The rear tires on my t Cab had been changed two months ago. Since then the steering is very problematic: At speeds above 70 mph the car turns in with a lot of inertia and driving slalom results in heavy body roll. The car suddenly feels like sluggish, yet in terms of steering response it is over-reactive. In addition steering response at lower speeds is rather poor. Wheel alignment and tire pressure have been checked numerous times and found to be OK. The car is eqipped with 17"-rims with 205/50 at the front and 235/45 at the rear. What could be the cause?
Are you running the same make/model tires front and rear? Mismatches can cause handling issues. You also have to watch to see if the manufacturer made changes in the tires (tread or compound) and kept the name the same.
I nearly overturned my 328 in a straight line with these tyres the day I fitted them. And i'm not exaggerating. Tyre shop changed them without a murmur to Pirelli Rosso and as if by magic the problem was gone. No other settings done. The rear felt like it was trying to steer.. and the wheels felt oval. Crazy i know but thats what happened. Mine were 18" though. skin.
I have got exactly the same sensation! Maybe changing all 4 tires is what needs to be done .. .. I will discuss it with maserati424 who is taking care of the car.
The standard wheels are 16". Which alloys do you have on your car? Im curious because i'll be changing my alloys next week to 17" rims. Any pics?
I ave seen this situation happen when just the rears or the fronts are changed. It is probably necessary to do all four at the same time.
I will take this advice. However, I also recently changed the front tires on my Alfa while keeping the rear tires .. .. the car has a similar performance and I encountered none of those problems. Strange stuff :-(
Going wider on the rears regardless of what you do to the front will make the rear wheels steer. There is too much "twist" in the suspension. When i put my new mags on the shop got it wrong and the rears were too deeply dished and the tyres stuck out from the fender about 10mm. This was crazy handling. In a sweep i would constantly have to saw the wheel to the outside of the turn because the car dove to the inside and oscillated back and forth. Crazy. I was told that in order to wear much wider rims ( to the outside ) on the rear and bigger rubber successfully, you need, on a 328, to have an engine bay brace between the shock mountings ( race car like ) that stops the suspension twisting. As you have bigger than stock rims it is likely that you have changed the offset to look better too ( and it does look much better) but this handling change my friend you will probably need to live with. The new tyres ( problematic in themselves as Dunlop sp's are ) prolly exaggerate the problem because of increased grip on the rear helping the rears steer even better.. Skin.
I can very well follow your thoughts. Alas, in this case roadholding was virtually perfect before with the SAME TYRE DIMENSIONS and the SAME TYPE OF TYRES. I as an amateur in issues regarding tyres can´t understand the mechanism that would have such a severe effect on the cars performance when I am staying with the same dimensions, the same brand and the same type .. ??
Tyres have a speed and load rating on them , and also many have an "N" number relating to contruction stiffness, and more have specific model application data too. You should seek specialist advise with these cars, they could kill you if you let the general tyre shops sell you what they want you to have. But, many customers are at least as guilty of trying to save a few bucks by finding same size tyres that are cheaper than the original fitment items..... Tyres are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your car. Get good advise from people with direct experience and use it. Dont take your Ferrari to a "quick fit" shop. They are almost ALL useless, potentially lethal. They damage your wheels with their machinery and they give shoddy alignments. Use Ferrari approved or specialist tyre shop. It's so important, and stories of this are far too common. If your insurance company find you've been using tyres inappropriate for your car, they'll wriggle out of the claim too.
I did take this in account when ordering the tyres. Specs are OK. Good point. I also feel that even the most expensive tyres are the cheapest performance upgrade one can get, let alone the safety aspect. Especially here on our roads, where you are allowed to exploit the potential of these cars. My car does not have full insurance, anyway. My personal philosophy is to just cover those risks I couldn´t afford (e.g. our house has insurance). But that´s another discussion ... Thank you all for your advice. It seems that putting on different tyres is the way to go ..
Don't know if this is applicable, but I was told that many tire manufacturers put an outside coating of a protective sealant that does not wear off for about a hundred miles. Therefore, I was told the tires will seem a bit slick for a while and to be careful until they were run in. Good Luck
Hi Russ, I have had the Dunlop SP 9000 for many years on my Alfa. With the Alfa I have never sensed such an impact with new tyres. I addition I have driven over 200 mls by now with the new wheels and the problem remains. Regards Thorsten
You might want to read about my experience from the old FChat archives. Remember, these old ones start at the bottom. http://70.85.40.84/~ferrari/discus/messages/112/315127.html I have had NO problems with my tires since mounting the full set.
