so im goin only like10 mph on a slight slope and let of the gas then barely tap the brakes and i have potenza re730's on (just snowed today w/o any forecast warning or else i woulda changed them) and i start sliding towards the curb, so i left of the gas and counter steer but i just keep sliding and my front tires get no traction so i step on the brake barely hoping it would create more friction but no luck so i just said ''F**k" and got ready for the slam. So i hit the curb on my rear right wheel (2nd time, 1st time was in the rain and ''drifting'' coming out of a store drive way). Soi get home and notice the curb mark on the wheel which i dont really care about but the bottom/rear area of the whel was pushed in which means the top/front area was pushed out. I dont know the tech. terms but you can imagine pushing in on the rear which me? I was gonna procede to put the spring perch on my bilsteins on the lowest setting tomarrow but should i hold off on that until i get this fixed? please help me grr
help yourself, go look under your car and see what you bent... then fix it...
supras are not bad winter cars, we make them bad winter cars, dont run your lowered super modified car with 275 sport tires in the snow "drifting" and you wont have a problem...
Ang's right. I've got studded winter tires on the back and decent radials on the front and my car is awesome in the snow. In fact, I've been able to get up some slippery hills that I've seen trucks turn around on.
Personally I dont see why everyone bitches about the mk3 being bad in the snow. Redding/Shasta Lake just got a freak 12-18" the other night closing many of the major roads (I-5 is closed 10 miles from my house), but I didn't have any real issues other than my lower section of the bumper plowing through everything (hks coilovers and 225/45/16 tires make it really low to the ground). But being able to right-foot steer in front of cops and not get in trouble is just awesome
trust me, my car is not super modified AT ALL in the engine or any aspect for that matter. Its just that its my only car, and at the time it happened i was being very cautious, and i dont have the $ for studded tires so im kinda stuck. :\ best i can do now is fix it and leave it be till it stop snowing or buy a beater 4wd civic wagon or something. So it could possibly be the control arm? when i got home it was snowing pretty good so i couldnt get under it any way and look what it is.
I got a chance to go "joyriding" today. Its snowing pretty heavily up here in canada, and there was almost no one on the road even though it keeps getting plowed and theres only like 4" on the road. Its pretty fun drifting around without feeling guilty about working tires. I managed to get my car stuck though, but a couple little kids having a snowball fight in the street pushed me out. I remember when we had snowball fights and people would be getting stuck all around us...
it looks like that little bolt sticking out at the end of 16 is bent but when i was working on the other side i forgot to look but its night time and raining now im it just came to mind as i was making this reply. ill have a better look on saturday and take pics but dont know if i can post them because our comp w/ the digi cam program is in the shop.
man it doesnt matter SHYT happens. I did very close to the same thing in my conquest 2 years back. seems like yesterday though anywho.
It had snowed a little bit the night before and it turned to slush and was a little icy out. The tread on my back tires was not that great at the time. I was coming around a corner on my way back home early morning (ran to the store) and it was a right hand turn and at the very beginning of the road it goes up a slight slope, I went around the corner 10mph tops, I thought nothing of it, seemed to be going fine, Then I noticed the back end coming loose, I countersteered a tad, lowered the amount of gas pedal, *wasnt working* gave a little more gas *wasnt working* came off the gas *nothing* so I gave it hell *nothing* I looked out to my left and I saw the curb and potentially a telephone poll in my direction. Well panicking I did the worse thing. BRAKE swung me only faster *having thought about it now It was better I did or else I would have hit the pole* I hit that curb so god damn hard its not even funny. I jumped right out of the car wheel was bent like 30-45 degrees off. I was only a block from home and said to hell with it and got in the car and gave it gas it went...hardly. It only made it to the house because of the snow, allowed the tired to spin, had it had traction would have ripped of, I destroyed the a-arm and stabilizer and rim. better that than a pole...
no biggie dude
Supras suck in the snow unless your idea of a good time is pushing and shoveling your stuck car. I drove mine for too many winters I'd like to forget. My $400 4x4 S-10 pickup does great in the snow. So does my WRX. Not the Supra, nope my V-8 Camaro did better than the Supra does in the snow.
POS- You most likely bent one or both of your lower control arms. Replace the bent one(s) and get an alignment. If you absolutely have to drive the MK3 in the snow, get the best snow tires you can on all 4 corners. Studded tires are illegal in alot of areas.
