# My Cruze is driving strange



## Rivergoer (Mar 30, 2017)

I think you’re onto something with the tread depth differential. 

A good way to confirm would be to rotate again and drive the same stretch of road a few times to see if the “strange-ness” disappears.


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## Rivergoer (Mar 30, 2017)

Just to add, I was surprised to learn recently that when replacing 2 tires, the new tires should be placed on the rear axle. 

Some tire shops will only place 2 new tires on the rear unless the owner specifies otherwise. The reason has to do with controllability on wet surfaces. 

If the front tires have significantly more tread depth than the rear tires, the rear tires will begin to hydroplane and lose traction on wet roads before the fronts. This will cause the vehicle to oversteer (the vehicle will want to spin). Oversteer is far more difficult to control and in addition to the initial distress felt when the rear of the car starts sliding, quickly releasing the gas pedal in an attempt to slow down may actually make it more difficult for the driver to regain control, possibly causing a complete spinout.

More here:



https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=52


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## plano-doug (Jul 1, 2015)

jmlo96 said:


> Upon entering the bend, the rear of the car felt like it was shifting from side to side (think a dog wagging its tail). I pulled over immediately because I thought I either had a flat tire or was about to loose a wheel.
> <snip>
> Coming home, I had to drive the same stretch of road that I had the problem on. This time going uphill, I had the same thing happen. I kinda just figured it was the road.
> 
> The problem has never come back in that severity;


In addition to tires, grooved roads, especially the grooves resulting from grinding prior to resurfacing, can cause the wagging sensation you describe. Was the area where you encountered this under construction?

For sure, worn tires may exacerbate it, but upon reading your post, the first thought I had was of grooved pavement.

Doug

.


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

plano-doug said:


> In addition to tires, grooved roads, especially the grooves resulting from grinding prior to resurfacing, can cause the wagging sensation you describe. Was the area where you encountered this under construction?
> 
> For sure, worn tires may exacerbate it, but upon reading your post, the first thought I had was of grooved pavement.
> 
> ...


Actually, no. It was an older asphalt road in a park. Our roads in Pittsburgh are strange as we really don't have any true highways IMO.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

AROUND here. Best tread are always installed on front drive axle.


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

This morning I rotated the tires back to how they were. I'll be able to tell if everything is all good tomorrow when I drive to work. I also checked to make sure all the suspension looked good. Shocks and struts aren't leaking, no bad bushings and nothing has any play.

I'm pretty confident any issues are with the tires. I discovered the tires are starting to crack inside the treads. Not very good for 12 thousand miles and less than 2 years.


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

So the verdict is in - I got 4 new Hankook Kinergy PT tires installed on Thursday. The Cruze is driving like an absolute dream. It no longer feels unsettled, and the steering feels very precise and direct now. An added bonus is these tires are the best riding tires I have ever had on this car.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

As I read through the thread, I was beginning to wonder if you were having issues with the Z-link rear suspension. The Volvo 850/x70 series had a somewhat similar setup in the back, and as the delta link bushings wore out over the years, the back end of the cars would start to feel very shifty/floaty going down the road at higher speeds.

I will never spend my own money on Bridgestone tires EVER again after owning a set of Bridgestone Turanza EL400. What a piece of crap excuse for a tire.


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## eddiefromcali (Aug 21, 2017)

jmlo96 said:


> This morning I rotated the tires back to how they were. I'll be able to tell if everything is all good tomorrow when I drive to work. I also checked to make sure all the suspension looked good. Shocks and struts aren't leaking, no bad bushings and nothing has any play.
> 
> I'm pretty confident any issues are with the tires. I discovered the tires are starting to crack inside the treads. Not very good for 12 thousand miles and less than 2 years.
> 
> View attachment 283022


that "cracking" is nothing to be concerned about and quite common. Look up ozone cracking, not uncommon to see that or even "worse" cracking and still be fine. Glad you got that fixed though, just don't go blaming those cracks


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

jblackburn said:


> As I read through the thread, I was beginning to wonder if you were having issues with the Z-link rear suspension. The Volvo 850/x70 series had a somewhat similar setup in the back, and as the delta link bushings wore out over the years, the back end of the cars would start to feel very shifty/floaty going down the road at higher speeds.
> 
> I will never spend my own money on Bridgestone tires EVER again after owning a set of Bridgestone Turanza EL400. What a piece of crap excuse for a tire.


