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What Causes a Car To Wander At Highway Speeds?

Started by bordin34, October 31, 2009, 03:08:31 PM

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bordin34

I was our driving the Charger and took it on the highway. Above highway speeds the car wanders a bit. The steering is tight but the car wants to change lanes, its not too bad though. What is worse though is braking the car want to pull to one side at highway speed. I am thinking that my rear brakes are not adjusted properly since the automatic adjuster things dont work. I have replaced all the rubber brake lines and have new calipers, rotors, bearing, and master cylinder. The car was braking fine a couple months ago and would even lock up the rears from 60mph right after I adjusted the drums.

1973 SE Brougham Black 4̶0̶0̶  440 Auto.
1967 Coronet Black 440 Auto
1974 SE Brougham Blue 318 Auto- Sold to a guy in Croatia
1974 Valiant Green 318 Auto - Sold to a guy in Louisiana
Mahwah,NJ

charger Downunder

wheel alignment if it goes to one side while driving without the brakes on. If it only hapens when you touch the brakes more than likely a brake adjustment is needed.
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Brock Samson

  worn tires did that to mine i thought it was all kids of stuff, hence my "Poly or Rubber Bushings?" thread,.. turns out a new set of tires solved all my steering/tracking/training problems.

BigBlackDodge


b5blue

Camber and caster can effect both high and low speed action.

LeadfootBob

Excessive toe out will induce wandering like you describe. Sometimes you can see it by centering the steering and looking at the wheels one at a time. If the front of both tires point outwards from the car, it's probably time for an alignment.
Proud member of the jack stand racing team since 1999.
'70 Charger 500: "Bronson", some kind of hillbilly hot rod in progress.
'89 Chevy Caprice 9C1: "it's got a cop motor..."

John_Kunkel


Wandering at road speed can be a problem in the tires even if they look new and have lots of tread. If the front and rear tires are the same size, try swapping front for rear and see if it changes the wandering.
Pardon me but my karma just ran over your dogma.

Ghoste

Worn strut rod bushings (or bent strut rods) can cause some funny pulling during braking too.

bordin34

Thanks, the car handles fine around 70ish but slightly wanders above that. The brake adjustment always seems to be a problem with this car. If I use the parking brake it seems that the rear brakes unadjust themselves in less than 100 miles.

1973 SE Brougham Black 4̶0̶0̶  440 Auto.
1967 Coronet Black 440 Auto
1974 SE Brougham Blue 318 Auto- Sold to a guy in Croatia
1974 Valiant Green 318 Auto - Sold to a guy in Louisiana
Mahwah,NJ