I almost wiped out last night while testing the cars dynamics with the fstb installed. All I know is that I was going around a kinda sharp gradual turn at about 70 and the car started to fishtail. It went left so I turned to the right, then as if I were oversteering, it dove to the right. 3 times to the left and two times to the right in all. Although I managed to stay in the lane, I was out of control and I didnt like it. I have driven down this road countless times but it only did this after I put on the fstb.Can anybody tell me what happened to my suspension.

 

the front end is digging in more, get a rsb it makes the rear end follow the front soo much more.

Also could be the tires.

 

The car went left and you turn to the right?!

You are supposed to turn into the direction of the spin, not the other way around.

 

This wasnt a spin it was a triple swerve, but even so I couldnt let the car go into the other lane. Yeah Im going to get a rstb or sway bar, whichever one can fix this problem.

 

Fishtail or spin, it doesn't matter...you lost control of your car.

 

Losing control of your car is such a rush...lol sucks if you wreck though...fun as **** if you can keep it on the road and everything in one piece

 

*wishes he could drift*



*sigh*

 

What other suspension mods do you have? What size and brand of tires are you running? I think that you probably got overconfident and pushed a little to hard.

 

90

 

heres an idea, dont take a "kinda" sharp turn at 70 miles an hour...good game

 

When i first got my suspension (shocks and springs) done, i noticed that i oversteered very simple turns just because I always was used to the radius of my turns. Taking a nice test spin is better done on the way to work or something that your used too so u can feel the difference.

 

Sounds to me like you need a rear anti sway bar. Also it's kind of stupid to take a "kinda sharp" corner at 70mph. Especially when you have altered your sunspension settings and are still both testing them and getting used to them. Think about it twice before you push it too hard next time. To get 15 secs. of adrenaline you could have ended up with $ 1,000's worth of damage...

 

Try to take better care when "testing". A FSTB is not going to transform a front heavy, ill suspensed FWD maxima into a M3?

 

set up some cones and test out the limits in an empty parking lot...better than what you did

 

O.K. I'm sorry. I promise to treat her better.

 

Yeah, be careful with your baby! Some guy hit me and I lost my baby for two weeks while she was in the body shop. Just got her back today! (yay me)

 

You will corner better with the fstb but it is still a Maxima and while taking corners at 70mph is fun they really aren't engineered to do so. I take corners hard sometimes but not at 70mph.

 

Ya know I wasn’t going to respond to this, but the more I think about it the more it bugs me. Lets suppose your traveling around a left-hand corner and the back end of your car starts to break away. While its true the back end has traveled to the right, the net result is the car turned to the left. So turning the steering wheel to the right is correct and is into the skid.

Bye the way, if you concentrate on keeping your front wheels pointed in the direction you want the car to go, rather than turning into the skid, you will be less likely to over correct.

 

Well, I thought I should share my story of fishtailing and stuff. I was comming back from Fairbanks Alaska, to Anchorage, through mountain roads at about 1:00 am. Now since Alaskans don't use salt on their roads, there is usually a thin layer of ice on the roads, so essentially you are a hockey puck, if you will. Well, I was going down hill, it was really dark, and although I was trying to keep the car at around 40mph, somehow in my attempts to see in front of me I lost track of the speed, well, the next thing I knwo there is a turn in from of me, I slowly press the brakes and the car, sure enough being a hockey puck situation, starts sliding, straight through. I look down on the speedo and I was at 85mph [doh!] . I let go of the brakes and hit again, same thing, then I turned the car to the left a little (since this was a left hand turn) and the car fishtails, to correct the fishtail to the left, I turn steering to left and then right and so an so forth. Well by this time I am very close to the turn and the only thing to save me I could think of was to drift into the turn, soooooooooo, I pull the hand brake only so much to loosen the rear wheels while turning to left slightly, sure enough the car drifts into the turn, with my wheels pointing to the right I slam on the gas to prevent the car from spinning completely and whew! made it. Needles to say I was sh*ting bricks there for a while. But I got out of it alive, the first thing I did after that was to turn the HUD back on so I could keep track of my speed.

Sohaib

 

this is why I can't own a fast RWD car..I used to intentionally make myself lose control of my bicycle while on gravel for that rush..I have some scars from doing that..but it was well worth it..that pure adrenaline tingle and burn in the muscles after going 1/3 of the way down a REALLY steep gravel hill, locking up the back brakes, skid around so I'm facing up the hill but slightly angled, let off the back brakes, lock up the fronts and make it the rest of the way around..I tried that in my pickup too..fun, but not the same...especially after having to dig myself out of the ditch using half of a 2L coke bottle, the sangbags that held my toolbox down, and a load tie-down strap..

 

In reality, most of the time there isn't time to think in situations like these and you kind of have to rely on experience/instinct rather than thinking "hey, my car is sliding to the right. this is what I need to do....". Last time I thought like that, rather than just doing what I already know, I did a 180 into a ditch at 10mph (seriously) in my Maxima. The road was wet, I pulled out from an intersection (thank god there were no other cars around) and my bald rear tires caused the back end to kick around. Long story short, I was in disbelief that I could loose control like that at 10mph so I was way to slow to compensate, and ended up overcompensating which caused the back to fishtail and put me in the ditch. Had I just yanked the parking brake, I would have stopped dead right there and could have driven off.


Loosing control of a FWD car at 70mph you are pretty damn lucky you were able to control it. My advice, learn to use the parking brake! Since my last incident, I've learned how to use the parking brake to control slides in a FWD. It can save your ***. However, that's one of the reasons I hate FWD (although I love Maximas!). RWD you always have a "safety net" since you can use the throttle to steer if you start to loose control. Hehe, speaking of drifting FWD, on my way home from work this morning I drifted a 90 degree turn in my Corolla!

 

I am definately blessed, I wouldnt be here now if not for the use of the parking brake!!

 

Yes and I practice regularly on snow in empty parking lots with my hand/parking brakes.

Sohaib