FD Rx7 Bad handling

[FDFDFDFDFD]

I\'ve owned my fd for two years. It\'s a 98 Bathurst bought with 75,000miles on the clock.

Every where you go, anywhere you search the Rx7\'s handling is famed but I\'ve never seen it. My car will slide at even 25mph in the damp OFF throttle at roundabouts. I\'ve covered 8000+ miles in it and it handles worse than my old mk3 golf.

It understeers, torque steers.... under hard acceleration the front goes so light any correction causes twitching that destabilises the car (less than stock power). The brakes are death traps too it goes sideways under medium pressure breaking and destabilises the car over 80 with any input.

I\'ve had two MOT\'s by rx7 specialists and they have said it\'s in decent nick. The first MOT it needed some pillow balls in the rear however.

the one issue I can think off is that its using winter tyres... but my other half\'s 115hp bmw 1 series uses winter tyres and grips far harder... why???

and omg the yaw..... I can\'t keep up with family saloons on country lanes. Women are living me standing in mini-cooper\'s . I take all bends off throttle just to stay alive and this was the case even when I was running with just the primary turbo working probably no more than 140rwhp and 8-9s 0-60s. Hardly fast.

Is there something I can do? check a certain bushing? Broken, bent parts that an MOT might have missed that could cause this? or is it just the winter tyres? ( which I find very hard to believe) Any silver bullets?  

P.S I\'ve read about power plant frames. Mine looks ok.

[clive]

Welcome to Mazdarotaryclub :Thumbs-up

A little more info my help, are we talking about an unmodified car ? , if it\'s modded does it have different suspension and maybe a different differential ?


Also if you have had the car two years I suspect you have not had winter tyres on all the time, so was the car different with other tyres ?

[SiH]

It sounds like you are using terrible tyres (I\'m guessing rock-spec from japan) on an unaligned car with knackered bushes.
Chances are it\'ll be horrible to drive unless you address at least these things.

[Grizzly]

The Tyres make a MONUMENTAL difference to an FD\'s handling and feel, i had Run flats on my fd for quite a while and thought the Handling was OK, but i went to 595 RSR Federals and its a different car. The tyres where one of the two things i changed that really made a night and day difference the other one was Brake pads, i had EBC\'s in and went to FERODO DS2500 granted they weren\'t cheap but makes such a difference to the way the brakes feel.  

If you find your self at WGT at any time have a chat with Pip, he\'s one of those guys who can drive an FD round the block and tell you what\'s wrong with it also the Geo service he does is well worth the money if its never had a geo.

If you say it steers its self when you go on and off the power make sure there isn\'t any wear in the Track control bushes (think thats where there called ).

[shaunwil]

Are all the tyres the same make all the way round. Different brands on different corners can make a huge difference.

I drove on Jap rubber for years without too much worry (and plenty of track days) not realising they where what they where. I just waited till the wore out !

Pip can do a full proper alignment and even corner weight the car to see what is going on. Your close to a real guru (all be it a really busy one).

Shaun

[marcusd666]

I have drove mine around in the wet and it\'s fine the only time she steps out is when I give the right foot a bit to much. Take it to Pip and let him have a look he is not cheap but he will tell you what\'s going on.

[samoht]

Buy some decent summer tyres.  I\'ve definitely experienced similar instability in a powerful FR car on winter tyres, the tall profile and deep treadblocks mean that they are quite happy to let the car point at 5-10 degrees to the direction of travel.  If you care about handling, you need to start with decent tyres - Advan AD08s are good, although I think there are cheaper decent options.

The 115 may be on different winter tyres, they aren\'t all the same.  Or the chassis may be deader and less responsive, so it makes less difference.

Next, get the alignment done by a garage that knows about alignment.

After that, there are various rubber bushes in the rear suspension that wear out and can cause instability, I agree with the recommendation to go to Pip.

[FDFDFDFDFD]

Handling wise it\'s bone stock minus the rear wing.

The handling is truly awful. My 2ton shed which was noted in for having sub-par handling in the motoring press grips so much harder. Today out of frustration I thought I would try and take a round about at 30mph off throttle and I just slid... Got left standing by an old 525 a few days ago too:(

I have not done anything about the rubber as I am saving for some 18x9.5 or 18x10s so don\'t want to waste money on tyres for the 16s.

I am worried about upgrading the wheels and tyres to such wide dimensions as they may make the wet performance even worse... add to that I will have to get performance coil overs to fit those wheels that will likely be harder and break loose even easier.

P.S I have removed the Alu brace just behind the main cat to fit an aftermarket exhaust though the handling was just as diabolical before that.

[CharlieP]

18" with such wide tyres I doubt will improve handling
17" lightweight wheels, 8/9 wide suit best, noticed a big difference when changing to these from heavy 18 wheels

Although my car was fairly low mileage, the full polybush kit from Superpro made the car feel tight and taught, an upgrade certainly worth the money

[shaunwil]

Plus if your on the 16\'s your only on 225 wide rubber all the way round too.

How old are the tyres you have on too ?

Shaun

[samoht]

What tyres are they?  Were they on the car when you bought them?  Do you know how old they are?

It sounds from the description that they are the most likely problem.  Without good tyres it will be hard to even determine what else might be the issue, if the rubber isn\'t gripping the road.

If you don\'t want to splash out on new tyres for the 16" wheels now, you need some other way to test this theory.
I suggest going to a tyre garage and asking if they have any part-worns in your size - 16" should be fairly common.  That way at least you can feel what difference it makes.  Another option would be to look for someone selling standard or cheap FD wheels with tyres on.  Either way you would get to drive your car on some reasonable summer tyres and feel what difference it makes, hopefully for no more than £100 or so.

I\'m betting that will feel a lot better!

[Kodiak]

Saving for new whells will be a lot more expensive if conditions conspire against you and you end up paying a tow truck to pull you out of a ditch.
 
Got to fix the issue asap.
 
Old wheels with different tyres on sounds like a good bet.

[Grizzly]

LOL, Dude there is some thing really wrong if your even able to see a 525 in your mirrors let alone get beat by one

The rims won\'t be the problem, i was using stock rims for trackdays for a good while on twins with 340 at the fly as i like the unstaggered balance but i was using Yoko\'s. The stock rims are about the lightest rims for an FD you can get

[marf]

What brand are your tyres?

When did you last have your geometry checked?

What condition are your discs/pads in?

When did you last bleed and replace your brake fluid?

It sounds like you have a number of issues which are combining to ruin your handling.

I\'d suggest you have a combination of crap/worn tyres, out of spec suspension geometry and worn/sticking brakes.

Fix the problems, FDs are nothing like your description if in good condition with decent tyres

[BlitzBoy]

Had your problems with my black FD in the beginning, turns out it was knackered bushes, crap tyres, it was out of alignment, I addressed all three, then the handling was sublime and brilliant !!!