04 WRX all stock suspension (so far) 31k miles. I had the original 16" wheels and tires on and they were wearing even and it tracked perfect. I put the STI 17†BBS wheels and RE070 tires on with no other changes. Now it is hard to explain but its like torque steer, but not when accelerating. It will pull to one side or the other while going straight down the road just a foot or so, mostly slow to 45 MPH or so. Kind of a twitch, I have to hold the steering wheel tight to stop it from jumping over. It tracks fine at hiway speed, corners good and it doesn’t consistently pull to one side like it was alignment. Any ideas?
my re070's will do the same thing. if I'm on either of my hankook winter tires it's fine but when I have the re070's on I will often get a weird pull like that
could be wheel offset and a combination of much more sticky tires on a lop-sided road. If the road you're driving on has any crown in the middle, or dips down were cars usually drive, then it will tend to pull up the hill. At least that's my experience with wider tires/wheels.
Yes, this. Stiffer and wider tires will tend to transfer more road imperfections to the drivers wheel. What you described is normal when adding tires with stiff sidewalls and a larger tread width.
It's not bad but it is noticeable. I'm sure it's just you needing to get used to it more then anything.
its called tracking.. ie like a railway track... the vehicle pics up any grooves, hollows etc in the surface and basically pulls itself into that track.. hence tracking... my wrx did it when I went to 19s... stock 16s no problem... the footprint of the car is wider so it picks up more are of the road hence it is more susceptable to the tracking effect... rarely but it can be true, sometimes going a different size rim and tire combo your alignment may not be as good as with the normal tires hence you are feeling the outcome too...