Maybe I am just nitpicking the most enjoyable car I've ever owned but...

I've got a pretty much bone stock '14 GT base w/ 18 inch wheels and still on the OEM tires. I'm just wondering does everyone experience a decent amount of tramlining in this car? I've searched and seen the issue here and there but I'd be surprised it's not discussed more if everyone's experience is as severe as mine. I know the solid rear has a bit of a reputation for getting a little jittery on rough pavement. But my car will follow ever single groove and undulation in the road and it's only gotten worse w/ the tire wear. And...my tires really aren't that worn. I do about 99% highway driving and rotate the tires every 5k miles or so. They actually still have a ton of tread at 29k miles.

And I'm not talking about going around bumpy corners at high speed or anything. I'm talking about straight ahead cruising. Some of the worse sections for my car are close to my office. If I get in my rwd solid axle work truck and drive the same roads, the wheel (and the truck) stays straight and true. Could this just be an alignment issue? If so, though, shouldn't I have some uneven wear? B/c my tires look perfect.

If this IS just characteristic of the s197s and not alignment, is there a suspension upgrade I can make to alleviate it? Is it the nature of the electric power steering?

The only other car I've ever had that tramlined like this was my 1997 SAAB 900 turbo. The steering rack had a unstable mount and it was fwd with a twist beam rear. It's just...a little annoying at times. I feel like people behind me probably think I'm drunk or texting.

 

It could be an alignment issue but from experience some tires, even brand new tires, do this more than others. I can't really comment on the stock tires though, as mine came from Roush with Coopers which I don't experience this problem with

 

I'm on my fifth Mustang, a 2014 GT convertible with the polished aluminum 18x8" wheels and 235-50 tires. Very standard, and I have noticed the tramlining on a few freeway sections, but not all, by any means. At cruising speeds very near the 65mph limit, the car seems to want to rhumba in the rear. The front tracks pavement lines just a little, but that back very noticeably swings back and forth. Not a real irritant, so far, because the sections of road that produce this are half-a-mile or so long.

I thought it was pretty weird, that narrow tires should produce such an effect, since most complaints I have seen are related to wide (275+) tires. I have run wide tires on all five Mustangs at one time or another, but the only tramlining I experienced on those was very front-wheel oriented, and as in the current situation, more related to particular pieces of pavement than to the tires. And not even the same pieces of pavement.

I think there is some kind of resonance between the tire tread pattern and depth, sidewall height, and the pavement patterns. At some speeds the effect is absent, at some more exaggerated.

I have two sets of wide wheels/tires (soon to add a third—craziness) to try, eventually. I'm willing to bet they will all conform to the way they operated on the previous four Mustangs.

 

My 13 v6 has similar traits, the lower the tread, the more jittery it gets...its worst on asphalt that heavy trucks have indented tire groves in, on those roads it will dart off road or over the double yellow if you don't have a firm grip on the wheel. Two things helped, a strut tower brace, and being very careful about keeping tire pressures even. Of course the road is really bad cause SCB has the lowest gas taxes for roads in the US!!!

 

Ok well, seems pretty standard. And RIBS, that's my experience exactly. Theres one section of road that was recently repaved in house by the county highway dept where I work and it was a craptacular job. You can see the groves snaking all over the road. My work truck rolls right over them no problem but in my mustang, it feels like I'm the video game Centipede.

So strut tower brace helped???

 

Probably not. Adjustable upper mounts to take some of the camber out of the front end will though. My '13 was OK with the stock tires and very uncomfortable with the 275's up front. Taking some camber out will help but the real issue is the pocketed roads...they can still be unsettling at times.

John

 

Ok, well, even though I researched it further and figured it wouldn't help, I did end up adding a front strut tower bar. I couldn't pass it up, though, b/c I found a place on eBay selling the stock bar cheap as new take offs. My verdict, it does little to nothing for the extreme tramlining on the worst roads. However, it does seem to make the steering less twitchy and jittery the rest of the time. So, a good improvement overall, just not helping on the most extreme cases.

 

Do you guys have the bad lower control arms? My LCA's are bad and I notice my car tramlines under hard braking. I wonder if there is a relation?

 

IDK. Everything I've read about getting aftermarket control arms notes the increase in NVH. Surely I can keep the car from wandering without making it unbearable to drive in other ways...

 

*****UPDATE*****

So I bought new tires yesterday and while I was there, they told me I needed an alignment, after doing a check. Normally I shrug this off as salesman BS but I've been after my dealer to do an alignment every time I bring the car in but they always complain that they are too short handed.

Long story short, tramlining is gone. The same grooved pavement that used to make me practically lose control is not even noticeable. I would have chalked it up to the tires. But... I've been having this issue since the Pirellis were new. Also, the tires I put on, the Firestone Firehawk all seasons, are otherwise very darty and eager to turn. But they stay dead ahead when I roll over the pavement that had been causing me fits.

 

Some tires are very prone to tramlining. My stock pirellis do it pretty bad. The oem tires I had I my focus were good with that, but the replacements were much worse.

 

The factory Goodyears on my '13 covert drove nicely, as do the Yokohamas I have on there now.

 

Glad to learn this has been addressed for you, bkrell! Thank you for the update.

Deysha

 

Well, either way, no more tramlining! The weird thing is, though, like I mentioned, these tires seem more darty. When I drove my car after getting them put on, I thought someone had switch my steering mode to comfort from the sport setting I had it on.

 

Sorry to bring back this old thread but I have the same issue on my '14 track pack GT. I thought the stock pirellis which needed replacement were the caused but now I have some brand new Michelin PSS and it's still doing it sometimes. The car has only 21 250 miles on it so I didn't think an alignment would be the cause. What mileage was on your mustang when you brought it in for alignment?

 

Did you ever 'solve' this issue on yours?

I have 2010 Roush with 275/35's on 20" wheels in front, and it steers like crap, very twitchy and darty. My car is just NOT comfortable to drive. I may go with new wheels and tires.

What's a good front tire width for decent handling and comfortable steering??? 235, 245, 255, 265??????

 

Width doesn't have a lot to do with tramlining. It's more due to the tire tread design. If the tread is very broken up with few large grooves spanning the circumference of the tire (like most all seasons), you won't notice much if any tramlining. If there are a lot of wide grooves like that (which many summer tires feature) then it will catch in any grooves in the road surface.

No free lunches...good summer tires are often designed like that as it offers superior grip. An all season tire may offer better feel for you needs.

 

I just got the alignment done today, the tech said right toe was out so he adjusted it but caster is a bit off and if I would like to adjust it to be perfectly in spec I would need the ford performance caster camber kit which he didn't have on hand:


http://www.cjponyparts.com/ford-raci...-2014/p/CCP46/


So I said that i'll try it just with the toe and see if it's better.