Car feels unstable at speed on motorways

Flipside · June 23, 2013, 20:31

Since fitting the toyo proxes I have never felt comfortable at speed, the car feels like it's rolling left to right, when I had the Yokohamas it felt planted to the road, I know the toyos are soft wall tyres maybe that's the issue? Anybody have any ideas, the car feels like it's been blowing left to right when it's windy

s12vea · June 23, 2013, 20:41

Toyo take a few hundred miles to bed in. Mine felt the same. Don't worry they will be fine before you know it. Just be careful till then.

Bernie · June 23, 2013, 20:59

What pressures are you running should be 36 rear and 28 front stock settings are too low on these

BARNPOT · June 23, 2013, 21:21

I have just had new rears fitted and felt the same feeling....played around with tyre pressures and have settled on 36 rear 28 front. Feels much better and I think they will "bed in"...

Flipside · June 23, 2013, 22:15

Pressures as you have stated and have travelled a few thousand miles, they got better but still doesn't feel right, is there anything else that it might be?

Anonymous · June 23, 2013, 22:18

Have you still got the little l bracket shape bits of plastic still in front of the wheels.

Flipside · June 23, 2013, 22:20

Which bit are those?

2 of the left · June 23, 2013, 22:38

Quote from: "Flipside"Which bit are those?

They look like the bottom edge of mudguards but act as wind deflectors!!

Flipside · June 23, 2013, 22:47

I will have to check as I'm not totally sure do you mean the highlighted as per below

mrzwei · June 23, 2013, 23:04

Important to high speed road holding because they deflect the air around rather than under the car and so reduce lift.
I think there are three, one across the front and a smaller one on either side.

Tyres bedding in is probably your issue though otherwise it would have been there before.

Flipside · June 23, 2013, 23:07

If anyone has a pic to show me what I am looking for it would be a great help. Thanks

ChrisGB · June 23, 2013, 23:16

No picture, but there should be a black plastic lip in front of each wheel arch and a long one along the lower edge of the bumper. They are just made of basic plastic L section held on with screws.

StuC · June 23, 2013, 23:36

Tried to show them here. Look towards the wheel of the green car and you should be able to spot the l-shaped bit of plastic.

Matt had said there was another bit I was missing though the other day. My front end feels a bit light sometimes. s:-| :-| s:-|

kentsmudger · June 24, 2013, 07:53

Quote from: "StuC"

Tried to show them here. Look towards the wheel of the green car and you should be able to spot the l-shaped bit of plastic.

Matt had said there was another bit I was missing though the other day. My front end feels a bit light sometimes. s:-| :-| s:-|

Yes, where the row of holes is there should be another longer L shaped piece

Flipside · June 24, 2013, 09:41

Checked this morning and the 2 by the wheels are there, will check the centre one tonight. I'm hoping its missing at least that might be the cause. Thanks guys ill update you

Wabbitkilla · June 24, 2013, 11:07

It's peculiar the big effect a smal L-shaped piece of plastic can have on the aerodynamics and stability s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

There are lots of other things that make the car feel stable ... or unstable s:shock: :shock: s:shock:
Tyre pressures you now know about, the L's, some makes and models of tyre tramline worse than others and those "lorry rails" we get on the inside of motorways nowadays can give you a really wayward experience.

Sometimes you just experience poor handling for a while, fix it, but it then takes you ages to rebuild your confidence in the car.... been there myself.

ChrisGB · June 24, 2013, 11:35

Geometry can make a huge difference to high speed stability too.

Flipside · June 24, 2013, 11:36

Quote from: "wabbitkiller"Sometimes you just experience poor handling for a while, fix it, but it then takes you ages to rebuild your confidence in the car.... been there myself.

That is a very good point,

I will check the L thingy in the centre and if that's ok maybe ill just not drive so fast ;0)

SFerrari · June 24, 2013, 15:19

Hi,

I have had 4 new proxies 1000 miles ago, and I also confirm the strange behaviour of the car at "high" speeds. The car flies and goes from right to left s:? :? s:? s:evil: :evil: s:evil:
I know those tyres need to bed-in and a quite low pressure in it (close or under the recommanded pressure), nonetheless I still have a bad feeling as well...
That's why I was considering buying a vented hood/bonnet in order to get more downforce on the front (considering that I have removed the whole spare wheel kit and compartment...).
I have the 2 Ls shaped plastic under the car, but not the third one you're talking about... And don't have the mudguard behind the front wheels...

But at least those proxies look GREAT s:D

s:D s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:

Wabbitkilla · June 24, 2013, 15:41

Err ... wrong, the Toyos demand above normal/standard pressures, 26/36lbft seems to be a good starting point with them.
If you have them lower than standard pressures no wonder the car is wandering s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

StuC · June 24, 2013, 15:50

Quote from: "kentsmudger"
Quote from: "StuC"

Tried to show them here. Look towards the wheel of the green car and you should be able to spot the l-shaped bit of plastic.

Matt had said there was another bit I was missing though the other day. My front end feels a bit light sometimes. s:-| :-| s:-|

Yes, where the row of holes is there should be another longer L shaped piece

Okies, thanks for confirming the bit i needed. Now to try and find one! s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Flipside · June 24, 2013, 15:51

At least I'm not the only one. Thought i was going mad, its actually Scarier when you are accelerating then lift off. The car seems to roll left and right.

Mine are 28 36, tried 26 36 and it was far worse, check tyres pressures every 2 weeks

Jon_G · June 24, 2013, 16:32

I know what you mean as well... I've got T1Rs all round (a little larger than standard, but I don't recall exactly what size) and things didn't seem right to begin with, particularly on long sweeping bends at high speed (A-roads / motorways) where I felt it was drifting and needed constant correction instead of cornering smoothly. However, now a few miles have passed it seems to have settled down quite nicely, but I'm not sure whether this is because the tread has 'worn in' to suit the geometry or because I've been experimenting with the tyre pressures? I'm now running 37psi on the rears and 32psi on the front (which I may drop to 30psi to get closer to the recommendations here).

Hopefully your problem can be easily sorted as well.

Flipside · June 24, 2013, 19:10

Checked under the front of the car and my central L shape thing is missing, so going to need one of them, anyone got a spare? Or can anyone give me the actual name of it so if I put it in the wanted section people know what I'm talking about.

mrzwei · June 24, 2013, 19:29

Open to correction here but I would call it a 'spoiler'. It's not really big enough to qualify as an 'air dam' . A 'splitter' would normally form an L shape at the bottom of the 'dam' so I stick with 'spoiler' (or the L shaped plastic bit that fixes to the bottom of the front s:lol: :lol: s:lol: ).