02 Lesabre handling issues-steering?

[southpaw35]

I've got an 02' Lesabre Limited with 40k miles. I bought it about 2 months ago. The car seems to wander left to right/right to left at speeds over 55/60mph. Not major wandering, but similiar to when you're driving behind a semi and you're just outside of his air draft. I am constantly making minor corrections to the steering. I just put new tires (Cooper Lifeliner SLE) on it, but that didn't help either. I had the alignment checked twice and both places said everything is in factory spec and all suspension/steering parts are tight and in good shape.

Any help or opinions????????????????????????????????

[Bassasasin]

I thought wandering is mostly caused by allignment.

Tires actually change caster. The faster the car travels, the further back the footprint the tire is making contacting the road surface. Thus.. increasing caster. However caster isnt your issue.

Toe in and toe out can cause wandering.
Does the car seem to have a turn response in one direction better than the other?

and also road conditions. Such as paralell ridges in the road running in the same direction of your travel. Often seen in my area are roads that are prepped for resurfacing that have these obvious ridges..

(cybersearch)
Possible causes are:
Worn or damaged suspension (checked)
Worn track control arm or tie rod (checked)
* Loose or worn wheel bearings
* Incorrect tire inflation
Anti-roll bar drop link defective
* Wheel alignment out of tolerance
Broken coil or sagging coil spring (wanders when bouncing slightly)

Good Luck

[imidazol97]

Originally Posted by southpaw35

I've got an 02' Lesabre Limited with 40k miles. I bought it about 2 months ago. The car seems to wander left to right/right to left at speeds over 55/60mph. Not major wandering, but similiar to when you're driving behind a semi and you're just outside of his air draft. I am constantly making minor corrections to the steering. I just put new tires (Cooper Lifeliner SLE) on it, but that didn't help either. I had the alignment checked twice and both places said everything is in factory spec and all suspension/steering parts are tight and in good shape.

Any help or opinions????????????????????????????????

My two cents worth:
I don't know what size rim you have 15 or 16 inch. I am guessing the 5 inch 215 tire which origionally was a General OEM tire. That was rated S for speed rating. I think the higher the speed rating the harder the sidewall is?

Also you have a long, long mileage tire which means a harder rubber.

I checked my 03 with 16 in rim that came with Michelins and it's rated S.

I suspect you have tire hardness in the higher speed tire and a lack of compliability affecting the direction stability. Try different pressures. If it recommends 30 try 34 e.g.

But I'll bet the alignment shops did you wrong. They said it's within specs. That's a broad range. What you want is a shop that will set the toe to the preferred setting midrange. You need an alignment guy who knows stuff from experience, not from a mass produce shop where if it's within the range from 0.5 to -0.5 then they save time by not aligning it.

My car had some vibration as some GM H bodies have. The dealer service manager-not tech writer- realigned the rear after a few revisits for tire vibration. He pointed out the alignments were within specs but they need to be set exactly. The vibration was gone because the rear toe was slightly off. He started as an alignment guy at the dealership so he knows alignment. Also rear toe can make a car twist around on roads where there are ruts from truck traffic or lane wear. It will fight and move around because of the rear wheels getting a different bite on the angles of the rounded grooves.

The alignment. The hardness of the tires... My opinion. Do they have a 30 day exchange at the store for the tires if you don't like what they do?

[southpaw35]

Thanks for the input, on both above replies. I've got the 16" wheels. I went with the Cooper's because I've had those exact tires on 2 prior vehicles (95 Cutluss & 01 Taurus) and they handled great, so I figured they would be fine on this car too. I may just live with the problem for now. I'll probably try higher tire pressure and see what happens. I had been keeping them at or around 30-32 PSI. I'll try 34-35 PSI and see if it's better. My wife is getting tired of picking me up/dropping me off at the local tire shops for them to look at it and tell me there's nothing wrong. She said she can't even tell what I'm talking about when she drives it. I guess I'm just a little more in tune with my car. She drives the our 01' GMC Yukon, so she wouldn't be able to tell anyway. The exchange period is already up on my tires, as I've already put 3000 miles on them. I'm a high mileage driver, that why I picked the Buick. My dad has had 2 Lesabre's (91 & 98) and put 200k on the first one and the current one has 115K with very few problems. Gotta love that GM 3800.

[Bassasasin]

Just of note.. Isn't the 16" tires part of the Grand Touring package which adds some extra hardware around the wheel too?

You may not have the package but have the wheels?

Just thinking..

Keep em' wheelin'.

Bass

[southpaw35]

I do have the 16" wheels,(tires are 225/16) but I'm not sure if it's the grand touring package or not. I do not have the original sticker and since I bought it used, I don't know how to tell if I do or not. It's got every available option as far as I can tell. Mnroof, Dual front heated leather seats, HUD, RDS radio, self-leveling-automatic rear suspension, Dual 8 way power seats, dual front climate controls, heated mirrors, it's loaded. Only thing it doesn't have is polished wheels. I've got the honeycomb alloy wheels, which I'm not crazy about, but I don't have an extra $500 get a set of used polished wheels.