I have a question regarding the steering pulling sharply to the left or right, seemingly with a mind of its' own. has anybody had this experience and if so was there something in particular wrong, or is the car that sensitive to either road imperfection, or perhaps tire pressure? I might be driving about 45 and the car will suddenly pull to one side or the other, sometimes rather sharply, almost as if a hand was on the wheel and pushing it that way. Sometimes it happens on braking, but not all the time, and I'm wondering maybe if a brake is hanging up. But it does this in both directions so the odds of both brakes hanging up independently at different times is remote. Could this be a sign that the steering damper discussed before may be shot? Thanks for your assistance. (only 11,500 on the odometer) Mark

 

My Conti tires gave me that feeling really bad when I bought my car used, especially during braking. New F1 Goodyears mad a big difference. It could come back as they get some mileage on them, but it was definitely the front tires for me.

James

 

I have that same thing too, I have new tires @13K, had the front aligned
and keep tire pressure equal. I really think its road crown with mine.
I had the brakes checked also. I read before that other owners have the same
thing happen, It just may be the way of the beast..

 

I had this problem also. Goodyear F1 all seasons took care of it. The car had about 12,000 miles on the stock tires and wandered all over the road.

 

I just put GS-D3's on mine, and it has started pulling bad. Left and right varying. Sometimes really sharp and hard. I already replaced my steering stabilizer, next I am going to check alignment. Hopefully that will calm it down.

 

Check out the feedback under "Steering when NEW!" that is also under this section.

Also, I have several friends with OEM Continental tires on German marques and I don't recall any of them having much complimentary feedback regarding these tires. So far, I've only driven my 07 XFire Cpe about 1600 miles since purchase in OCT/08 and I put 900 of that on the trip back from purchase dealer in KCMO. Haven't really experienced YET the issues some of you are bringing up. But the Continental ASP tires will definitely go once I see any sign of excessive wear and/or the car starts misbehaving.

 

I have brand new Conti's on the front of mine and I still get the steering pulling left and right. It is definitely due to the road conditions. On a nice smooth, level road it rolls like it's on rails. Hit bumpy pavement or slanted roads and it will moved around. I also experience the problem when accelerating very quickly from a dead stop.
Stan

 

Mark,
I had the same question, and it only does it on certain roads I travel every day. Mostly, these roads have slight rutting (some so slight you can barely see). Changing my damper helped maybe 30-40% . And if I hit the brakes hard on these roads, it will almost take the wheel out of my hand. Changing the damper lessened the violet movement.

I was concerned that this was a Crossfire only problem, but I was speaking with 2 friends yesterday (one owns a 2001 Z3 the other a 2006 Z4) and both were complaining of the same issue. So it is not just us........

 

After experiencing this steering wandering with my 06 base & viewing the results of those who have switched to Goodyear F-1 tires, I do believe the Continental tires from the factory are a very dangerous tire to keep on our cars. Any road variance due to grooving in the pavement or unevenly laid blacktop will cause the car to move in an unpredicted way. This a very serious car to drive with these Continental tires installed. I can't take my eyes off the road for even one second not knowing when or which way the car will travel. For me, it is a very sneaky move on the cars part. I almost don't sense any movement at first & all of a sudden it begins it's sleaky drift one way or the other.
When I do need tires, the next ones will prob. be the F-l's if the future threads seem to prove that a solution.

 

I had a similar issue on the wifes and the only thing that was done was after I had the snow tires mounted it all dissapeared. Now I had the Pilots remounted in the spring and still no issue. It may have been balancing or maybe when they remounted the tires they "rotated" them Don't know for sure but no alignment was done.

For what it's worth.

Greg

 

ok, then, it appears that this is in the tires more than anything else, and it appears that it centers around the Conti's. Thanks to all who commented, because some were just like what I've experienced, that sneaky sharp pull, one way or the other, w/o any real warning. although I can sense when it starts coming on. There's just a slight move to one side, like a drift, then all of a sudden the sharp pull to the side-so at least I feel like I'm catching it in time. But I hope my attaention doesn't wander at a most inopportune time. That is dangerous if it happened at higher speeds. It gives me a better idea of where to start looking when new tires are in the offing, which I think will be sooner than later. Thank you again. Mark

 

I think it is all in the tires, since they are a much wider tire on the front compared to a normal 70 or 75 series tire on most cars. I suspect my new tires will eventually do the same thing down the road. The F1 AS did take of the problem for now.

One thing to condsider for the guys that do front end work - I am curious if more positive caster would help the car to stay straighter? Caster does not wear tires uneven, but more positive caster can wear out steering parts faster.

James

 

I started a thread for the exact problem with my Crossfire. See below.
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=30056

I had the same concern as most of you with regard to the anxiety about driving at high speeds. As some of you already mentioned, I had problem with these sudden moves in either direction on the freeway, mostly when I was driving at normal speeds -- i.e., around 60 mph. It was difficult to justify driving any faster when these sudden moves would be more difficult to manage. I recently began playing with my Crossfire, doing some darting when there was a short stretch free of cars in front. WHen I hit 80s and 90s, the Xfire became very stable. It was a zen moment...