I think I am having a serious problem, the other day I was driving in the snow, and I felt the car was drifting at the back at not even 20mph, no control watsoever. So i put teh blame on bad tires, eventhough they are new.

So comes the next day when its all mild outside, and i am driving on the off ramp, and there was small patch of water from previous rain, i was going so slow, i just got over it and the car fish tailed right away, luckily i was driving slow, let go of the gas corrected the fish tail and the car regained control.

NOW the feeling is progressively getting worse, if i am driving on the road at highway speeds and the highway begins to bak to right, i feel my rear end is wobbling, the same feeling u get when u are running low pressure on a rear tire.

Also if i bank my steering all the way to the right forward or reversing, like if i am doing a right turn i feel like teh front wheel is skipping, but violently, the same feeling u get if your driving a 4WD car or jeep with 4 wheels locked, the lexus starts basically hopping.

my setup is

eibach lowering springs
tokiko blue shocks

18x9.5 back
18x8 fronts

 

You're driving in the snow w/ 18" rims w/ low profile tires.
Isn't that a major part of the problem?

Are your shocks bad?
When were the "new" tires installed?
Has your suspension been correctly re-installed (when you put on new tires)?

 

well my suspension was installed a year ago, i recently changed the tires, i had potenzo s1''s before they were amazing, but these tires i purhcased new maxxis tires.

i drove it in wet also and kept loosing control on mild days so its not the snow. I am not sure if it could be my differential is shot and is locking all the power to one rear wheel, or maybee a bad sway bar i am not sure

 

First off, get a torque wrench and check your lug nuts! Seriously..with extreme changes in temperature, Aluminum rims can loosen up, especially if they are not the "wedge" style lug nut. If they are the flat 90 degree type that use a washer, watch out..they can loosen up with no warning at all.

Second, Do you have traction control? Could be the trac actuator is only pumping one rear brake and letting the other spin.

Third, there are MANY performance tires that absolutely HATE snow or water in ANY form. Goodyear HP's for example. (don't ask how I know..or where that paint all over that tree came from)

I can tell you from experience that the nexzen style tread, where the "v" bars are blocked at the edges of the tread by a solid reinforceing bar that essentially looks like a rubber band that goes around both the inside and outside edges of the tire tread are absolutely horrible in any kind of water..to me they are "unsafe at any speed" because the tire design actually PRESSURIZED water in the center of the tread..You've heard of hydroplaning, right? We've all done the dumb drive in hard rain on nearly bald tires at least once. Well this style of tread pattern essentially turns your tire into a HYDROFOIL! This is caused by the water being channeled towards the outside of the tire (like the original aquatred tread pattern) but instead of exiting the tread via the side sipes (like in a standard "V" style tread pattern) it is like this: "lVl" So the water is displaced by the weight of the car on the center of the tire towards the edges. However, that BAR running down both sides of the tire tread, which is put there to give you SOME manner of treadwear for turning, versus cording the tire the first time you decide to overcook a turn, acts as a dam, and the water, now under pressure, can't get past it to exit the tire tread at all. The water hits that "dam" and bounces BACK toward the center of the tread, LIFTING the tire off the road.

If you could show us the tread pattern it might help.
Also, if you have a rear wheel bearing ready to blow, one of your rear tires could actually be COCKING sideways (IE leaning toe in or toe out, shimmying between the two, plus cambering and decambering etc) in a turn. (same effect as loose lug nuts)

What I would do, honestly is to get someone to trail you at low speed and slap the steering wheel side to side and have him watch the rear end. Control arm bushings, rear ball joints, particularely LOWER ball joints, get neglected. You'll replace the fronts because you get tired of changing lanes without moving the steering wheel, but the rear ball joints still wear out over time. In our cars the lower ball joints are the load bearing set, so they wear out first.

