Greetings from a newbie -

I've had my new-to-me 04 2.5 for almost 2 months now and dearly love the car. The only issue that has surfaced is an alarming tendency of the car to dart from side to side when there is an irregular road surface, especially if there are small ruts with a crown between. From my perusal of the archives, it appears this may well be a common event? The car is on OEM run flat tires -- those of you who have switched to other tires, have you found greater tracking stability? If so, what tire would you recommend?

Thanks,
Scott

i have the same problem but it only started once I got wider tires and and bigger rims. 205 55 16 to 225 45 17. i cant answer your question but I just wanted to let you know i feel your pain

I didn't have that problem with the OEM runflats. The problem is called tramming. Check your pressure and wear first, as I said, my car didn't do this with runflats, however, I have had this happen with other tires.

My Infiniti G35X with 245mm wide tires does that a little, definitely more than with the stock 215's. Our Z does it a little too but I attributed that to a combination of the runflats and the electric power steering. I just installed a set of NON runflat winter tires. Let me drive on them for a while and I will report if there's any difference.

I didn't notice any significant "tramming" until my OEM run-flat tires started to approach their end-of-life. The problem became worse as the tires became worn. They also became noticibly louder.

My car starting exhibiting this tendency when I swapped out the front 225mm tires for 245mm tires. I bumped the cold air pressure from 30lbs to 35lbs and 99% of the problem went away. I was clued in that this would fix the problem by the fact that it decreased when the tires warmed up...

I am curious if a slight increase in toe-in would help the problem too...

Greetings from a newbie -

I've had my new-to-me 04 2.5 for almost 2 months now and dearly love the car. The only issue that has surfaced is an alarming tendency of the car to dart from side to side when there is an irregular road surface, especially if there are small ruts with a crown between. From my perusal of the archives, it appears this may well be a common event? The car is on OEM run flat tires -- those of you who have switched to other tires, have you found greater tracking stability? If so, what tire would you recommend?

Thanks,
Scott

I will be replacing my rft's because of that tracking & ride issues,I think the side wall is just too stiff to allow the tire to track and have a decent ride.I will not be getting my car out till next april:( But it will have either new kuhmos or dunlops,:Dand not rft's either.So I won't know more till then.I will have a used set of potenza rft's with obout 2000 mi. on them for sale:)

I had problems tramming when my OEM run flats got near end of life. I replaced them with Potenza RE960 Pole Position's and haven't had that problem. In fact these tires have tracked exceedingly well for me especially once they warm up.

Thanks! I was about to post a question regarding this issue but this thread answered my question. Does anyone know how the ride differs between run-flats and radials? I have an 03 3.0i w/ Sport. Thanks!

I have a NEW to me 2003 2.5 and experienced the same thing as you. Tramming was a very real concern. To be fair the Pirelli euphoria RFTs were near the end of their life. I do not know how they performed when new. I did change to non RFTs and put on Falken ZR912's in the same size as the OEM setup. I immediately noticed a difference in handling ie no tramming and on a stretch of highway near here that is constucted of concrete slabs the ride and noise level were reduced significantly. I also purchased a tire plug, sealant and compressor kit to keep in the trunk. Hopefully my CAA will look after any other problems that might arise such as catastophic tire failure.
Robbie

When I went to non run flats, the problem went away. The RFTs were not new though, but had at least half its tread life left.

I think the consensus is tires.

My experiences:

No tramlining with the OE Conti's
With my Advan Neovas (285/30/18) it tramlined like a champ.
With my All season Potenza RE960's (245/40/18) tramlining disappeared.