Is it normal for the Maserati GT to feel unstable / floaty, especially the rear end at high speed
Car feels unstable
vnitos
1 - 20 of 34 Posts
Joined
·
384 Posts
Make sure that you’re not blaming the car for the roads. The rear tires are very wide and are susceptible to ruts in the pavement caused by heavy trucks. Makes the car feel squirrelly, but not the cars fault.
It's from about 140kpu (90mph) upwards - above 200kpu (125mph) it becomes quite scary. My Range Rover supercharged is more stable than the Maserati at that speed. Dealer replaced rear tires with new ones (Pirelli) in an attempt to resolve the issue.
Just looking for ideas on what the cause could be before I return it to the dealer.
Just looking for ideas on what the cause could be before I return it to the dealer.
Yikes ! A car of this caliber, and particularly this heavy, should never feel loose at those speeds, so definitely something out of order, but as mentioned in the previous post, you can't entirely eliminate road conditions either .. " hunting / tramlining " can happen with some high performance summer tread design tires on road surfaces which are not in ideal condition . Although that tends to be felt more in the front of the car .
Loose or worn suspension components , alignment , tires , and road surface are really the only factors that could contribute to that instability, IMO. Could also be a combination of those things . Incidentally , alignments should be done to both front and rear at the same time ; if your car had only a front end alignment for some reason and they ignored the rear, it could throw the dynamic a little out of whack. Try it on a few different roads and highways if you can, just to eliminate one possible culprit before you pay the dealer for more guesswork, but if you will take it to them anyway, make sure they carefully inspect the suspension first , then the alignment .
Loose or worn suspension components , alignment , tires , and road surface are really the only factors that could contribute to that instability, IMO. Could also be a combination of those things . Incidentally , alignments should be done to both front and rear at the same time ; if your car had only a front end alignment for some reason and they ignored the rear, it could throw the dynamic a little out of whack. Try it on a few different roads and highways if you can, just to eliminate one possible culprit before you pay the dealer for more guesswork, but if you will take it to them anyway, make sure they carefully inspect the suspension first , then the alignment .
Joined
·
316 Posts
Sounds like bad bushings to me
as points have been made, worn suspension components and improperly inflated tires can contribute to a lot of loose feeling.
i have to side with the alignment point, however.
there are two avenues to tackle an alignment on a maserati:
1- use extreme ranges of the factory spec, which will lead to an extremely stable and planted drive.
tire wear will become evident very quickly down this route. the negative front toe combined with reasonable camber will chew up the insides of the front tires. the larger amount of rear camber with positive toe will produce much stability and great turn in.
2- mild alignment angles will drive a bit less planted but preserve tire life.
the negative front toe can become exacerbated by dynamic alignment angles once moving. too little toe out on the front usually leads to floaty feelings.
i have to side with the alignment point, however.
there are two avenues to tackle an alignment on a maserati:
1- use extreme ranges of the factory spec, which will lead to an extremely stable and planted drive.
tire wear will become evident very quickly down this route. the negative front toe combined with reasonable camber will chew up the insides of the front tires. the larger amount of rear camber with positive toe will produce much stability and great turn in.
2- mild alignment angles will drive a bit less planted but preserve tire life.
the negative front toe can become exacerbated by dynamic alignment angles once moving. too little toe out on the front usually leads to floaty feelings.
Joined
·
7,593 Posts
Scoob I was under the impression that the factory specs promoted instability and inner edge tyre wear (i.e. toe out) Maybe we're talking about different 'types' of stability?
C
i've had many cars with different kinds of out of whack alignments and have observed that too far out of spec of any angles will result in different kinds of instability. toe in is usually the cause of floaty feelings, both tires wanting to turn outwards with every road imperfection, which makes it feel like it is floating at every expansion joint. toe out i don't think does as much or any of that due to neither tire being able to pull itself in.
"instability" isn't something i've noted when alignments are aggressive, tire wear definitely. turn in response is great since both tires are essentially already beginning a turn, just waiting on the outboard tire to straighten followed by turning in as well. some may call that instability. i bet a lot of verbage used for describing a car's handling is based on what the describer thinks the car is doing and what the descriptors mean.
i think stability becomes perspective. what one person may call instability, another will call crisp turn in. what one person may call stable, another person may call numb and unresponsive. i've driven a few cars with so much toe out that it took significant steering input to counter the outboard toe out.
as for factory specs, they're set static. as the vehicle drives at higher and higher speeds, the suspension will load into dynamic angles. front toe out will grow, rear toe in will move towards 0 toe.
caster, as a non wearing angle, also has much to do with straight line tracking and return to center steering. i believe maseratis, in general, run around 4deg of caster. anything below 3deg, especially down into 2deg i've seen on cars with worn bushings and balljoints or post wreck, can feel quite "unstable" as well.
i agree.
Don't you guys get it?......The ceramic coating causes your car's paint to become so shiny and brilliant that it causes the driver to become temporarily blinded while driving, thereby causing him/her to lose control of the vehicle.......thus causing vehicle instability. Sheesh........even a 5-yr old. gets that! :laugh2::laugh2:
Maybe I have missed something, but this particular reply made no sense and or related to the instability of the car's handling as the original poster asked. LOL
Joined
·
3,431 Posts
Pretty sure you need RED suspension bushings to make it stable again >
WTF? Scammer?
1 - 20 of 34 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
