Why does our Chevy Prism spin out so easily? FIXED!

[Scouzer]

Pebwas

(all cap letters... thanks AT)

 

[MotF Bane]

See that's the thing, I DON'T SEE. Tire could be 30psi or 100psi but nothing looks out of the ordinary... Maybe what you should do is wash down the tread of those tires, put some sand on the ground, then roll across the sand and see where the sand sticks to the most/least. I've got my Volvo S60 at 55psi and I've failed to see the "ballooning" that so many people speak of.

Stop fucking with your parents' car.

 

[exdeath]

There is a difference between static conditions with a tire sitting in your driveway, and dynamic conditions while driving. Tire pressure recommended for a particular vehicle is determined from dynamic conditions for optimal wear and grip in all conditions that a vehicle experiences while driving. Dynamics >>>> statics, since we use cars to move and not park in the driveway.

A simple explanation of what I mean when I say dynamics vs. statics: when you inflate to sidewall when it's 50 degrees out sitting in your drive way, and then drive the car when it's hot out + heating of the tires from friction and you are actually at 10% over sidewall PSI... also consider what happens when you run over a nail with 100 psi vs 35 psi; do you just get a nail in your tire and a slow leak or do you get an instant blowout because of the massive stresses and tension being relieved? How does over-inflation of that magnitude affect belt separation? Rubber stretches, steel belts and nylon chords, not so much, so now you have differences in material elasticity being pushed to the limits as the tire deforms and the various materials are flexing at different rates while already being stretched to the limit by excessive air pressure.

I don't care how normal a tire with 100 psi LOOKS sitting still in my driveway, I'm sure as hell not going to drive it that way.

I don't care if NASCAR or F1 (or anyone else) inflates to 55 psi to tune for the RACE TRACK, those are soft special purpose tires used on a RACE TRACK that see ONE DAY of use, not general use of 6 years and 80,0000 miles through rain and shine on a passenger vehicle.

 

[fleabag]

There is a difference between static conditions with a tire sitting in your driveway, and dynamic conditions while driving. Tire pressure recommended for a particular vehicle is determined from dynamic conditions for optimal wear and grip in all conditions that a vehicle experiences while driving. Dynamics >>>> statics, since we use cars to move and not park in the driveway.

Indeed there is, quite a bit of difference, however in controlled circumstances (like on a well paved closed course) people have safely driven their tires at 100psi. I'm not advocating people inflate their tires to double the sidewall presssure rating, I'm just saying that since radial tires have belts in them, they're not going to balloon out to the point where they wear down on the very very center of the tire, like the thickness of a pencil will be the only thing in contact with the road like so many on this forum have be led to believe due to their archaic knowledge of bias and bias-ply tires.

A simple explanation of what I mean when I say dynamics vs. statics: when you inflate to sidewall when it's 50 degrees out sitting in your drive way, and then drive the car when it's hot out + heating of the tires from friction and you are actually at 10% over sidewall PSI... also consider what happens when you run over a nail with 100 psi vs 35 psi; do you just get a nail in your tire and a slow leak or do you get an instant blowout because of the massive stresses and tension being relieved?

Yes, it is true that the tire pressure does go up when it gets hotter, however you're not "over sidewall" if the pressure goes up because of heat because the rating on the sidewall is NOT absolute pressure, but COLD pressure. If the tire is capable of handling 45psi COLD, then it most certainly can handle 55psi warm or hot. With your logic, when people inflated their tires to the manufacturer's suggestions, when they drove on the tires for 100 miles in the blistering heat, they'd need to deflate their tires because "the pressure is too high" which is strictly advised against. I don't know what would happen if you ran over a nail at 100psi but you can't say definitively that the tire will blow out more likely than one at 35psi. I know you'd like to think you know but when you consider that these same tires can be inflated to 300-600psi with the rim failing before the tire, you should quickly realize that 50psi is not the upper limit for these tires, but more like in the 800psi range.

 

[Arkaign]

800psi? XD

 

[thescreensavers]

lol last time I read something like this, it was on the G35 Forums and someone installed a sway bar upside down and it made him spin out like mad.

OP Def try an alignment

 

[fleabag]

lol last time I read something like this, it was on the G35 Forums and someone installed a sway bar upside down and it made him spin out like mad.

OP Def try an alignment

(Caused Too much camber or toe?)

 

[Demon-Xanth]

lol last time I read something like this, it was on the G35 Forums and someone installed a sway bar upside down and it made him spin out like mad.

OP Def try an alignment

My brother in law had to deal with a shop that installed a sway bar upside down on a truck, said shop ended up replacing the oil pan. The driver spotted it because it handled oddly and made a noise. Jumping up and down on the bumper was enough to make it hit the pan.

 

[SparkyJJO]

The reason your prism spins out is very obvious. Surprised no one has said it.

The prism may be the same car as the corolla, but the GM badge automatically makes the car 100x inferior and malfunction constantly. Everyone knows this.

/sarcasm

 

[jlee]

Indeed there is, quite a bit of difference, however in controlled circumstances (like on a well paved closed course) people have safely driven their tires at 100psi. I'm not advocating people inflate their tires to double the sidewall presssure rating, I'm just saying that since radial tires have belts in them, they're not going to balloon out to the point where they wear down on the very very center of the tire, like the thickness of a pencil will be the only thing in contact with the road like so many on this forum have be led to believe due to their archaic knowledge of bias and bias-ply tires.

(Caused Too much camber or toe?)

Since when do sway bars affect wheel alignment?

 

[thescreensavers]

(Caused Too much camber or toe?)

I dont rememember, but he replaced tires and got a camber kit and tons of shit, and nothing worked, till he posted a pic of his setup then everyone pointed it out. He never posted again lol.

 

[EightySix Four]

I dont rememember, but he replaced tires and got a camber kit and tons of shit, and nothing worked, till he posted a pic of his setup then everyone pointed it out. He never posted again lol.

Under the same name at least.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Well, it's fixed! It was the tire alignment. Fronts had some toe in and one of the back tires had some toe in as well. I guess all these years it's been driving with these alignment issues.

After the mechanic I took it to an empty parking lot and it did not spin out on me even one time. Of course, now it just understeers... but at least it's not a death spin.

 

[brblx]

uh...i'm gonna go out on a limb and say the prism has a solid rear axle. i really doubt there is a toe adjustment, but i could be wrong.

and front toe should not cause oversteer.

are you sure you're not feeding yourself a placebo?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

uh...i'm gonna go out on a limb and say the prism has a solid rear axle. i really doubt there is a toe adjustment, but i could be wrong.

and front toe should not cause oversteer.

are you sure you're not feeding yourself a placebo?

Naw, 2002 Prizms do not have a solid rear axle.

I'm pretty sure there's no placebo effect here. I did a few maneuvers pretty hard that would have certainly caused it to spin but it didn't. One thing that has always seemed to cause spinout was simply going in a circle as fast as I can. Cars like my Echo will just understeer around the circle, but the Prizm would just spin out. Now it just understeers (and stably with no feeling of the back sliding out) like the Echo, albeit a bit more.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

*points back to his first two posts*!