I've got a 2004 WRX and have just fitted STI wheels and tyres, and since doing so the car is tramlining all over the place . The tyre pressures are fine, and all 4 tyres are good. It drives well most of the time, but every now and again the front wheels don't feel under my control and the car pulls slightly to the left or right.

If I pull the steering slightly to the right and let go of the wheel the car straightens up ok. If I do the same to the left.... the car carries on turning left!

Does anyone else have any experience of this and any knowledge of how it can be sorted? Is it just a case of getting the 4 wheel alignment adjusted at Kwik-Fit or similar, or will it require a full geometry set-up, or is it something more sinister...?

 

The std Bridgesone tyres can cause this. What tyres are fitted ?

 

I had the same problem when i changed to STi wheels, i assume you have bridgestone RE070 tyres on the wheels and this is the biggest problem because they have such a firm sidewall and the tread pattern, i've recently changed to goodyear F1's and the tramlining has gone completely, i did try the prodrive settings for the geometry but it didn't make much difference.

 

would defo agree that its the RE070's. changed mine not long after having it due to a puncture and the toyo T1s's were much better...

 

Yep - it's on Bridgestones.... Not sure if they are RE070's or not though

 

my RE070's dont do this

must be the geometry

 

Does the tyre tread look like this, if so it's RE070's

 

mine was standard set up from the factory, never had a chance to get it altered by zak before i needed the tyre replacement.... tyre had done around 3k miles.. and couldn't get the RE070 that easy at the time..

 

that looks like re070 tyre tread

 

i picked my sti up about 3 weeks ago which had delivery miles and the first thing i noticed was the fact that sometimes it felt like it was driving me and so i doubt its the geometry

 

Hmmm - No mine don't look like that. I think they may be RE040 - but not sure.

So does it look like I need geometry set-up then?

 

Mine too. I got some Sti wheels for a trackday and immediately noticed the difference. If you look at the clearance between the brake calliper with the Sti wheels on, there is a greater clearance, and the front track is widened by about 3 inches compared to the standard wheels. This means that basically the ends of the axle stubs have been lengthened outwards which causes the problem. I don't know whether this is the same on a genuine Sti. They're great on a track though.

 

my mates 05 sti uk was doing the same til he changed wheels & tyers now on 18" with toyos hell of a lot better

 

I had exactly the same problem 3 years ago when I had a blobeye WRX PPP, and put gold sti wheels on (with the standard Bridgestones). I can remember the tramlining and the tyres felt much harder on the road. The RE 070's could possibly have a harder tyre wall which would cause the tramlining, because the WRX has very different suspension characteristics to an STI.

 

Did you sort it out? If so - how?

 

Ive just remembered that I put the original WRX tyres on the STI gold wheels, that sorted it. I know exactly what you mean about the tramlining, it was quite significant. Those STI Bridgestone just don't suit the very different WRX suspension characteristics. The original WRX tyres were Bridgestone RE 040 I think!

 

Front tracking and camber make a huge difference.
If the tracking is at zero or toed out it will feel like this.
The fact that it centres one way and not the other indicates a geometry problem or something bent.
Get the camber and tracking checked and make sure that the tracking is set towards the toed in end of the range.

 

Cheers mate

I'm hoping to get the tracking checked later this week.