poor handling in bad weather

[ernhrdt34]

heres my issue. i live in the northe east and of course we get snow. my problem is that when ever we get even the lightest amount of snow on the roadways i cant seem to get traction. no matter how much snow has built up on the road driving to work i spen most of the time trying to keep the rearend from spinning out. i dont know if its because of the suspension setup i have or if it could be some thing else. i have KYB adj. gas shocks with h&R coil springs. for the winter i am using the stock wheels which have good tread on them.

 

[19gale2gGST]

Your car is light with a wider wheel base, and "wider" tires. Your traction is going to suck in rain or snow if your not AWD. It sucks. I have had to move off the freeway when it rains because I couldnt move with the flow of traffic.

 

[turbodsm_125]

is your car awd? if it is make sure that your viscous coupling is working good and that you replace the gear lube with a high quality lube. second if you run performance tires in winter you will not have traction. also the wider the tire the less weight that is placed on each wheel and thus less traction. Also try adding sum weight in the trunk of you car to help traction in the rear if you car is awd.

 

[1gDSM4g63]

The suspension you have is fine just get snow tires for better traction. I mean no matter how good a suspension and tires are they will slip when driving on snow and ice.

 

[19gale2gGST]

Do Not put chains on your Tires. I can tell by the face you aint gonna. Before you do that see into getting a set of studed tires on a crap set of rims. If you can get a Narrow rim and tire that will fit the car you will have a little better traction, if you dont want to d that than load up trunk with some heavy stuff(not to much or you will transfer the wiehgt to the rear allowing no steering traction) and that will help some.






All else fails pull a ricer move and put some knobby tires on your car(off road tires) hehe....j/k

 

[Jetrosr]

If your alignment is out enough, your car will drive like one of those saucer sleds in the snow/ice. Another check is to see if your brakes (1 wheel?) are dragging.

 

[Rob10_99]

If its "always" snowy, up your tire pressure. Because if you set it at lets say 35psi when it was 70deg out, its a bit less now that its 20deg out.
Plus the more pressure the more "digging " your tires will do because they are forced to be less forgiving to the road.
I wouldn't suggest more than 45psi though!

 

[tlikethedrink]

whoa! boy was i wrong!
i was thinking less air in the tires beter traction, in all weather. less air more "footprint" right?

i had the same problem with the last set of tires i had. cheap ass "Denominators" that came with the car. they had good tread left but the traction sucked. i wrecked the car and had to pay like 1200 to get the suspension fixed. i was turning into a parking lot and it was raining. i wasnt even goin fast... i turned the wheels, the tires just slipped and i hit a median. hard.

since then i got some kumhos and all is well. i got them just in time for winter too. good thing, i might have hit someone instead of a curb next time.

 

[Defiant]

whoa! boy was i wrong!
i was thinking less air in the tires beter traction, in all weather. less air more "footprint" right?

Less air gives you a bigger footprint, and less bite. The PSI is a close measure not only of the pressure of the air inside the tire, but the pressure of the contact patch against the ground as well.

 

[BIGMIXX]

if it's only a bad weather condition issue.. i'dsay go with some snow tires... all around .... plus just a bit of weight in the rear .. 100 - 150 lbs should do the trick

 

[19gale2gGST]

Less air works great for offroad(dirt), but in poor traction applications less air is badd because you displace weight over a larger area, and the LBS per square inch ou have the better.

 

[Captain D]

I had the same problem. My car would feel like it was right on the edge of loosing control on snow and ice. It was scary driving down the interstate with 2 tractor trailers in both lanes behind me and the car on the verge of loosing control. My problem turned out to be that the previous owner lowered the car and installed Eibach springs and KYB shocks/struts for racing purposes. These mods caused the camber of the wheels to be -2.5 degrees. If you looked at the car from behind, the wheels were tilted in at the top. It's like driving with motorcycle tires on snow and ice instead of wider tires because only a few inches of the inside part of the tires are gripping the road. Besides wearing out your tires real fast it's just not safe to drive on in bad weather. I had an alignment done that brought the camber back to -1.50 degrees which was the best the shop could do because of the mods. This was a big improvement but still not optimum. There are camber kits available that will fix the problem like the one at ImportEvolution.com - Import Performance Parts, DSM, WRX, Supra, Honda.

P.S. The first time I drove the car in snow and before I knew there was a problem, I drove down a steep hill. I did not turn the wheel, touch the brakes or change the throttle and the car went sideways on me before I had a chance to react. I have been driving in snow and ice for over 35 years so I felt somewhat experienced in driving in those conditions. In my opinion, if you don't get the problem fixed, somewhere down the road it will kill you.