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Car feels all "rotatey" on slippery roads. Alignment issue?
Since the roads have begun to degrade this winter and become more snowy, icy and generally slippery, I’ve noticed something odd with how my car has been handling.
It feels as though the car wants to rotate counter-clockwise and I am continuously having to make minor steering corrections to counter-act the car's behaviour of twisting around and being all "hey what's that over to the left!?"
So far this has only been a minor nuisance and hadn’t really registered on the “I should get this looked into” scale, but after experiencing 1.5 hours of butt-puckering terror on an icy highway earlier today, I thought I’d see if I could get to the bottom of what was causing my bottom to pucker.
Before I go into what I think the problem may be, I thought I’d share some details for context:
- The car is lowered on KW coilovers
- Winter tires are Bridgestone Blizzak LM 25V’s and are slightly wider than stock spec: 265/35/19 (stockers are 255’s)
- Tread depth on winters is good (9/32 all around) and no uneven wear
- All 4 tires' pressures were checked the morning before we hit the road and all were normal
- The speed at which the puckering effect becomes most apparent is above 70km/h (45mph)
- It doesn’t do this when the roads are dry or wet or slushy or even a bit snowy – it happens on compacted snow, ice, or generally speaking, more slippery conditions.
- I never experienced this with my previous RS4 (completely stock and on 255/35/19 Pirelli winters) and did lots of winter highway driving in even worse conditions than today.
[edit: added some further detail about the tire pressure and the set up of my previous RS4]
Here are some pictures. Because pictures.
My initial thought was that my alignment was out of whack, but after getting the alignment checked this afternoon and being told it’s all within normal ranges, I’m left a bit puzzled. Here are the results of the alignment check btw:
FRONT
Left Caster: 4.03°
Right Caster: 3.82°
Left Toe: 0.08°
Right Toe: 0.17°
Left Camber: -1.72°
Right Camber: -1.61°
REAR
Left Toe: 0.17°
Right Toe: 0.29°
Left Camber: -1.77°
Right Camber: -1.44°
Thrust angle: 0.07°
Some questions / thoughts as to what may be the culprit:
1. Perhaps these alignment values ARE out of whack, and the technician who told me they weren’t out of whack, was out of whack himself. Could 0.29° of toe in the right rear be enough to cause the car to want to swing its ass out?
2. Could it be my tires? The technician who checked the alignment suggested that they may be the cause but didn’t offer any additional details to support his reasoning.
3. Is something effed with the Quattro system?
4. Could it be suspension-related?
Any and all insights, suggestions, thoughts, etc. are most appreciated!
I just want to get this resolved so my wife and I can go skiing and not die on the highway.
It feels as though the car wants to rotate counter-clockwise and I am continuously having to make minor steering corrections to counter-act the car's behaviour of twisting around and being all "hey what's that over to the left!?"
So far this has only been a minor nuisance and hadn’t really registered on the “I should get this looked into” scale, but after experiencing 1.5 hours of butt-puckering terror on an icy highway earlier today, I thought I’d see if I could get to the bottom of what was causing my bottom to pucker.
Before I go into what I think the problem may be, I thought I’d share some details for context:
- The car is lowered on KW coilovers
- Winter tires are Bridgestone Blizzak LM 25V’s and are slightly wider than stock spec: 265/35/19 (stockers are 255’s)
- Tread depth on winters is good (9/32 all around) and no uneven wear
- All 4 tires' pressures were checked the morning before we hit the road and all were normal
- The speed at which the puckering effect becomes most apparent is above 70km/h (45mph)
- It doesn’t do this when the roads are dry or wet or slushy or even a bit snowy – it happens on compacted snow, ice, or generally speaking, more slippery conditions.
- I never experienced this with my previous RS4 (completely stock and on 255/35/19 Pirelli winters) and did lots of winter highway driving in even worse conditions than today.
[edit: added some further detail about the tire pressure and the set up of my previous RS4]
Here are some pictures. Because pictures.
My initial thought was that my alignment was out of whack, but after getting the alignment checked this afternoon and being told it’s all within normal ranges, I’m left a bit puzzled. Here are the results of the alignment check btw:
FRONT
Left Caster: 4.03°
Right Caster: 3.82°
Left Toe: 0.08°
Right Toe: 0.17°
Left Camber: -1.72°
Right Camber: -1.61°
REAR
Left Toe: 0.17°
Right Toe: 0.29°
Left Camber: -1.77°
Right Camber: -1.44°
Thrust angle: 0.07°
Some questions / thoughts as to what may be the culprit:
1. Perhaps these alignment values ARE out of whack, and the technician who told me they weren’t out of whack, was out of whack himself. Could 0.29° of toe in the right rear be enough to cause the car to want to swing its ass out?
2. Could it be my tires? The technician who checked the alignment suggested that they may be the cause but didn’t offer any additional details to support his reasoning.
3. Is something effed with the Quattro system?
4. Could it be suspension-related?
Any and all insights, suggestions, thoughts, etc. are most appreciated!
I just want to get this resolved so my wife and I can go skiing and not die on the highway.
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