Squirrelly Handling after New Rear Tires

[Nick1994]

My Genesis came with new Yokohama Advan Sport A/S+ tires when I bought it last year. They are staggered Front/Rear. This past winter a pothole took out a front tire, and I got an alignment at the dealership.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I noticed my RR tire was 6 psi low. I went to Discount Tire and they said there was a puncture on the inner edge of the tire and it wasn't repairable. With both tires being around 5/32 tread, I decided to replace both with the same Yokohamas. Discount also rotated the front tires left-right.

Since then, it's been squirrelly out on the highway. Like the tail is wagging the dog if I yank the wheel. Kind of like when towing a trailer and you don't have enough tongue weight. It drives fine if you keep it straight, but you can get it fishtailing if you nudge the wheel etc. I thought it was the little nubs on the tires but I took it to Palm Springs and those have worn off, they've got about 800 miles on them now.

I took it back to Discount Tire and they rotated the front tires L/R back to where they were, and the problem is still there. I'm thinking I might have a goofy tire in the back? We had this issue with a new set of Sentury's on the '70 Beetle and it needed a new set of Continentals to fix it.

Any thoughts, experiences with this?

 

[Rand]

alignment? number 1 cause.
You could try flipping the rear tires side to side see if anything changes?
even if they are directional it would be ok for a test drive.

How much air are in the tires?
Otherwise for your mental health try 4 new tires.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Your old rear tires - any odd wear patterns on them?

Did you have an alignment done when replacing the tires?

 

[Propflux01]

Sounds like rear alignment this out. I’d take it back to whomever did your alignment.

 

[sds911]

Check your suspension components (control arms etc) for play - especially those with rubber bushings.

And some new tires are defective and can’t be balanced correctly. Happened to me with a yokohama from discount tire. They replaced it after I brought it back twice for balancing

 

[Ride_Red]

Check your tire air pressure.
I got new tires on a Jeep once and the handling went to crap. Turns out the tire shop put way too much air in the tires and the Jeep was bouncing around on every bump. I dropped the pressure and all went back to normal.

 

[The Critic]

It might be tread squirm, which is normal for certain new tires. The issue should go away once the tires get some wear.

 

[AZjeff]

With daily temps in Phoenix over 100 for months you should have gotten some heat cycles on the tires to settle them down. Discount always over-inflates here by 5-6 psi, are you at factory?

 

[GMBoy]

Happened to me - tires were at 55psi. Rear was loose feeling until I corrected pressure to 35psi. So check pressures.

Discount Tire strikes again. They have gotten so bad!

 

[Nick1994]

I set the tire pressure to +1 psi on the door jamb the morning after I got the tires.

Alignment was last winter/spring at the dealership.

Old rear tires had some more wear on the inner edges, my last Genesis did the same thing, pretty sure it's the way it is with modern RWD car camber. Plus I was not kind to the last set of rear tires and drove quite aggressively on take offs...

 

[loneryder]

Check your tire air pressure.
I got new tires on a Jeep once and the handling went to crap. Turns out the tire shop put way too much air in the tires and the Jeep was bouncing around on every bump. I dropped the pressure and all went back to normal.

This!

 

[Pew]

Old rear tires had some more wear on the inner edges, my last Genesis did the same thing, pretty sure it's the way it is with modern RWD car camber. Plus I was not kind to the last set of rear tires and drove quite aggressively on take offs...

Correct, most cars have toe-in in the rear to help with stability. Did you go back to the same yoko advan sport a/s tires?

I'm thinking, if your wheel offset allows, swap front/rear and take it on a quick drive to see if the issue persists then swap back.

 

[CapriRacer]

Do you have an AWD? Some AWD's are sensitive to tire diameter and new vs old tires are enough to cause problems.

 

[Nick1994]

This!

See above, tires are only +1 psi to factory spec, which is what I've always run.

Correct, most cars have toe-in in the rear to help with stability. Did you go back to the same yoko advan sport a/s tires?

I'm thinking, if your wheel offset allows, swap front/rear and take it on a quick drive to see if the issue persists then swap back.

I'd worry they'd rub. Same model tires as before.

Do you have an AWD? Some AWD's are sensitive to tire diameter and new vs old tires are enough to cause problems.

Not AWD

 

[loneryder]

What pressure do you have in them now? Many times the door label will show pressures that are the maximum pressure for the tire. My MB's have another pressure on the back of the gas flap that they want you to use. Try lowering the pressure in the rear to 35# and see how it does.
I had my tires rotated and balanced at Costco the other day. For some reason they put over 50@ in each tire which is the max inflation shown on the sidewall. I've argued with them to no avail. I back the vehicle into one of their self service air pumps set it to 35 and it lets air out to 35. Vehicle rides and handles great. On 50# it wanders.

 

[ctrcbob]

Don’t know about your Genesis, but my 2021 G80 has different size tires front and back. ALSO. Rear Wheels are a Half Inch WIDER than the fronts.
Check your Owners Manual, for width, then measure.

 

[CapriRacer]

Another possibility is that Yokohama changed the tire, making it ride better, but handle less responsively. If that's the case, then your only recourse is changing the front tires to the new version.

How to determine that? Look at the DOT code. If the type code is different, it's likely the tires are different versions.

Type Code? I go into detail here: Barry's Tire Tech: DOT Codes
About 2/3 the way down, the third group of codes is explained. (There are 4 groups of codes.)

 

[Jetronic]

It might be tread squirm, which is normal for certain new tires. The issue should go away once the tires get some wear.

Tread squirm (or the same effect from other causes like release agent) on new tyres is real indeed. And it doesn't take much wear to get them to behave better. Around a thousand miles does it in my experience.

The Original Micheling Crossclimates I bought did it, and the tyres on the new car did it aswell.

 

[IndyIan]

I guess you could add a little more rear toe in? a few turns of a wrench and see what happens. Mark where it was and put it back if you need to.
You could check what you've got now for toe in as well with a tape measure, I suppose if it's a lot you could also have the same symptoms, although the old rear tires would've had to have very soft sidewalls to hide it.

 

[blkwtr]

We had this "squirrelly" condition on our 1997 Lexus LS400. New tires and alignment didn't help. The new tires on the rear quickly wore down to the cord/belts. A check of the rear suspension components showed that they were worn out. Replacing the rear control arms, drag links and sway bar links cured the problem.