Driftin out of driveways is always fun, but hitting curbs make you kick yourself after for being stupid I've been fortune so far, but I've come real close a few times to tagging some obstacles.
Aawww now you guys have gone and gotten me started on the supra + snow = fun issue... lol
The mk3 is tough in the snow. I've heard, correct me if I'm wrong, that the weight distribution is waaaay off, like 90% of the weight of the car is more towards the front (seems like that could be a bit of an exaggeration). I have found that weight in the trunk has been a huge help ie: subz in boxez kitty litter bags, concrete cynder blocks...dag, even a full tank of gas.
Tire width is also key. If you're running even 225's in back, its gonna be a lot worse than if you threw on some 205's on the stock 16" sawblades (and 205/55/r16's are the optional size on our rims, they fit fine and are even the same height as the 225/50s) Its like night and day b/w the 225s and 205s. I leave the 225's on the fronts, you just need the front to steer, but I'm sure it would help even more if they were thinner on the front as well. Think about it - if you put the same amount of weight pushing down on a smaller surface area, there's going to be more pressure put on those areas, which means more traction. Also a thinner width tire will cut thru the deep snow easier than a wider tire.
I've unfortunately had to deal with the supe in the snow for the last 4 yrs, and it has been extremely gay, but I mean I'm at the point now where I know itll be fine as long as I stick with my winter setup. Snow is bad with any car, we just gotta be careful we stick to roads that dont have any more than 3 inchs or so of snow on them, unless they are maaaad flat. Otherwise, fugget about it.
Oh yeah...btw
I drove 4 hrs from CT up to VT to go snowboarding at sugarbush on christmas day, and I decide to drive, had a friend in the passenger seat and a 100lb female in back, lets just say im glad I had any extra weight at all, seeing that right as we were leaving a mazzive blizzard began....turned the 4 hr drive home into a 6 hr, not so bad, but I was like, crap - why didnt we take my friend 97 AWD Audi A4...DoH We kicked sideways a lil only once, I was going steadily up a really snow covered road, but I caught it. I felt proud as I passed like 6 fwd cars that had spun out and ended up on the side in snowbanks LOL I was like hehe suckers...everybodys in a big hurry. no matter what whip you're pushin, you gotta take it slow when you're driving in the snow.
One last thing, you gotta whip these cars out in the snow on purpose, beat the crap out of them, learn the feel for RWD and catching kick outs, practice practice - its fun too btw
Iwouldnt drive a supra in the winter or any car that I care about...U run into problems with rust and what not. I bought a 1986 Subaru GL hatchaback. Standard. For $300. The car had awesome heat, and killer in the snow. Was kind of weird though, the e-brake locked the front wheels up. It actually took a lot to make that car go sideways. I had to really try to make it go sideways. In winter of 02 christmas day all roads were closed. I took the beast out and was cruising above speed limit no problems braking or nothing. I was passing 4WD trucks no lie.
just spend the beans and pick up an old subaru dude. Best decision you would ever make for the winter. It would be cheaper than buying winter tires all the time for the supra. And no risk of rust to the supra.
jeff
chances are that your control arms are bent. Check the left side to. If they are, all you need is a sledge hammer. My father and I fixed my arms yesterday from the previous owner hitting a curb. Alignment also might be necessary.
I have no complaints with my supra, I'm able to get through snow most cars would get stuck in... lowered, sways, 12lbs... doesn't really matter what mods are installed(unless you have 2" of ground clearance)... Tires make 90% of the car... buy good tires and you will save atleast that much in parts!
to all the people sayin the supras not a good snow car...ecspecially (forget how to spell it at this moment ) w/ my tires....trust me, i realize that, BUT, with me being a minimum wage 16 year old who's only had 2 seasonal jobs....i cant afford an extra car or studded/winter tires. And im really suprised its even snowing here. We usually get snow 1 night out of the year nad its like 1/4 in. and melts in a couple hour. So this usually is never a problem and this is my first winter driving as well. I wasnt even ''drifting'' when this happened either. i was already done and was being cautious and just had some bad luck. Anyways im taking it to firestone to have them check whats wrong with it then i'll decide what im going to do. the wheels only off by about 5 degrees but i dont like the fact of driving it if its not meant to be that way