If nothing else, jack the car up by the "pumpkin" or the center of the rear end, slap a pair of jackstands under it, and simply check the wheel bearings by pulling up and down/side to side..sometimes just a few degrees of play can mean BIG changes under power. My Eclipse GSX awd had a bent rear control arm, but would align out perfectly. Yet whenever it hit ice, the sucker would spin me within 5 feet of hitting the ice patch. Always spun to the left and it was instantaneous, yet if it was dry, the car would track PERFECTLY straight, hands off the steering wheel.

Check the obvious first. Look for leaks. Take the car out of gear/park and rotate the tires while the car is on the jackstands. Push IN AND OUT on the tire..try to shove the axle into and out of the rear end. We know you can't actually do that, they're bolted on, but you'll see if you've got a bad CV joint)

If the car is getting truly dangerous, stop driving it and take it to an alignment shop and have a pro take a look.
Dave

 

Thanks for the info GalantVR4, so what # is ur Galant VR4, my friend had one it was a great sleeper and it was crazy fast, now he upgraded to an EVO.

Now back to the subject at hand, the rear tires are Maxxis MA-V1 265/35/18 temp A, and traction rating of A and from the tread pattern they look like Al-Seasons, they tread u see on almost every car out there.

here is a link to the tire info

http://www.maxxis.com/products/autom...ail.asp?id=180


I never had experience with Maxxis, I used to have crazy Bridgestone Potenzo S02, those things were nut it was like riding on rails, but they wore out fast.

The car has no traction control, and its an open diff in the back, I will try taking pics under the car when i get it jacked up tomm, What is wierd though is that if i am making a turn close to a U-Turn to the Right u get the feeling of the tire skipping, I changed my wheel bearings last year but even when they really bad it didnt do the out of control stuff its doing now.

I feel like the car will give any second, its wobbly, but i am those picky guys also, so its like i have sixth sense to any abnormal vibration or feeling thats out of normal.

I only hydroplained twice one it was my fault, cuz i saw a big puddle comming and i had bald tires so u know the result but i got lucky spinned out on teh highway but didnt hit anything or any cars.

the second time is now recently and its me driving slow as hell and just patch of water not even a puddle.

 

a few yrs ago i spun out and my rear passenger wheel hit the curb. well a couple days later my rear was swaying so i brought it to lexus they said i broke a bearing and a shaft s/a rr axl was replaced. what you can do is jack up your car and try to move your rear wheel side to side. you shouldnt be able to. if it does move then you may broke something. good luck

 

I will try this out, i already changed one the bearings, so i doubt thats the case. I am opting to a shot rear diff or bad sway bar links.

 

I know this is an old thread but did you solve the problem with your car?

 

What issues are you having?

I'm surprised no one told the OP to check his alignment to see if it was within spec or at least check the tire to see if it has any abnormal wear marks.

Easiest thing to do is jack up the car and inspect for anything that is unusually loose or broken, then if nothing is broken, clean up the bolts and use an oil pen to mark the bolts to a spot on the subframe to see if anything shifts after driving for a few days.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking as I read through it.

When I got my '94, it drove straight and I assumed was reasonably well aligned. However, it was nearly lethal in heavy rain on the highway, repeately pulling hard to either side with no warning. When I took it in for an alignment, it turned out everything was out of spec. Someone had probably done a back alley job, monkeying with settings randomly.

 

One of the first things I had to do after I got my SC was fix the rear end problem. It had a curbed right rear wheel and whole alignment was out of wack. It ate rear tires and in wet or slippery conditions you could not be sure which direction the rear would take off to. Took 2 tries on the rack to get it right and had to rebush the whole rear suspension.

 

Rear toe arms going bad are a common source of sketchy handling like OP describes. It will feel like the car has 4 wheel steering. Has happened to me twice on track. The ball joint in the end of the arm that bolts to spindle will get slack from the plastic insert breaking and just that small amount of slack will cause crazy handling. If that happens, just order a set of the aftermarket ones and have an alignment done.