Anyone experience excessive tramlining/bump steer in their f type? Excessive as in you’re literally fighting the steering wheel for control with any deg of crown/unevenness on the road, it’s especially noticeable at lower speed and gradually lessens as speed increases.

Previously i have always attributed it to worn suspension components and tires, but, i have pretty much overhauled the whole suspension, including new arms, new poly bushings and new shock mounts, tires are Goodyear supercar 3 brand new, rims are not bent, alignment is near perfect, and somehow the tramlining feels more prominent than ever???


the only thing i can think of are the steering tie rods, short of removing them, they have no play when shaken on the lift and the boots are in good shape, i do have an occasional thud turning left sharply, that did not disappear after the suspension overhaul, not sure if the tierods can be worn without visible signs?

2015 R with hydraulic steering, and yes the fluid has been flushed, lowered on h&r, car drives otherwise perfect and steering feel is consistent.

Any ideas what else to check?

 

I had that occur intermittently when my car was new and the P-Zeros were new. Not as bad as you are describing. I think the culprit may be your new tires. Can't explain why but in my case tire wear was the only apparent variable. The problem went away as the P-Zeros wore in and did not reappear when I fitted new Michelin A/S tires.

 

Never thought of tires, i have gone through multiple sets of different summer tires and while they all felt different and exhibited some low speed wanderness, none were as bad as this time.

i actually put this set on last summer but due to fuel injector issue taking the whole summer to fix, it was barely driven but i don’t recall it being this bad, and that was with multiple bushings shot/on the way out.

Ima play with the tire pressure a bit and see if anything changes.

 

Before I swapped the tires on my car, the tramlining was very noticeable. Since switching to Continental DWS06s, I have not experienced the feeling at all and tire pressures have always been set at 36psi all around.

 

Best recollection, it took about 3K miles on the original PZs before the tramlining went away.
It was quite intermittent but annoying when it happened - felt like the car was steering itself.
Never had the problem with the Michelins.

 

Most major tire manufacturers have a satisfaction warranty. Especially if you bought from Discount or The Rack.

It is limited though. I don’t think you can wait 3,000 miles to decide if you like them.

 

Sounds like tire is a big contender, i will keep an eye on it and see if gets better with some mileage, won’t be too long as the weather is getting warmer.

i really like the supercar3 though, immense grip and confidence’s inspiring at speed and turn, my butt dyno rates these at the same level of r888r and it’s less noisy and technically longer lasting.

 

I had that so bad on my V6S I was going to get rid of ot. Then swapped the Pirelli P zeros for Michelin Pilot sports and transformed the car. Never tramlined again.

 

I saw a last review of the 75 and it mentioned tramling as one of the very few complaints. My PS4s are better than Pirellis mwere.

 

Not sure what happened but all is well now, it’s back to the same feel as before and the steering stays taut except on really poor pavements.

Maybe new bushings needed some miles to break in? Doesn’t make sense but I’m certainly not complaining!

 

Hope you are right, but my experience was tramlining was intermittent and related somewhat to the road surface.
As previous, it did eventually go away as the PZs wore in.
So, do not despair if it comes bac!!

 

I get what you’re saying, if there were truly an issue they don’t just magically fixes itself..

i have some options on hand to get deeper into it but they will either require more time, money or sweat, or all of them, i will leave it to next time, between the fuel injector issue and the suspension rebuild, the car have been sitting more than it’s been enjoyed and it’s time for some quality drive!

 

Not quite.
What I am saying is that if it is a tire problem (as I suspect), then once the tires wear in a bit you may find the problem goes away.
I would wait and see before taking any more serious action.

 

I will do that, it’s a daily so racking up the miles won’t take long.

drove 40 miles today on various roads and it has largely gone back to the same feel as before.

 

The F Type is sensitive to 'tramlining', mainly felt with new tires but although it will improve with a few miles on them it will always want to ride repair lines etc.
It can leave you occasionally nervous in wet weather driving but not to the point where I'd consider swapping my F for something else.

 

Mine does this as well. Going to swap the fronts for Michelin PS4S's sometime this year (low mileage) and I'll report back

 

As above, my PS4's made a massive difference, no tramlining even when tyres brand new.
I do wonder if tramlining occurs when tyres get old as well, as rubber goes harder. My P zeros were terrible. The car was on 25000 miles and I can't imagine the previous owner could have driven the car all that time the way it was tramlining when I got it.

 

Really? Mine has never done that, in fact I haven't had tramlining since my 2001 XK8, which had fairly high sidewalls (17" wheels). Neither of my subsequent XKRs did it (both on 20" wheels).

 

I'm on my third F Type (16R, 19R, 20SVR) and went through 2 sets of tires on each car. At one point or another each car exhibited this tramlining effect with worn tires. Each time I had a fresh new set of tires (stock Pirelli's to PS4S) the tramlining got better or was nonexistent. Then when they were nearing the end of their life it was worse. Perhaps this car's suspension/steering geometry characteristics are revealed/exacerbated by worn tires.

 

Mystery solved, it was the tires, they just needed some heat to wake up, with the ambient changing from ~75 yesterday to ~50 today, it felt like two different cars.