Sloppy handling - back end loose - ideas?

Just picked up my new Touring Edition yesterday night. Today was the first day of really putting some miles on it.

Not happy at all with the handling. It feels like the back end is loose. If I go over an expansion section on a curved bridge at normal speeds the car doesn't track properly over it, the back end will hop a little bit.

Also, when I try (at about 25mph) to do a simple left-right-left-right with the steering wheel (light duty collision avoidance stuff) the back end sways way out and then back in again like its not connected properly with the front suspension.
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What I've checked - tires all at proper pressure, wheels lugs all appear to be properly tightened, rocking each wheel looking for a loose bearing happily doesn't show any problems. Its raining outside, or I'd jack it up and look at it more.

NOTE: it has the Yokohoma Avid's on it, I don't think these are directional, can anyone confirm that? If they were then I might think its the tires as they aren't setup as I would expect for directional tires with the two on the right showing proper Yoko arrow direction and the two on the left not. But, what little I can find on these tires doesn't say that they are directional (TireRack) so I'm assuming that they aren't.

I'm going to go back to the dealership on Tuesday and try to drive another 2 for a direct comparison, maybe I'm just too picky, so I want another car to compare to.

Other thoughts are that the rear shocks might be too soft from the factory and that's why I'm not getting that confident handling feeling I was expecting. Or possibly the 4-wheel alignment is out of bounds and needs to be checked. These are all things I'm considering, am I missing something?

Thanks!

I dont think the tires are directional. I have had a chance to push my to at the limit and I found kind of the opposite problem in the wet. The car would oversteer but the rear end felt planted.

Where are you located at? Maybe there is another 2 owner near you.

-Derrick

Derrick,

I'm going to put it down to new suspension and cold weather, for now at least. Been out with it the last couple of days without anyone else in the car and once the suspension has warmed up its not nearly as noticable. I had something similar with my Koni Yellows in the Focus, I just didn't expect the same sort of handling with stock suspenders. If I see further noticeable problems the dealer has said they welcome me coming in and having their mechanics give it another look and letting me drive another car for comparison.

I've also been pushing the car a little bit harder in the turns to see what it can do, I'm thinking a rear sway bar would help the oversteer and give it a firmer feel in the corners.

- Scott

The rear end has no weight on it, when I put my potenza tyres on it got better but the stock rear suspension on the 2 is very bouncy.

We have a rear torsion bar which should be released in December which will help you out. I have a test version on my 2 right now. When we get close to the release date I will get some pictures posted up.

-Derrick

I'm seriously considering the front Sway bar that you guys sell from Auto EXE and the rear trunk mounted bar... Have you guys tried these.. will they correct some of the wobble the OP is asking about?

CorkSport said:

We have a rear torsion bar which should be released in December which will help you out. I have a test version on my 2 right now. When we get close to the release date I will get some pictures posted up.

-Derrick

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Derrick,

Good to hear, I'll be interested in learning about any rear end sway bars or torsion bars out there. I had a company in Florida make (actually another Focus owner did - I bought into a group buy) a three-position adjustable rear sway bar for the Focus I had, would love to see something like that again for the M2. Was really nice being able to dial in the amount of stiffness wanted for daily driving, track time, rally cross and then tune the Koni Yellows to match.

- Scott

CorkSport said:

The car would oversteer but the rear end felt planted.

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(huh) If the rear is "planted", how is the car oversteering? Are you saying the rear would step out, but in a controlled manner? I'm not being facetious, I'm curious as to what you mean.

Also, are you saying you guys are coming out w/ a rear swaybar for the 2, or a replacement for the existing torsion bar?

dmitrik4 said:

(huh) If the rear is "planted", how is the car oversteering? Are you saying the rear would step out, but in a controlled manner? I'm not being facetious, I'm curious as to what you mean.

Also, are you saying you guys are coming out w/ a rear swaybar for the 2, or a replacement for the existing torsion bar?

Click to expand...

That did read weird. You can oversteer the car but it was controlled. It didnt feel like I was going to loose control at all.

-Derrick