Hey,
Over the time I have had my MINI I have noticed that on some roads that the MINI trys to swerve back and fourth. Why is it doing that? Is it my tires, the raod, alignment, or what have any suggestions? Thanks for all of you help.

 

>>Hey,
>> Over the time I have had my MINI I have noticed that on some roads that the MINI trys to swerve back and fourth. Why is it doing that? Is it my tires, the raod, alignment, or what have any suggestions? Thanks for all of you help.

There are a couple of highways near me that give me a little trouble. The reason is that they are concrete and it's "grooved" parallel to the flow of traffic, so there are times that it throws me around a little. Also, old roads that have heavy semi traffic tend to get ruts that have similar effects. If the roads don't fit the above descriptions, then I'd have the car looked at.

 

It's a combination of the width and stiffness of your tires with the stiffness of the suspension. I'll bet that you experience this on roads that are heavily rutted or grooved... right? The edges of the tires grab on to uneven ruts or grooves while the opposite edge is suspended. The stiff short sidewall doesn't allow the tire to flex to keep complete contact with the road, and the suspension is stiff enough not to allow any flex either... so something has to give - and it's usually the steering.

Unless you experience this on smooth, level roads, there's not much you can do - and no real reason to worry. Just keep your hands on the wheel!

 

Thats straight (sp)

 

To avoid tramlining, get rid of your run flats! The run flats just make the car feel too squirrely on grooves and ruts.

 

Some streets tend to have a concave shape to them so that rain runoff will be collected in the gutters...really good tires will grip the road...could also be that one tire has different air pressure.

Just something to consider.



_________________
BRGFROG

 

>>It's a combination of the width and stiffness of your tires with the stiffness of the suspension. I'll bet that you experience this on roads that are heavily rutted or grooved... right? The edges of the tires grab on to uneven ruts or grooves while the opposite edge is suspended. The stiff short sidewall doesn't allow the tire to flex to keep complete contact with the road...

So it would seem like this means that you wear on the inner edges of the tire quicker if there's a lot of roads like this in the area...right?

Erik