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Control Issues when driving on cement highways

Model Years 2018 to 2023 
6K views 36 replies 20 participants last post by  ken.p@bigpond.net.au 
#1 ·
I recently bought a Subaru Crosstrek and have been driving it around a bit for the past few days. It works perfectly fine on asphalt roads at both low and highway speeds. However, whenever I take it on concrete pavement with the line design featured below, the car seems to have a mind of its own. The steering will pull and the car will noticeably drift even if I try to drive in a straight line, I feel like I have very little control over the vehicle in this situation and frankly, it seems rather dangerous. Even if I hold the wheel firmly without moving it, the steering will tug in a random direction and the car will drift back and forth in the lane. I feel like this may have something to do with the AWD system or the tires, but I really have no idea as this has not happened to me before in any car I've driven. Is this normal, or should I be concerned? Does anyone else have this issue or solutions?
 

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#2 ·
We've got the grooved roads around here too and don't really have issues like that. You get a little pull but not to where the car feels out of control. Has to be either the tires or alignment. I'd lean more toward the tires though since it drives fine otherwise. What tires are on the car and mileage? Have you looked at them for even wear? How fast are you trying to go on those specific roads? Do you know if the car was ever wrecked?
 
#5 ·
Just a simple wheel alignment adjustment will cure your issue, first you need to check if the road is flat or crowning at the middle, if flat then you can use the same camber adjustment left and right, and perhaps to have a bit more toe in in front and back (just go nearer to maximum normal threshold, no need to go beyond it).
If the road crowning, then there is a need to have slight different camber between left and right to compensate the road surface angle.
 
#7 ·
Having had a lot of experience with wandering road mechanics on trucks and cars I’ve modified -

i disagree that an alignment is the answer. If it’s riding smooth on all other surfaces, and doesn’t have excessive play in the steering wheel, it ain’t an alignment. Poor alignment would be noticeable on all surfaces especially at those speeds or greater.

i believe the issue is those tires. The tread pattern may be just odd enough that it is catching the grooved pavement and pulling you. I had this with continental tires once. Another reason I found all seasons to be superior because the tread patterns don’t usually get into weird designs that could cause that kind of pulling on variated road surfaces.

Grab a set of good all seasons from Goodyear, BFG, Toyo,Michelin, etc and I think you’ll have a much better experience.
 
#9 ·
I don't know what year the car is, but I found the MY18 in the family needed:
1) sway bar bushings(all-round, one end was updated by Subaru) and recalled links in the rear
2) changed over to all-season tires(General RT43) from the all-weather
The stability on the highway, tracking at speed was vastly better.
 
#10 ·
My wife used to have a older Chevy Malibu that did this excessively, and only on the concrete portions of highways. The tires themselves were the biggest part of my specific issue, the rest being a worn out suspension and steering rack. Replacing those components drastically reduced the tramlining, to where I felt in control of the car.
 
#20 ·
The Uniroyal Tiger Paw is a very inexpensive tire. Putting a new set on a used car at the dealership helps improve the image of the car to a prospective buyer -- "Oh, and it has new tires, too." It's a relatively cheap sales ploy. It's highly unlikely that the buyer is going to research the tires. Plus, I imagine for liability reasons, they can't sell a car if the tires are shagged.
 
#22 ·
If the steering system has no excessive free play and the tires quite new, the alignment will fix the issue. Of course some tires are more prone to tramlining than others, but those can be reduced with alignment adjustment. Nowadays more cars are spec with zero toe at front to give better handling response but on certain tire road combo or extra free play, it will cause the car doesnt track straight. A bit toe in will make the car keep straight better. The adjustment is there to compensate various issue with tire characteristic, even though may not fix extreme cases.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Not to be argumentative, but I disagree that an alignment will fix this issue - an alignment is only recommended if the issue described persists on all road surfaces, not one certain stretch of road with a grooved pavement.

if the vehicle performs and handles normally on all other roads, an alignment is not the answer. If an alignment is needed, it will be evident on any road surface and tire wear Or noise would be present and evident.

a degree of what the OP is experiencing can be normal on such road surfaces, but this degree of it I am certain is primarily due to the crap tires.

I hate to see someone be advised to fix something that already works, as well as incur a $100+expense for an alignment that by all means sounds unnecessary. Seeing that tires are probably a good investment anyhow to get rid of the dealer junkers, I believe a better recommendation would be to wear these tires out until weather dictates better ones, since the OP states that the vehicle and current tires perform fine on all other road surfaces.

Also, you’re mostly correct on the characteristics of alignment technique, however you must acknowledge that an alignment is never recommended to adjust tire behavior on one specific road surface…. Optimizing an alignment for the grooved pavement will cause potential poor performance on other surfaces.
 
#26 ·
I agree with a couple of posts RE alignment probably not your issue, in light of the fact that the car runs true on other surfaces.
Also agree with posts that say wandering is normal on scored surfaces.
My first "grooved road" experiences on a motorcycle had me thinking about diapers.

I would first try changing tire pressure, and I believe that vehicle might call for a slightly different PSI front and rear.
Look at that and fiddle a bit, but at best it's a learning experience and you probably need different tires.

I would ask, do you or have you driven other vehicles on that same road, something for comparison?
Are you new to the area?
Answer to these questions would inform readers more about the experience you are having.
 
#29 ·
Alignment adjustment is one option but it depends on the op's cost benefit analysis to see how much he is willing to spend and how much is the alignment cost compared to replace four tyres. In my area, alignment is way cheaper than replacing 4 tires, so it saves a lot of money by fixing the issue through alignment especially when the tire is quite new and for crosstrek all 4 tires have builtin toe adjustment. Car manufacturer provide alignment spec in a range, and when you adjust within the specs there should not much adverse effect while people can have better enjoyment in driving the car. People who like spirited driving and do not want to replace the suspension, often adjust alignment to near the maximum allowable spec to have driving characteristic as they want. Slight toe out to have more agility, more negative camber to have better cornering, etc. Adjusting tire pressure is another option to reduce tramlining, but mostly is by increasing the pressure because that will less likely jeopardizing the safety from tire blowout. Suspension setting is all about compromise, so when adjustment done within tolerable spec from manufacturer is perfectly safe and normal. A few minutes change can have dramatic difference on the car handling feel and this what people can use to tune the driving characteristic. 👍
 
#35 ·
Cars are not immune to groove wander.

Copied from Wikipedia:
Groove wander, similar to tramlining, is a lateral force acting on a vehicle's wheel resulting from the combination of rain grooves (grooves cut into roads to mitigate hydroplaning in light rain conditions) and contoured deformations in the road surface upon which the wheel runs.[1]
When the contact patch of the tire does not form to match the contours of the road surface the stiff tire edges tend to ride on and be guided (or tramlined) by the rain grooves within the surface contour. This force is greater than the contact patch can counter and the resultant force is delivered to the wheel hub and axle, pushing the car laterally. When all four wheels are acted upon in this way, the vehicle can experience rapid forces occurring from side to side and corner to corner (similar to encountering wind gusts, only from all four directions instead of just one).
A mismatch between tire design and vehicle weight, or vehicle suspension design, or simply wheel alignment can all contribute to how severe the effect is. Tire tread pattern can also cause, with straight grooved tires more susceptible to groove wander than diagonal or zig zag threads.
 
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