Ok, as the title says, on occasion, my car steers itself. It is mostly a pull to teh right, but occasionally it slices left. It happens mostly on bumpy roads and when im changing lanes. It happened on the highway at 70 mph an it scared the bejeezes out of me. it doesnt pull too much, it depends on my reaction time, which is very good. i know this is unsafe, and i should take it in, but for now i have to endure it and take it in later. does anybody know what my problem could be?

i was thinkin that once, awhile ago, i got a flat, and it sat overnight on the runflat. i had the flat fixed, and didnt have any problems for a while. recently the tire has been losing pressure, about 5psi a week, and i was thinking that maybe the tire has a funky integrity to it. either that or something much worse...something in the control arm or wheel bearing?

anybody have any input? thanks
marco

 

You probably have an aligment problem. When was the last time you performed a full 4-wheel aligment on it?

 

What tires are you curently running? Mileage? This seems like tramlining to me if it goes both right and left and is occasional in nature.

 

i havent, but i didnt hit anything funny, like a curb, or pothole, so i didnt think i had any reason for an alignment. When my steering wheel is straight, my car goes straight. unless its jetting to the right, but like i said, it doesnt happen that often, but it still happens.:impatient

 

Right and if you are running on runflats they will follow the grooves in the road due to the stiff sidewalls.

 

Pirelli euphori@s with almost 25K miles on them. I have heard about this trammeling business, but i didnt think it was this intense.

 

The wheels tramline like crazy. On certain roads, the wheel is nearly ripped out of my hands. Luckily, I'm down to 4/32" on the front and 6/32" on the rear. Is that normal for 7500 miles?

 

We experience the same phenomenon on our 18" run flats but there was no "tramming?" on our cushy 16" winter tires.

It scared the bejesus out of me the first time and I thought maybe somthing was wrong but it seems to only do it on crowned roads so I'm just a wee bit more careful now when I'm travelling those roads.

 

My thoughts are that your Eufori@s are causing the problem. I know that the Chicago highways have tremendous traffic on them and that there are significant "ruts" caused by all the 18 wheelers. (I was driving in Chi-town about five weeks ago, but not in my MINI). You have quite a few miles on your tires and they may be ready for replacement. Different tire pressures can also exacerbate this problem. Might be time to call Tire Rack and get some new rubber.

 

check your front lower ball joints for play or looseness
pirellis wear ultra-quick when driven w/ urgency

 

I've only had my MCS a couple of months, and even though I knew about the tramlining I was shocked by how violent it can be. I actually got the alignment checked (perfect) because I was doubtful that it was all tramlining, but now I believe it is. It seems it would be dangerous...

I also have Pirelli euforis (w/S-lites) and plan to ditch them soon for x-lites (anyone have any they want to sell ?) and some non run-flat rubber. I think there will be significant improvement from what I have read.

 

Well this sounds much more severe than trammlining and it is not an alignment or PSI issue cause those, ulsees really bad on all 4 wheels would be one direction or cause wheel vibrtion and the car wouldn't hold a straight line. To me it sounds like something much deeper in the system, butwhat I don't know. Also the Perelli Runflats are just about the best ones out there and I'd alsmost switch back to those after I'm done with my non-runflats I needed cause they were the only tires left in the state that fit, I'd say the Perellis are just as good as most any other tire Avalible for an S-lite.

 

I hope you figure it out...

My MINI pulls when one of my front tires is 10psi lower than the other one...
Also with my husband's directional summer tires, the car would grip on any bump/curve/crevice and pull awkward directions

 

Wow! My fronts were the Bald Eagles at 17K...the rears seem to wear like cast iron though! Now I've got 27K and my fronts are showing quite a bit of wear again...

Check your tire pressures and alignment. That's most likely where your problems lie.

Rawhyde

 

i get the same thing too. I agree, its sometimes really bad when switching lanes(over the center line). I find it to happen during acceleration. If your tires like to grip, you will have a bit of wheel torque.