Hi everyone,
Just bought a 2006 Crossfire 3.2 manual & very happy with it, except one thing, it does not seem stable in the slightest about 90mph +.
It needs discs & pads, but cannot see why its so unstable on the road. Any ideas, cant see anything visible except for the brakes, could that be doing it?
I am at the age that being grumpy is enjoyable & I take with buying this car that its an old age crises.
Would love to get it more stable then can try it out on a good bendy road!!!

 

@Dave2302 This might be in your area and wheelhouse.

 

What is the milage on it?

 

I'm at that age too.

I can tell you exactly what the issue is ......................
It's got 2 cylinders missing





Seriously, I'm in NW Highlands near Eilean Donan Castle if you are nearby or even want a decent run out, can stick it on the lift and have a look see, Advice and Coffee are free

 

Is the rear wing coming up?

 

I seriously doubt it is the brakes or discs unless the lug nuts were over tightened which will warp them. However that shouldn't effect handling just braking.
If the wing is not coming up, yes that would make it unstable above 90 MPH. We (I) tested that years ago by pulling the fuses for the wing and yes the rear end rises without the wing. Which is why it was added to the design

I have had my 2006 convertible "roadster with a stick" at 140mph to 150mph for miles. Very stable. As much or more so than my wife's SRT coupe

Are your wheels well balanced?
Are they true (unbent)?
Sounds more likely a wheel or tire issue

How many miles on the clock?

 

Hi, 140k but seriously looks like its been well looked after, apart from the oil light being on & off for miles. Previous owner said its been like that for a year. So take it that its the sensor in the oil pan thats gone.
Starting to sound like junk, but it sounds great & especially with a magna flow exhaust on it,

 

Never thought about that, maybe why there is a big hole in the block & a lot of rumbling coming from it.
I am down in lowlands as far as you can get & can send smoke signals to the Irish, buy yes, I may still take you up on that offer at some stage, preferably after I got a full set of brakes fitted.

 

Assuming the rear Wing is working, at that miles I'd just fit a Steering Damper ............

When I built it, my V8 SLK got everything Suspension and Brakes etc etc got replaced, Bilstein Shocks, upsized Discs and Calipers from MB, and all OE / OEM Arms, Steering Joints Bushes etc etc !! 255/35 x 18 rears and 235 / 40 x 18 fronts, Brabus Wheels (good replicas)

It drove great, was very very stable, even at 170 MPH one day I decided to replace the Steering Damper just because it hadn't been done, bought an OEM Stabilus unit, and hell yeah !! It made a noticeable difference even though I had no noticeable issues

The Steering Damper was the original, the car had 100 k miles when I got it

 

Yes it goes up & down when it should.

 

Great, I think I will just change everything below & include the steering damper. I intend to keep it for a long time & want it perfect. The brake upgrade I think will take the bigger & grooved disks without any other modification needed to the brakes?

 

I have a funny feeling that Crossfires have different size discs to R170 ..................

On my V8 R170 I used :-

FRONT :- C43 AMG 330mm Vented Discs with W220 S500 Brembo 4 pot front Calipers These were the biggest I could fit under the 18" Wheels ....





REAR :- W204 C Class estate bigger diameter and Vented Rear Discs with W220 S500 ATE 2 pot rear Calipers ....





Stops on a dime from insane warp speeds, and the bigger vented rears keep up with the Traction Control without melting

HTH

 

Dave, I think you hit the nail right on the thumb with the steering damper. My new car only has 28K miles on it, but I already have a new one to install, which I will do this weekend. It steers fine, but the current damper has been on the car since new, and although the mileage is low, I think it is a matter of simple age of the unit. Some parts just die from old age.
I don't think I will upgrade my brakes. I can already stop far better than any of the cars behind me, and my biggest concern is getting hit from the rear. If I could stop even faster, it would just increase the risk.
I am only rarely 90 mph over the speed limit, anyway. Usually it's only 30 or 40 over.

 

LOL, I can stop far better than the cars behind me in grannies Vauxhall Corsa, when driving any of my MB's there is seldom anything behind me

As I said above, I think perhaps the Crossfires have bigger brakes to start with ????????????????????????

IIRC Crossfires can use much bigger wheels than R170 can fit under it's arches, R170 came stock with 16" and I now have biggest 18" Combo that R170 can fit under the arches, i.e.the sizes Brabus used on the holy grail 5 Brabus R170's which is 255 / 35 rear and 235 / 40 fronts

These Wheels meant I could get 330 mm Vented and 4 pot Brembos under them at front
I don't currently have an LSD, so the bigger and vented rear Brakes are great at helping the ETC out

As I used to say when I was competing, Brakes only slow your times down

 

I believe the brakes are identical for base/limited Crossfire to SLK320. Brakes are also the same between SRT6 and SLK32 AMG.

 

OK, I'm getting confused, (which isn't difficult) atm lol, did your Car have SRT6 Brakes already ? If so that's why I was thinking they were bigger, certainly are bigger than stock V6 SLK

I think yours are 330mm ? That's what I'm running

 

I put the SRT6 brakes on my car long before I did the V8 swap. I have since moved to the 345mm front brakes, and plan to move to 360mm fronts and 330mm rears, likely all from an SLK55 or similar.

 

That's why I thought they were bigger

It's all your fault

Actually I did mine all round before I did the Engine swap

 

Hey, FWIW I talked about previously upgrading to SRT6 brakes in my build thread