steady as a rock and tracks straight over the roughest road
surface ( and I can guarantee our roads here in Northern Ontario are worse
than those in Seattle :o)
Tramlining has been discussed ad nauseum on this list without a definitive
solution to the problem. One lister posted that bringing the toe in to the
inner limit seemed to help (i.e maximum allowable toe-in).

Did the tramlining change after you rebuilt the suspension?

Fred Munro
'94 S4

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Nic Bode
Sent: October 5, 2002 1:29 AM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Wandering like a drunken sailor


Well, I am stumped. I have a 93 S4 with 70,000 miles on it and I can't get
it to stop wandering all over the road, ruts, cracks, pavement changes, etc.
Located in Seattle, read bad roads
All the following done in the past 1,000 miles with no detectable change.
17 X 8 Bolero's with 235/45/17 SO-3's
H&R V8/Bilstein Sport with new strut bearings and bushings
new tranny mounts, poly front snub motor mount
complete front end factory bushing rebuild and I do mean complete, all
subframe, control arms, sway bar, steering stabalizer, ball joints, tie rod
ends, inner, outer, upper, downer
alingment two days old with front toe set at 3/16ths inch toe in, negative 1
degree camber and rear toe at 1/8th inch toe in and negative 0.5 degree
camber
recently fussed with the steering rack pre-load and really didn't help much
What am I missing? What can I do to solve this problem? My wifes 99 Passat
V6 with 235's tracks and drives great, no wandering. Is it possible that I
have the sway bar on upside down? Just a quick thought. I did tighten all
the sway bar nuts with the car on the ground as the Bentley instructed. I am
at a loss. I end up driving my truck everywere cuz I can't stand how the S4
drives. There must be a secret that I don't have. Please email directly if
you would like and thanks for your help.

Nic
A93URS4
nbode4 at attbi.com


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