My wife's Fiero, 1986 GT.

Over the past couple weeks, I replaced EVERYTHING in the suspension of this car. Front upper / lower control arm bushings (rubber), front inner / outer tie rod ends, front upper / lower ball joints, front swaybar mounts and end links (poly). REAR, control arm bushings (rubber), ball joints, and inner / outer tie rod ends. Oh yea, front shocks and rear struts. Car was aligned, four wheel.


After all that work, the rear of the car feels like its "swaying" or "floating" as I or she drives down the road (kinda makes the passenger a little "sea sick") at 45-60 mph.


Does anyone have an idea about what could fix this "floating" feeling? Would the addition of a rear swaybar correct this problem?

Either something was left loose or you have serious alignment issues. Have it aligned by someone else and go from there. Small shops are far more likely to know what they are doing and do it correct than big chain stores.

quote Originally posted by chrishahn87: My wife's Fiero, 1986 GT. Over the past couple weeks, I replaced EVERYTHING in the suspension of this car. Front upper / lower control arm bushings (rubber), front inner / outer tie rod ends, front upper / lower ball joints, front swaybar mounts and end links (poly). REAR, control arm bushings (rubber), ball joints, and inner / outer tie rod ends. Oh yea, front shocks and rear struts. Car was aligned, four wheel. After all that work, the rear of the car feels like its "swaying" or "floating" as I or she drives down the road (kinda makes the passenger a little "sea sick") at 45-60 mph. Does anyone have an idea about what could fix this "floating" feeling? Would the addition of a rear swaybar correct this problem?

Steering shock stabilizer bad or bolt/nut/bushing in steering, bad tire? Recheck all of your work for tightness. Which shocks/struts?

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Thanks for replies!

Before I did all this work, the car was REALLY BAD, and felt like the whole car was floating! Now, after the suspension rebuild, it is much tighter, but feels like the rear of the car is floating - not as bad, but its not as tight as it should be...

I rechecked my rechecked tight bolts that I rechecked again! Cant find anything. I even checked balljoints to make absolute sure that they were seated and had the bolt going through correct. Cant find anything wrong.

Car was aligned by a small shop. The small shop is actually the small shop that my wife works at (she is the service manager). The guy who did the alignment is an ASE cert. master mechanic - and the owner of the shop. He spent a little over 2 hours working on the alignment. Car does not pull to either side, and the steering wheel is straight.

Shocks and struts are KYB. Struts are KYB GR-2, not sure what p/n the shocks are.

The car did not have a rear swaybar on it before, should it have one now?

NashvilleFiero:
What is the "steering shock stabilizer" or "bolt/nut/bushing in steering" that you mention? All bolts on the control arms were replaced with 10.9 hardness metric bolts and nuts. Tires should be ok. They have a couple years on them and excellent tread, but are starting to dryrot and probably will be replaced within a couple months.

Make sure the sub frame(cradle) is not loose the bolts have been known to fall out (except when you need to drop cradle),, this is often overlooked,, make sure they are tight.. normally it is the rear that falls out but check the front also..
if a bump or hole makes it worse this is steering related
I presume you have checked tire and wheel run out and imperfection on tire,simply jack up car and rotate wheel with tire 1/2 inch off pavement..as little as .045 will cause sway or shimmy,check one side against the other ..
A problem in the C V joint ??this seems unlikely but a stuborn problem check it out as last resort
check stablizer bar,it is often overlooked because it seldom gives problem
when I read this I thought stablizer bar or cradle bolt
I just read the dry rot comment missed it earlier so check tires close you can tell a lot by just rotate the tire close to the floor and have a 2x4 next to the tire to check for run out

[This message has been edited by uhlanstan (edited 05-18-2008).]

Retaining nut loose on rear hubs.
Bad rear hub bearings.
Belt separation inside one of the tires.

Look at the steering rack under the front of the car. You will see something that looks like a shock absorber. I replaced this with a Monroe from Rock Auto. Big difference. Easy to do too.
Brit

quote [B]Originally posted by chrishahn87:[/B Thanks for replies! Before I did all this work, the car was REALLY BAD, and felt like the whole car was floating! Now, after the suspension rebuild, it is much tighter, but feels like the rear of the car is floating - not as bad, but its not as tight as it should be... I rechecked my rechecked tight bolts that I rechecked again! Cant find anything. I even checked balljoints to make absolute sure that they were seated and had the bolt going through correct. Cant find anything wrong. Car was aligned by a small shop. The small shop is actually the small shop that my wife works at (she is the service manager). The guy who did the alignment is an ASE cert. master mechanic - and the owner of the shop. He spent a little over 2 hours working on the alignment. Car does not pull to either side, and the steering wheel is straight. Shocks and struts are KYB. Struts are KYB GR-2, not sure what p/n the shocks are. The car did not have a rear swaybar on it before, should it have one now? NashvilleFiero: What is the "steering shock stabilizer" or "bolt/nut/bushing in steering" that you mention? All bolts on the control arms were replaced with 10.9 hardness metric bolts and nuts. Tires should be ok. They have a couple years on them and excellent tread, but are starting to dryrot and probably will be replaced within a couple months.

------------------
If you ever have a questions about the sincerity of the circle of Fiero owners on this site, take a look at:
"In Memoriam: Fiero Members"

Pretty impressive.....

Avatar is of an actual Fiero on fire

If the rear wheels are toed out, it will make the rear end very unstable. They're supposed to be slightly toed in. If you have a helper and a tape measure, you can check this.

