I've noticed with the Xfire that the front wheels & steering really follow the road.

I've not had this with any other car and I don't know if this is a feature... I'm assuming it is.

All my other cars pretty much drive in a straight line on their own... even on reasonably bumpy city roads.

However, the Xfire pretty much goes where ever the worn ruts in the road are.

One road I travel a lot on basically has well worn semi aged asphalt and has grooves for lack of a better word. The xfire sticks to those grooves/paths/divots... whatever you want to call them. I have to constantly force the wheel to stay straight and the car on track.

My Xfire isn't a 'relaxed wrist hanging over the top of the steering wheel' kind of city driver. Highways and flat roads, yes...

Is this a sports car thing due to the tight suspension?

 

It is funny you mention this because I have noticed it too. Any type of road groove or whatever you want to call it the car seems to "trail" along the groove instead of going straight. Kind of disturbs me a little but have always thought maybe that is the nature of the car. Does anyone know?

 

I've noticed this as well and thought the car needed to have an alignment done but then I noticed it pulling the opposite way as well. You can really tell how the roads are worn in this car. The Crossfire might not line up as well in the grooves so it's catching the higher points or lower points of the road and the larger tires are grabbing a hold and taking the car with it. As far as the culprit, it could be the width of the car is smaller or wider (I would need to look at numbers) than most cars on the road and it' causing it to pull by catching the grooves.

 

See: https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...eferrerid=7492
It may be due to a combination of a short wheelbase, wide tires, and recirculating ball steering. But it's not just you.

 

Very funny that you're pointing this out, as I was just describing this to my wife a few weeks ago. I notice it only at low speeds (very low). As is probably true for all of us, we have certain intersections here that are infamous for their deep grooves...at first i was concerned how the XF decided itself how to navigate these areas, but now, i just pay a little closer attention and not it's not an issue.
I assumed it had to do with the tire width, since all my previous vehicles had much narrower tires.

 

My xfire does this as well as my 300M, I believe it has to do with the tires being wide and low profile. I've never owned any other car that has done this.

 

I haven't driven my Xfire enough to know for sure. I did have a 1997 Honda Prelude up until last year and it did exactly what you refer to. Up until that car, I had never had one do that before. The Prelude had very low profile tires, so that could be the culprit.

 

I've experienced the same thing - much more so than in any other car I've owned. At first, I thought something was seriously wrong with the steering or alignment, but now i realize it's just a quirk with the car. I agree, I think it's a combination of the tire size, wheelbase, and possibly the recirculating ball steering. On a smooth road, the car tracks straight as an arrow.

 

From my personal experience, I only encounter this road tracking issue on cars with low profile tires and stiff sidewalls. Usually the engineers install a steering dampener, much like a car shock to the steering linkages. You see them alot on big 4x4's and RV's, it really helps hold the vehicle in a straight line. Recirculating ball has nothing to do with it.

 

It's the low profile, Big wide tires and low tire pressure of our tires. We had some freeway work going on over a bridge, and my car followed the groves of the work. I first thought the bridge was swaying, until my hubby explained to me about our tires...

 

My Porsche, Crossfire, and CLK do this. My Grand Prix does not. Sports cars and cars with large wheel setups do this. There is nothing wrong with your vehicle.

 

Hmmm... guess it wasn't such a newbie question.

Thanks for all the feedback. This site rocks.

 

I also thought there was an issue with my alignment and was going to have it looked at - I haven't owned a sports car before, so am learning along the way - Great answers - Thanks -

 

I also own a 1991 MR2 Turbo sports car...and it also follows the road much like the Crossfire does. It can get a little scary if you go into a turn and the road has worn grooves in it...the car is like a Blood-Hound and will track the grooves and crown of the road. It's a characteristic of some tire/steering and suspension set-ups...you get use to it...and in many cases, I think it's an enhancement to the car's handling. As mentioned before, tire pressure plays a roll in it. Sometimes raising the tire pressure in all tires by 4 pounds or so helps minimize the effect. I do not know if that can be done with the Crossfire, because of the TPS system...not sure if TPS looks at total tire pressure...or just differential tire pressure. Hope this is helpful. Looking at the BIG picture...LOVE that Crossfire!

 

My Xfire does this and my previous car did this as well, a Peugeot 206cc, which had low profile wide tyres.
My other car is the exact opposite, a 1980 Citroen with Diravi steering, which is self centering hydraulic, I've read reports that you can have a front blowout at 100+ kms/hr(60 m/hr), and the car won't even pull to one side.

Terry

 

The reason for the steering 'hunt' is usually to do with the how far offset the 'king pin' axis is compared with the centre of the tyre contact patch. Since we don't have king pins these days it will be the centreline of the McPherson strut or in our case the line through the upper and lower ball joints. The more offset there is the greater the amount of influence any wheel deflections have on the steering - it all come down to leverage.

Citroen made a big thing of this on the GS (the DS et al may have been the same) as this had the steering axis directly through the centre of the tyre so that the forces either side of the steering axis were equal irrespective of what happened to the tyre. I seem to recall a TV ad in the 70's/80's showing a GS having a blowout at high speed and just carrying on in a straight line!

 

"'relaxed wrist hanging over the top of the steering wheel' kind of city driver"
that's me exactly, chillin in traffic relaxed, until i hit the highway then bump it.

 

Mines actually a Series 1 CX.

 

Ah, I love the CX, just how a Citroen should be, quirky, sophisticated and way ahead of it's time! The 'last of the line' turbos were real rocket ships too.