Safe Speed Forums

I wonder if anyone has any ideas on a steering symptom on my Peugeot 307 SW.

Riding to and from work, and not driving my vehicle much week to week means I am more than usually alert to any change since I last drove it.
When I went away on holiday, I noticed that the car was slow to respond to steering input at first - then would "lurch" into corners as the front seemed to get a lot more grip suddenly.

The pressures were checked before we set off and increased according to load, so I put it down to the car being loaded - four up and all our luggage, affecting the handling.
Also there is opposite road camber when driving on the continent which can affect pre worn tyres - but this seemed different.

Now however, having driven it empty back in the UK, it is still noticeable and a little alarming!

The front tyres are reasonably new - both replaced together for the MoT and are Hankooks - not my choice, as I always try and run the same tyre on all wheels, and rotate them routinely - including the spare. The rears therefore are older Dunlops - but plenty of tread on.

Any ideas on possible causes? I had the roll bar and ties checked during the MoT and all were normal, and suspension bushes are only a year or so old after servicing last year.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Try swapping wheels front to back and see if the symptoms disappear (i'm guessing they will) which will prove the tyres. I've had certain tyres on certain cars cause all sorts of weird handling experiences, before now.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

I had a Pugeot 306 which was quite sensative to tyres, some tyres when worn made the handling very wierd. One time it developed seriously strange handling, felt like it was going to understeer straight on at every corner even at low speed, really unsettling, turned out a bit of tyre tread about 2 inches by 1 inch had come off the centre of one of the rear tyres. I've no idea why that should have affected the handling in the manner it did, but replacing the rear tyres sorted it completely. I'd be tempted to swap the front and rear tyres and see if it makes any difference.

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

If it has been difference since the MOT and front tyres have been changed to Hankooks then I'd be assuming they were the culprits. New tyres are supposed to be put on the back now I think. If the weird handling remains with the hankooks on the back and the dunlops on the front then chuck the hankooks and get some Dunlops again if they suit the car.

Ernest, I see that this post is a little old now, but I seem to remember that I once had a 2.0L Ford Cortina (the very last model + with Gas struts). I'd fitted it with Hankooks and found that it tended to understeer in corners...unless.....you were brave enough to push the throttle a little more which made it grip. I finally came to terms with the tyres and they, in the end were quite good. But yes, from new, they were pretty........strange!
As they aged they became better, I can only think that with a little age, the sidewalls became more pliable and the tyre gripped better. It's just a guess of course, maybe you can update us on how they are now.....

P.S. I just thought Ernest, The Cortina was RWD and Yours is probably FWD so the symptoms may be slightly different....

I'd say that being RWD, far from making it grip you were balancing the understeer with oversteer. You probably didn't know it at the time but you had the car in a nice four wheel drift.