[360Rocket]

So I recently bought a wheel and tire package just to change the look and performance of my GTO by going to a 17" aluminum wheel with a 255/45/17 tire and I expected a ride difference but not as big of a disparity as I am experiencing. The ride is stiffer, I expected that. There is more road feel I expected that. I had 15x7" R2's with a 245/60/15 almost identical in size. The difference I didn't expect was the car didn't track and it seemed more effort was required to keep her in a straight line she seemed to wander all over the road. Just out of curiosity when I returned home I measured from outer edge of tire to outer edge of tire both back and front and the front was 73" wide and the rear was 70". My old set up had all the same wheels with all the same backspace as the new wheels are but I didn't experience the "tracking" issue before......any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Goatracer1]

By any chance do you have a brake drum weight holding the wheel away from the drum?

[360Rocket]

Originally Posted by Goatracer1

By any chance do you have a brake drum weight holding the wheel away from the drum?

I didn't see one but I will check on it. I would think I would see a visible "wobble" if I spun the tire right? I have disc brakes on the front of the car.

[360Rocket]

Admins I put this in the wrong category, can you move to correct venue for me please? thanks.

[indymanjoe]

Is the backspacing the same on all the rims? Anything else done at the same time of the tire change?

[FrankieT/A]

Going to to a lower profile tire can cause that sometimes. The steering becomes more sensitive. The first thing I would check is the condition of the lower ball joints. If they check out good I would next look to realign the car car and put in a little more caster to compensate. "Problem Solver" upper control arm shafts may be necessary to achieve the added caster. Just a thought...

[ZeGermanHam]

The wider the tires, the more susceptible the car will be to tramlining (i.e., following the contours of the road surface). This effect will be heightened if in addition to going wider you also decrease sidewall height (which you did). Also, switching from a less sticky to a more sticky rubber compound also makes a big difference with tramlining.

And on top of all that, it's also possible that your alignment wasn't 100% perfect before but it wasn't noticeable due to having a less aggressive tire. Now with the wider tires with shorter sidewall and presumably stickier compound, the alignment specs matter a whole lot more. They will also draw out any slop you have in your steering and suspension components. I suspect you just need an alignment.

Just some thoughts.

[FrankieT/A]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

The wider the tires, the more susceptible the car will be to tramlining (i.e., following the contours of the road surface). This effect will be heightened if in addition to going wider you also decrease sidewall height (which you did). Also, switching from a less sticky to a more sticky rubber compound also makes a big difference with tramlining.

And on top of all that, it's also possible that your alignment wasn't 100% perfect before but it wasn't noticeable due to having a less aggressive tire. Now with the wider tires with shorter sidewall and presumably stickier compound, the alignment specs matter a whole lot more. They will also draw out any slop you have in your steering and suspension components. I suspect you just need an alignment.

Just some thoughts.

Thanks for elaborating...

[Goatracer1]

If your toe in was off by about 3 inches before you would have wiped out your original tires. I dont care what you had on for wheels and tires before you should have noticed very poor handling with 3 inches of toe out. Either you measured wrong or you have something very wrong with the installation.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by Goatracer1

If your toe in was off by about 3 inches before you would have wiped out your original tires. I dont care what you had on for wheels and tires before you should have noticed very poor handling with 3 inches of toe out. Either you measured wrong or you have something very wrong with the installation.

I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to the track width of the front and rear axles, not the toe angle. Front track width was 73", rear track width was 70". No mention of toe angle.

[360Rocket]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to the track width of the front and rear axles, not the toe angle. Front track width was 73", rear track width was 70". No mention of toe angle.

correct

[Goatracer1]

Sorry I thought he meant front and back of same tires. Oops