I have 19" staggered wheels on my car, with 245 (I think) in the front and 295's on the rear. Now the roads in my area aren't the best, and anyone in Northern VA knows how much construction they're doing on the 495 beltway, but there are times when it feels like I have little to no control over where my car's going. It's probably because they are trying to widen the 4 lane highway and in the interum there are lane shifts. It feels like my baby almost 'jumps' from one groove to another.

Its not only creepy, but I also feel like anyone behind me will be assuming that I'm driving drunk given the way my car wobbles between the lines.

Is there anyway to remedy this? Am I stuck with this because of the staggered set-up? Or is this part of a bigger problem that I am blissfully unaware of?

Thanks in advance for any advice offered,
John

 

I'm assuming that your front and rear wheels are the same diameter so they would only be staggered in the sense that they have different offsets...that is not a problem for rwd cars and most likely you have an alignment problem (sounds like bump steer)...have you lowered the car?....definition of staggered:

Staggered
A staggered wheel setup is one in which the front wheels are a different diameter or utilize an offset that is dissimilar than the rear. Factory staggered wheel configurationss can be found on RWD vehicles but not FWD. A staggered wheel setup on a RWD vehicle is usually utilized to allow the rear to have wider tires for more traction although some enthusiasts use a lower offset in the rear to achieve a more "deep dish" look to the rear wheels. Since FWD vehicles utilize front drive wheels, utilizing a staggered setup would be for looks only.

 

Yessir, they are both the same diameter: 19"; however I have not lowered the car.

So there's a chance that an alignment would remedy a certain amount of my issue? Would a simple alignment do it, or would I have to undergo something more thorough? (Stop me if that last bit doesn't make sense... I have limited knowledge on this subject. I seem to be of the opinion that there are different "types" of alignment: simple and not simple..... Needless to say, I'm here to learn)

 

rather than simple or comlex (easy/hard) I would rather term them better and best...at the very least you need a 4 wheel alignment...better would be a corner balance and then 4 wheel alignment...best would be to check the suspension components and steering gear for bad components/bushings...check bump steer and then corner balance and 4 wheel alignment...if you are not tracking and the car hasn't been lowered the corner balance is less important but alignment on these cars is critical to good handling...the way your car is jumping around you either have a toe issue or bump steer...since you haven't lowered the car have you made any changes to camber settings that may have increased bump steer..if the camber settings are factory you may have a bad component in the front end suspension/steering...what brand of tires...are they the same make on all four wheels (some guys have been known to mis-match tires and that will cause the problem you describe)...

 

Tire pressure, alignement, did you change your suspension with you wheels upgrage, I had a similar situation with my benz and alignement did the job.

 

FWIW this is called tramlining...it gets worse the wider your ties. To reduce it go to narrow tires.

 

We have ruts in many of the roads near Seattle. If I try to force the 996 w/18" wheels exactly into the middle of the lane, I have to continually fight it. Instead, I let the car move a bit left or right (depending on traffic) and ride up out of the grove. It seems to ride closer to either side of the lane, predictably and steadily. I do try to vary left & right so I don't wear the tires unevenly. But as wross996tt (and others have) said, the wider the tires and the narrower the sidewall, the greater the effect can be.