The only other thing I can think of, since you refurbished most of the suspension, would be the cradle bushings. But to make the car as unstable as your description suggests, they would have to be really bad.

i could definately see cradle bolts/bushings being a problem..

condition of tires?

I did the same and replaced eveything and the rear would act spongy...Turned out the ball joints in the rear were moving ..These were moog joints and the bolts are smaller than the holes...After tighting them up twice I welded the inside of the joint to the a frame...Took care of the problem..

Sorry, you did say rear.

Tires can cause some 'wandering' but 'floating' where you are making undulating corrections to the steering will be alignment. I was mocked on the 'other' forum when I pointed out you should make sure the rear tires are aligned not just relative to each other but to the body of the car; the alignment can be correct as far as the wheels in respect to each other, but if they don't line up with the chassis, the car will dog track. The Fiero is very particular when it comes to alignments. The suspension may have settled. Caster up front is determined by spacers in the control arms - but I doubt this has anything to do with your situation. Put a yardstick across your rear tires perfectly level and make sure it touches the body panels at the same point on both sides. My money is on alignment. Even worn cradle bushings won't cause 'floating'- they're more likely to cause strange cornering issues since the rear tie rods are fixed should the cradle shift.

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John DuRette
Custom 85 SE/86 GT
"Kinda makes you nostalgic for a Members Only jacket"

another vote for "veryfy the alignment"
and, there are the cradle bolts - make sure they are TIGHT.

edit: also - the "steering stabilizer" cannot affect this in any way.

[This message has been edited by Pyrthian (edited 05-19-2008).]

ONe other thing, do you have a wacked out import style spoiler on it? Maybe catching some nasty wind, I have seen Hondas with the thing mounted to where it would lift the back end catching air instead of creating downforce.

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 05-19-2008).]

I know a while ago I had the same problem. On the longer lateral links the link to the cradle had a few boogered up threads right at the point of them getting tight. On the Torque wrench they tightened right up to the right # but under load the nut would float back and forth giving the stomach dropping float at high speed. Hope this help and if not let us know what it was.

quote Originally posted by 2.5: ONe other thing, do you have a wacked out import style spoiler on it? Maybe catching some nasty wind, I have seen Hondas with the thing mounted to where it would lift the back end catching air instead of creating downforce.

OEM "GT" Fiero wing @ stock height. Everything was replaced with stock style parts.

Thank you to everyone who posted, offering suggestions.

I will check the bolts on the cradle first - (its going back in my garage anyway, to get a leaky exhaust manifold fixed). That makes alot of sence, since I never thought to check that, or even to replace it when everything else was done.


The tires have as much tread depth as any brand new tire (stock size on an '86 GT), but they are a couple years old, and I think the previous owner had it sitting for a while. The tires are starting to dryrot - NOT too bad, but just starting. New tires will probably be installed by winter (hopefully earlier) - cost $$$ that alot of us dont have.....


If tires and cradle bushings dont correct the problem, then (or maybe before) she will have the car aligned again.


Thanks again to everybody!
Chris

Let us know what the problem was, if and when you get it corrected, Other people have had this problem also. Mine has a slight wander to it.

Most likely this is not your problem but it has been mine... The sidewalls on the tire I have do not appear to be as hard as they should/could be. If the air pressure drops a few pounds then the rear of the car will wash out as the sidewalls flex. If I park the car and push sideways on the rear I can move it 2 or 3 inches side to side.

Are the tires on the back new.? I had this same problem at 40 - 70 mph after I put new tires on mine. Turned out it was the nibs on the tread. Once they wore off, the problem solved itself.

Cradle bushings on my car were bad, I had same exact symptoms.

quote Originally posted by IIKool: Let us know what the problem was, if and when you get it corrected, Other people have had this problem also. Mine has a slight wander to it.

I was thinking it might be able to be corrected (my first thought) by adding a rear swaybar. I dont really have the extra money to buy one right now though... so, maybe I can find what else it could be.

The tires on the car are NOT new. The tread on them is as good as new, (we just bought the car last year) the previous owner put them on. I dont know how old they are, but they are just starting to dry rot. She has been advised to replace them - and probably will in a couple months.
I checked the tire pressure, and I have it 2-3#'s less than the maximum suggested pressure.

Thanks again for suggesting the cradle bushings - they are first on my list of things to check.


I will post in a couple days, if I find anything. Probably gonna work on it next week (exhaust manifold gasket replacement), and will check out the suggestions

When you put new tires on it, use 'H' rated or higher - the stiffer sidewall works much better on the Fiero than the "T" os "S" rated tires.

I would look at rear toe, cradle bushings or strut valving - I have the KYB on my 86, but I use the Eibach lowering springs which are stiffer than the stock spring. I also have a rear bar.

When you say floating do you mean up and down oscillation or wandering side to side?

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: When you put new tires on it, use 'H' rated or higher - the stiffer sidewall works much better on the Fiero than the "T" os "S" rated tires. I would look at rear toe, cradle bushings or strut valving - I have the KYB on my 86, but I use the Eibach lowering springs which are stiffer than the stock spring. I also have a rear bar. When you say floating do you mean up and down oscillation or wandering side to side?

Its wandering side to side (just enough to be able to feel it). Not up and down at all.

Toe out on the front can make it feel funny also.

Might try this...

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/088043.html

quote olejoedad said: When you put new tires on it, use 'H' rated or higher - the stiffer sidewall works much better on the Fiero than the "T" os "S" rated tires.

I agree. The S or T rated tires will allow the car to wiggle side-to-side more than stiffer tires. But that shouldn't cause the car to feel like it's floating while driving in a straight line... unless the tires are under-inflated or defective.