I was on a roadtrip for Thanksgiving, and found my car a little scary on the interstate when it snowed. To describe the feeling, I'd say it was a little "squirely", or like there was a wiggle to it going left to right.

It really made me drive slower than the average flow of traffic, and when roads were clear, I didn't feel it much. I felt much more confident.

There was even an incident where I had to brake hard and found the back fish tail a bit. Thankfully the car corrected itself.

I'm wondering what it could be. My thoughts so far are the Hotchkis sways. Perhaps I need to adjust the front to make it softer. They are currently set with the front on firm, and rear on middle. That's the setup most people here use.

Could it be the 2 degrees of negative camber all around? The contact patch of the tires is still significant, so I was doubting this, but could be wrong.

Could it be alignment? I got it aligned in the summer, and it still drives straight, but I know that's not always an indicator of proper alignment.

Tires are good. All seasons with only 12k on them.

Need your help to ensure a safe winter without putting everything back to stock.

 

It's the tires. As they say "all-seasons are no-seasons." Get a set of snow tires and you'll be driving in a straight line (given you're driving intelligently).

 

The biggest factor in this is likely your tires. Some all seasons don't perform particularly well when cold. Secondly, ou might try change=ing the rear sway bar setting. Stiffer setting (inner hole) = more oversteer, softer setting (outer hole) = more understeer. Try moving the rear sway bar setting to the outer hole. It will reduce the oversteer and "squirelly" feeling somewhat.

 

I'll start by adjusting the rear sway and see how that goes.

Tires are Continental DWS which have fairly good user reviews. If anything, most of the cars passing me at 10-15 mph faster were likely running all seasons too.

Then the question is whether or not my tires are in decent condition after running 2 degrees of negative camber for 6 months. Should be fine, but I don't know for sure. Maybe the DWS just don't do well with negative camber.

And ofcourse, there's the question of whether or not I've lost my snow driving skills.

 

I bought a set of DWS in March. I now have around 12k miles on them and they are pretty bad in slush and snow. I wore all the way through the "S" already. I would not recommend these tires for use in northern states for year-round use. I'll not be driving on them next winter. FWIW they were great in the snow when they were new.