BCouz

When I hit bumps my car seems to lurch to the right in the rear end. It does not always do this and seem to handle well when I am agressively driving the car. My tires are at their end of life however, I do not understand how that would cause this issue. I have a 98' E430 Sport that has been slightly lowered with Voughtland springs and Koni adjustable shocks. Last year I put on Yokohama AVS Sports and was satisfied with performance but disappointed with road noise and tire wear. Any thoughts? Also, looking for new tires (235/45/17) on a "budget". Any suggestions?

Gregs210

Hmmm. That is a little odd. I assume you haven't hit any potholes or curbs, etc. lately.

Is this just a seat-of-the-pants thing? If someone follows you can they see the car drift out of plane?

If it started all of a sudden it could be a link issue (broken bolt, cracked bushing, something along those lines).

It's easy enough to eliminate the tires, though, just swap that one with another on your car to see if it replicates or disappears (even if you have directionals you can do this for testing purposes. Just swap them back after testing and don't drive fast or push corners, etc while testing; that should be easy since you said it's fine when driving agressively). The reason it potentially could be the tires is that you could have a ply that is separating or a broken cord. Since it might not do it if the bad area was on top when you hit a bump, that might explain why it's not all the time.

If you need new tires anyway, that's the easiest thing to do, just get new ones and if the problem is still there you know to take it in. Depending on where you have your tires mounted you can ask if they'd take a quick peek at the suspension and links while it's up to see if there is anything obvious.

As far as replacement brands, lots of folks seem to really like the Toyo Proxes and Dunlop SPs. I've grown to love Pirellis and those are becoming more popular all the time. That said, I think even Dominos pizza boxes would be quieter and provide better feedback than the crappy Michelins I've got (they're the stock MXV's...can't stand to simply dump them and wouldn't want to foist them on someone else).

Take care and enjoy the ride,
Greg

Air Marshall Eldritch

I had an issue with axle jumping which turned out to be a broken control arm. Have someone check it out.

As far as tires, I had good luck with Sumitomo HTR+ for all season and HTRZ for summer, at about $110 per tire, if you are on a budget.

p.s. just about to instal the Vogtlands's

zam2000

Tire.com have the Goodyear Eagle GS-D3 on sale for $159, with $75 rebate for for tires, and free shipping, so it comeout more like $140/each. Not bad at all (both price and tire)

BlownV8

You couldn't give those tires to me. No way would I use them on my car again. Go for the Sumitomo HTRZII's. They were much quieter than the GS-D3's.

chas

Had a similar problem on my wife's 190E 2.6. Rear control arm was loose. Tech told me "..if you value your wife's life then don't let her drive the car like this."

For tires on the E430, on my E430 Sport.I put on Pirelli P7000 Super Sports to replace noisy, hard-riding, bad-wearing Yokohamas. World of difference. Good ride and handling, aggressive look and not too noisy.

BCouz

Thanks for the input everyone. I will get the control arm checked out ASAP and let you know what I find out.

BCouz

So I decided to go with the Sumitomo HTRZII's and am very pleased so far. Especially at $88/ea. Much better ride comfort and noise. DO NOT BUY Yokohama AVS Sports! Anyway, the car does not seem to slip nearly as much and I am beginning to think that it might be a alignment or camber issues. Not bad enough to spend too much $ at this point.

Rafael Grullón

99.9% sure that your problem is the "control arm bushing".
Part 220 352 02 27
I had exactly the same problem. Easy fix.