[SkylineKin]

hey guys,

well i put my winter wheels and snow tires on my car (195/60 winterforce, 15x6 wheels) and I also had to install some hub centric rings with my new winter wheels (OZ wheels from a OZ Lancer). So I drove it around my house and everything was fine, went onto the highway and got up to speed, once I was up to 65-70 I could feel the rear of the car constantly twitching and swaying, it felt like there was a strong wind hitting the car from either side.

I took my wheels back off and put them back on to make sure they were on correctly, that didnt fix the problem. The fact that it didnt do this until i put my snow tires on confuses me. This is on my 94 si 4WS, any input would be appreciated.

[WashingtonBB2]

Was your 4ws working?

[SkylineKin]

yea, no light and its working fine, i put my stock wheels/tires back on and its fine, weird huh?

[jlude90]

what are your summer tires? If your winter tires have less grip and are smaller then your summer tires then you'll feel your car slippin and sliding.

Possibly if you have a bad alignment you could feel it more now with the smaller tires, but i'm not sure if it would be better or worse on the bigger tires. How long has it been since you got an alignment?

[SkylineKin]

my summer wheels/tires are stock si wheels with 205/55 yokohama es100's, i havent had an alignment done in a while but it doesnt have the symptoms of toe being off with my summer tires on (treadwear/steering is normal).

My only ideas are
-Worn suspension wasnt felt with the stiffer tires, now with taller tires i can feel the play
-The winter wheels i bought and the hub centric rings i purchased arnt sitting properly on the hub causing toe to be off in the rear
-alignment is off

So my options are to dismount the snow tires off my snow wheels and put them on my stock wheels and hope that was the problem, or fix one of the above issues.

[jlude90]

If the rings were sitting wrong you wouldn't have a toe change, you would have a wobbly wheel and you'd notice it at about 2mph if you even got going that fast.

You could take the rings off and try again. You could try re-balancing your wheels, doesn't seem likely, but just going from cheepest to more expensive. After that I would get an alignment. But I really think its the alignment. My S2K developed some toe in the rear and I'd only really noticed tire wear at the end of its life, it was still pretty consistent. But it was a pretty twitchy car, especially in low grip situations such as rain, or a tire with less grip to it.

So I would honestly point to that.

[SkylineKin]

ok, thanks for your input, i will install my new springs/struts and replace some ball joints then get an alignment and go from there.

[jlude90]

Solid plan my man.

[hondamanmark]

your taller winter tires arent gonna help with handling...and will sway and what not

[SkylineKin]

Yea thats possible, but ive had snow tires on my previous prelude and other cars and it hasnt happened, i will let you guys know what the problem was when i get it sorted out.