Car follows groves in pavement

[jdj]

07 M35x the car has an annoying trait of following or tracking depresions in the blacktop only at slow speeds like at 30 mph coming to a stop light.It is so bad my wife refuses to drive the car in town. The dealer says the all wheel drive cars M35's are real bad for this and there is nothing you can do to fix it. Anyone else have this problem? any fixes? the car only has 11000 miles.

[SteveTheTech]

Hey there and Welcome to NICO!

I do not know to what extent your car is leading but this is relatively common with vehicle with smaller sidewall tires. What kind of car did you have before this?

The steering rack in the M is not the most forgiving design, it is a compromise between performance and comfort. Sometimes the car will track in accordance to the crown in the road.

Have you had them rotated recently?

If you are driving on a flat road in the middle lane with no crown which way does the car lead?

What tires are installed on your car?

What pressure are your tires set to?

Sorry for all the question I just want to evaluate your situation to see if there is an issue or it is just a different product from your old car.

[Q451990]

I had an issue with this on my Q when I was running wider-than-stock tires, but it sounds like this is not the case in your situation. My lateral squirm got much worse as the tires aged... I can only assume that the sidewall strength broke down, but that's just a guess on my part.

I think I would see if they'll let you drive another M on the lot to see if it is indeed "normal."

Heath

[jdj]

Thanks for your response. I have driven several cifferent cars on the same roads without them wanting to track in the ruts like the M35x. I had an Infinit Q45 Acura TL and have a new Mazda Miata all of which have th low aspect ratio tires.

The tires are the origional factory Michelins which look like new since I use different wheels and Blizak snow tires in the winter(the problem is the same with the snow tires.) The tires show no irregular wear however the dealer rotated them last oil change.

The car steers straight as an arrow at hi-way speeds on a flat road. The steering is very sensitive but is presice and fun on twisty roads.

I have tried different air pressures from about 25 psi to 35psi with no change.

I have not driven another M35x on the same roads but I know something is wrong with this one. I have driven a freinds G35 on the same roads with none of this problem.

I think something is wrong with the alignment ie' camber or caster setting the toe in must be right since it doesn' t pull on flat roads. The dealer says nothing is wrong with the alignment and that Infinity has fixed the problem in 09. He doesnt know what the fix is. He says it's only on the all wheel drive M35x. I just don't believe Infinity would let a car out like this.

The dealer

[Q451990]

If he says they fixed it in '09 he should be able to get some factory assistance to find out what the countermeasure was...

Heath

[Kiven422]

I don't know if this could be your issue but always worth a try.

Check your front sway bar bushings, the ones connecting to the frame. I've driven with bad bushings and the car can do funky things without them.

[maxnix]

Even though you may be driving the stock set up, it would help if you specified.

1.) Wheel size and offset

2.) Tire size, model and inflation pressures at each location.

As noted by Steve, tires with more adhesion (summer ultra high performance) in general will tend to follow or at least communicate road irregularities to the driver better than "all season" or mere "touring" designs. Lower aspect ratios will make this phenomenon more immediately apparent to the driver.

Look at it this way. If you were driving the same section of road with a different tire and did not experience this phenomena, what would that be telling you about the tire's adhesion?

[szh]

07 M35x the car has an annoying trait of following or tracking depresions in the blacktop only at slow speeds like at 30 mph coming to a stop light.It is so bad my wife refuses to drive the car in town. The dealer says the all wheel drive cars M35's are real bad for this and there is nothing you can do to fix it. Anyone else have this problem? any fixes? the car only has 11000 miles.

If you are using Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires, then I would promptly replace these. That is the usual source of these tramlining problems on the M ... we have seen these cured by getting better tires.

Z