about a week ago i had a local shop put new rear tires on, 4 wheel alignment, front tires re-balanced, and the front rotors turned. a couple days later i put set of Akebono Euro Ceramic Pads on the front. the brakes are great, and the tires have great straight line grip but....

the handling is friggin horrible now. there is an on-ramp interchange with a sweeping turn that i used to love to fly around. but now on that same on-ramp the cat is having a hard time with it, DSC kicks in even with me going about 10MPH slower. previously i had NEVER seen traction control kick in when hugging a turn even through some mountain twisties (unless i'm smashing the gas as well of course). DSC is using the front brakes during the turn.

i had nitto 275/35/zr18's previously- and here is a link to the new Riken Raptor ZR's i got

from reading this post is seems that the alignment shouldn't need as much toe out. the front tires do have more wear on the inside which is why i got the alignment.

here's info from the printout from the shop:
is it the cheapo tires or the alignment? if i wanted to float all over the road, i'd drive my wife's SUV

 

Unless I'm reading this wrong you only changed the rear tires? Not a good idea to mix high performance tires front to rear particularly with staggered sizes. When I lowered my STR with H&R springs I had a four wheel alignment to the following specs.

Front Toe: 0.00 per wheel
Rear Toe: 0.05 per wheel

Total Toe: 0.00 front
Total Toe: 0.10 rear

I am currently running on Nexen tires with 14K with at least another 10K of life left in 'em. They are a tad noisy but otherwise run out excellent. Readily available and cheap as chips...

 

yeah, only the rears were changed. but before i put the new rears on the front and back didn't match. I got the car a little over a year ago, the used car dealer put new dunlops on the front that didn't match the rear nittos. And to top it off the dunlops aren't z rated which i b1tched about helping me get a better deal on the car. once the front's are worn, i was going to match the rears

it definitely feels like it's the rear that is swaying around

 

You may have gotten lucky on the last un-matched set. You also said that the DSC applies the front brakes. That tells me that the rear is actually gripping much better than the front resulting in oversteer. The DSC then tries to reel in the front by applying the front brakes. When the front starts to tuck back in it will feel like the rear is "swaying around". Having different tread patterns and such is much more prevalent on modern cars than it used to be. Due to many improvements in suspension design, the tire has become the weakest link in the handling equation, where it used to be the suspension. Publications like Car and Driver have shown that a simple tire change can drastically alter the performance of many cars... Will it make a Tahoe handle like a Porsche, no, but you get the point. That said, the alignment looks a little off as well. Did the shop claim to set it "to spec" or did they try to make the car as neutral as possible?
The first thing I would do is get the tires all to match, then address the handling issue, if there is one.

 

searanch:
I have Nexen tires that came with the car. Not too impressed mainly because I had a pull that the tire shop said was a belt problem in the tire. Nexen would not replace since technically I did not buy the tires. The dealer did when I purchased the car. But they seem to be lasting longer than I thought? Got about the same miles as you so far. I did ruin one with a nail close to the side wall but that happens.
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i thought it would be the opposite ?

losing front grip = understeer

losing rear grip = oversteer

 

"Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car. Oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall. Torque is how far you take the wall with you."

 

I think I've mentioned this before on this website; el cheapo tyres will likely ruin the handling of any car, but especially of a car like Jaguar. The usual symptoms are rolling down the camber, an effect like pulling to the right in US, to the left in UK. The braking distance can lengthen by 45% or so, a subject covered only this morning on BBC tv about cheapo tyres. The sideways grip in cornering will be affected.
The engineers at Jag. will design suspension to fit a particular tyre with its known characteristics. I have faith in those engineers, they are much more likely to know what's right than we are. So my best advice re. your handling problem is to have your adjustments set up by the book, and fit the tyres as advised by Jag. manual. A proper Jag. service dept. will do this automatically.
Those four tyres are your only contact with the road. In an emergency situation you'll be best served by everything being in apple-pie order. It could mean the difference between avoiding a smash or being part of it. It's always easy to be wise after the event.
Leedsman.

 

What is Jaguar's tire recommendation??
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this is a primary example of a shop that is not using the correct specs. This alignment will continue to wear the inside of the front tires. This is why i tell people to go to the dealer, otherwise you get incorrect specs used. Jaguar changed the specs years ago for front toe. Even if they didnt, jags do not like toe out which is what you have.
I would have set total toe to +.20 the spec is -.03-+.30
total toe is -.07-+.27
as you can see. There is almost no toe out. I like to bring them in more and push out (before im happy) on the insides of the front tires to check suspension deflection. Many cars when checking this then require spec to go into the red for toe in...like +.30 to +.40! It is not uncommon, but you have to check the car youre working on to know.
But i think your issue is more tires. But check pressure first, ive seen people seat tire beads and never let out the 50-60 pri sometimes neccesary to seat beads. Also new tires are greasy which is why nascar/indy/cart etc.. Drivers smoke the tires coming out of the pits...to build heat, and to "clean" the tire from manufacturing oils. But you need same tires front and rear. Especially since you want to push the car hard. If you have dunlops up front theyre a great tire. The race drivers that jaguar hired for ride n drives of the new 5.litre xf and xk said the cars with dunlop sport maxxes handled alot better than the pirellis or michelins, and this was both the normally aspirated and sc models on a road course. They drove these cars like they were race cars...matter of fact all 3 of the drivers said the cars handled better than some of the race cars theyde raced in years past

 

Ooops..That's two goofs today...Yes, I meant understeer. Anyway, if you were loosing rear grip the DSC would/could cut back the throttle and apply the rear brakes in an effort to pull the rear back in... Much like mine does on a snow covered road. God knows I don't have enough power to do it on dry pavement...So, I still think it is differing grip from the un-matched tires... Also, BRUTAL knows his stuff when it comes to the alignment, in fact he is the only person on here I've heard talk about checking the alignment with a load on the wheels. Again, the small shop I used and referenced in a post that you linked to, also did talk about adjusting for load. So far that alignment has held up even on crappy Ohio roads and my inside tire wear has stopped.

 

thanks guys for all the help.

I checked the tire pressure, 42psi in the rear and 38 in the front, which is more than what i normally run. I lowered it and that has helped. Eventually i'll be replacing the front tires to match the rear, but for now i don't see the value since the car rides and handles great when driven "normally".

 

Holy snickers, no wonder your rear came out from under you! Those numbers are great for highway driving for best MPG, but not for turns in the road.

 

update-

a couple weeks age i got Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport on all four corners. Handling is superb. Great traction wet and dry.

this article helped me make my decision

local shop i prefer doesn't supply hancook or kumho and the dunlop's were more than i wanted to spend.

I am extraordinarily happy with these tires. quiet , grippy, and great stopping power.

anybody wanna buy 2 Riken Raptor ZR 275/35/18's that only have about 5k miles on them?

 

How much?

 

$200 + shipping. they are 150'ish each new