[V6-12v] Understeer - suspension?

[George Tur]

On Friday 29 December 2006 14:29, James Whitehouse wrote:

>
> It's so bad that it's definitely worse handling than my FWD model. Now the
> understeer could be tyre related, since the previous owner has premium
> (Goodyear F1) tyres on the rear, and cheapo (Hankook, or some unknown
> brand) on the front. 
*************
James, that's your problem, you have mismatched tires. The torsen based 
quattro system is very sensitive to mismatched tires. The front and rear 
tires will have different slip/adhesion rates and the center torsen 
differential is going to react to it. Tires on a quattro based car have to 
all match. 

I went through this some years ago with my wifes car. She had to replace the 
front tires on the A6 and even though she bought the same make they were a 
different model. When we drove that evening through a rain storm I couldn't 
drive the car over 50 miles an hour and had to take mild turns at very low 
speeds. After exchanging the tires the next day the handling returned to 
normal, which is mild understeer. 

Regards

George