feels like more oversteer lately
 

have 01 box with 90Kmiles. purchased it 2.5 years ago w/57K miles from dealer with CPO(?) warranty. it's my daily drive and enjoying it every day. lately, the car seem to feel like it has more over steer than what I believe it should.
put new rear tires. Michelin all around. nothing done to the shock or suspension.
would worn shocks induce this? Again, it's my gut feeling, nothing quantitive.
I don't drive it hard but take corners fast from time to time. I don't feel any looseness in the suspension.
thanks in advance.

Have you had an alignment lately? Are the front and rear tires the same model?

Oversteer
 

IMHO of course --- I would look at the suspension -- like shocks/dampers, sway bar, and springs. If the alignment is good this would be a good place to start -- and check the tire pressures too...

Good luck and take care, :cheers:

no alignment, goes down the freeway straight... car does follow the side to side tilt of the road . no unusual wear pattern on the tires other than from negative camber.
tires are all Michelin sport pilot all around. made sure that I put the same brand, and model on all four corners.
new tires came with the car when i purchased it @57K miles. replaced back at 88K miles. I now have 89.5K miles.
when i turn left, the back left side feels like it is lifting..??

Well...you are doing all the right things so far --- but, if you have even a slight bit of rear toe out the rear end will come around on you (I think this is right - someone speak up here) --if you feel the rear left is lifting on hard turns then I would look at spring and shock replacement -- and even sway bars can weaken over time - and you have 89K on the car.

IIWM -- I would take it to a Porsche suspension specialist - if you have one in your area - I found one here in Phoenix after talking to a lot of people and finally a friend found this guy in a one man shop that mostly works on Fcars :)

Take care, :cheers:

After checking all the logical things (shocks,alignment, etc) consider that you might just be more comfortable with the car and are driving more agressively. I own a kart track and over and over we hear drivers saying that the second kart they drove slid around more than the first kart, and almost without fail it's because they were driving the second kart faster which causes them to slide around more in turns.

thanks. I'm actually driving it less aggressive now as compared to 1 year ago. I only feel this sensation during hard cornering.
A thought is that with new tires only on the back, the car maybe riding on the inside edge of the (new) tires due to negative camber and making the rear end more twitchy??..
i think its about time to replace shocks and the rubber pieces on the sway bar.
I enjoy driving my Boxster (non-s 5 speed) for commuting and weekend drive on mountain roads, (slightly faster than most, but nowhere near those that go to track), what's the expected life of shock absorbers?

Start with an alignment. Then get someone knowledgeable to look at suspension bushings, front motor mount and finally shocks. Also look at sway bar end links. These are kind of a weak part of the Boxster suspension and can easliy wear out but the wear is not visible.

I think I'll start by looking at the rear sway bar/droplink setup.
the oversteer came on suddenly.. I think. so the drop link play may induce the back to roll much more and enable the back end to ever so slightly induce oversteer - I think.

We remove a rear link when the car is understeering (pushing) removing it decreases the amount of rear grip.

Look for a FRONT drop link broken. These break a LOT more frequently than the rears (they turn with the upright)

In 10 min over the phone I can walk you through checking the rear toe on your car. It requires 4 jackstands and string.. and a tape measure. I'd only check this if you KNOW you have hit some major pot holes or bumped a curb. The only time I see rear toe adjustment "out" on our cars = when somebody is really bouncing the cars off the berms at the track.. and I have a solution for those people also :)


B

I'm going to thoroughly inspect the drop links per your first suggestion.
I may take you up on the second... but it's been my experience (haven't really tinker with cars for 25 years) that if the toe in/out is out of spec, i would notice wavy wear pattern on the tire. rear set of rubbers were replaced couple of thousand miles ago and the problem was first "felt" about the same time. both very recent.

regards to drop links at the four corners.
I visually inspect then and all are straight and appeared OK. I then grabbed the drop link and tried to wiggle it - if worn linkage, would I be able to feel play or do I need to unload the suspension to take out possible preload before I can wiggle them to determin slop?
or what do I need to do to determine if the drop link needs replacing?

thanks in advance
.

making this thread longer...
I am now considering replacing the droplink and most likely change the sway bar(s).
the car, 01 box 2.7L is my daily drive. does anyone have graphs/charts that shows the relative firmness for std sway bar, M030, M030s, GT3 and H&R units?

One simple possibility is that the new rear tires are not broken-in and are still a bit slick. Especially if you don't drive hard.

This would give less rear stick and therefore more oversteer since the rear would try to slide out while the stickier (broken-in) fronts hold their own.

I would not make any suspension changes until I got the rears broken-in and played with the air pressures.

You need a good baseline going into changes.

thanks, this may be the source. I had dismissed this since many un mount and flip the rear tires to get longer tread life due to high negative camber. but then, they may not be pushing their car to notice.
I would like to install stiffer sway bars but keep the ride height/springs - only DD and weekend drive through the mountain from time to time.
I've been searching the forum for sway bar information. as it stand at this time, I'm leading towards M030 S front sway and Tarett 18.5 mm adjustable rear.
thinking is that this will enable me to alter the "stiffness" front/back by changing the setting of the back. Amateur here - very green!!

Your choice of bars is spot on for a street car :cheers: I sell about 30+ Tarett rear bars a year if not more.

I guess I missed something in all the posts.. I didn't know you had flipped the tires :( This ok with a race tire.. but you are playing with FIRE doing this with a street tire. They take a "set", you have now upset that "set".. all bets off. Good luck getting the car to handle correctly within the next couple of hundred miles while they try and re-learn their role on the car :(


B

I did not flip the tires. I purchased new rear. Same Mechelin as before.