I'll keep the Z-Link in mind in case it comes back. I figured that wouldn't be it, since most Cruze's don't have Z-Link.

I'm in the same boat with the tires. I've never had a good experience with a Bridgestone/Firestone tire. Except for the Blizzak on ice. 

Our Toyota Sienna came with the Turanza EL400 run flats. God, what a disaster that was. They rode like solid wagon wheels. They got replaced with normal tires that surpassed them in every way.


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

eddiefromcali said:


> that "cracking" is nothing to be concerned about and quite common. Look up ozone cracking, not uncommon to see that or even "worse" cracking and still be fine. Glad you got that fixed though, just don't go blaming those cracks


I still found the fact that they had any cracks to be bad. These tires were about 2 years old, and spend half their life in a climate controlled room during winter. Add the fact that I've had 10 year old tires not have any cracks, I'd say that was unacceptable. I'd agree the cracks had no impact yet, but it sure was a sign of the poor quality.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

jmlo96 said:


> I'll keep the Z-Link in mind in case it comes back. I figured that wouldn't be it, since most Cruze's don't have Z-Link.
> 
> I'm in the same boat with the tires. I've never had a good experience with a Bridgestone/Firestone tire. Except for the Blizzak on ice.
> 
> Our Toyota Sienna came with the Turanza EL400 run flats. God, what a disaster that was. They rode like solid wagon wheels. They got replaced with normal tires that surpassed them in every way.


I believe most RS packaged cars did (my 2012 1LT w/o RS had it), though it was changed through the years and may have been only offered on the 2LT 2015+ when they started decontenting the lineup. Easy enough to look for the black bars under the rear end.



> I still found the fact that they had any cracks to be bad. These tires were about 2 years old, and spend half their life in a climate controlled room during winter. Add the fact that I've had 10 year old tires not have any cracks, I'd say that was unacceptable. I'd agree the cracks had no impact yet, but it sure was a sign of the poor quality.


My parents would buy nothing but Michelins, and the last few sets they've had have dry rotted and started cracking in the sidewalls and blocks of tread were chunking off in <4 years - they put <10k on their cars/year. SUV (LTX?) and passenger car MXV4 tires. Michelin reformulated a lot of their rubber compounds since, and the Premier A/S they have now doesn't seem to have that issue, nor did the MXM4 on my Cruze.


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## Ravenkeeper (Sep 10, 2017)

If your Cruze does it again, you may want to get it on a lift and look at the suspension and at the back axles.

With my '03 Neon, I was taking my daughter to school one day, and ran over a retread that was laying in the middle of the lane. Didn't think twice about it, since I didn't have any control issues after running it over. Had no problems driving back to the house. When I went to pick her up, after school, I noticed that the back end would get squirrelly, when I moved one lane to the left, into any left turn lane, and making a left turn. After I got it on a lift, at the Edwards AFB Hobby Shop, the following Saturday, I found the right rear lateral link had been knocked off of both posts, and saved by the oversized washers on the bolt heads. I found a 2x4 in the woodshop scrap bin, barrowed a 10lb sledgehammer, and POUNDED it back into place. Never had another issue with it.

I'm pretty sure that had it been the left side, it would have gotten squirrelly to the right.

Just something to keep in mind, if it happens again.


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

So unfortunately to update the problem seems to have been returned. The Hankook tires actually seem to have made it worse. The ride improvement I was talking about actually causes the car to feel like it's floating on balloons. Ugh. 

I'm wondering if one of my rear shocks is having an issue too. I checked the Z Link in the rear and it doesn't have any signs of play in it.


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