All over the road?

**hernando** · 12-31-2008 10:09 AM

So it's been snowing pretty hard here in Calgary (Canada) lately and the roads have been a mess and having Quattro has been a huge advantage. However, there's something wrong with my car. When I'm driving on a relatively slick road my S4 can't seem to hold a straight line. It's basically all over the road after I hit about 45-50mph. The car wants to dart left or right and will basically go sideways if I don't correct the direction. I've got Dunlop Winter Sports on there with lots of tread left mounted on stock rims. I know the roads are slick but I can drive on the same stretch of road with the same conditions with my minivan and have no issues keeping her straight. The weird part is that the car is fine when the roads are clean and dry.
Could it be a bent control arm or something?

**Auditude2.0T** · 12-31-2008 10:11 AM

My A4 with all seasons was blasting through the snow. Your car with winter tires and the extra 400lbs of weight can only be better. There has to be something wrong. GL

**b spot** · 12-31-2008 10:22 AM

The roads in Calgary certainly have been interesting the last few weeks. Lots of fun when you aren't spending 2 hours driving home!

The only time I can say I've experienced what you're talking about is if I'm giving it quite a bit of throttle with the ESP off. Even on the slickest roads that we've had, the ESP will keep it in a straight line if it wants to kick out, which almost never happens when just cruising in a straight line anyways.

**sakimano** · 12-31-2008 11:05 AM

that's weird

I reckon you should slow down till you figure it out!

**meinblaus4** · 12-31-2008 11:47 AM

I believe the owners manual talks about turning off the ESP in deep snow so it doens't over compensate since all four wheels have poor traction. if your roads are that bad, it may be affecting the system the same. have you tried driving with it turned off yet?

**hernando** · 12-31-2008 04:11 PM

The roads were bad before Christmas but are pretty good now. There are some patches of icy stuff but it's not cause I've got bad traction. I can accelerate hard, brake to a quick hard stop and take corners pretty hard and be in full control. It feels like I'm driving on a knife's edge on some of these roads which shouldn't be a problem. I was taking lots of side streets to work for a couple weeks when the main roads were basically parking lots due to the traffic. These side streets were pretty rough and bumpy and I might have messed up my alignment? The car gets pretty loose after I hit the 45-50mph range. Even if I've got her in neutral cruising at 50mph the car starts to lose control. I've tried turning off the ESP but it doesn't make a difference. All my tires are pressured up to about 32psi.

You know its bad when a Toyota Corrolla flies by you on the right side and you're and you're basically going as fast as you can without losing control.

**serumk** · 12-31-2008 04:14 PM

I noticed a "squirmy" feeling in the rear of my car when I hit deep snow or slush with the summer tires on it. When I put the winter tires on, it went away. It definitely wasn't "all over the road," and the problem went away with the winter tires, so I wonder about alignment or something like that.

Good luck!

**A4A4A4** · 12-31-2008 04:38 PM

Make sure you clean out your wheels and wells, If you get a lot of snow build up it could cause an "all over the road" feeling, however not usually as bad as what you are describing. Maybe you should go for an alignment as all this snow could have caused some alignment issues.

**91gl** · 12-31-2008 06:06 PM

you should raise your tire pressure to about 40 or even a bit higher. you want to be able to "cut" through the snow instead of riding on top of it. also, i always downsize tires in the winter. im currently rocking 225/40/18 michelin winter alpins instead of the usual 235. really helps especially in the deep stuff