I have a MR with stock Bilsteins and Works springs and a Hotchkis rear swaybar. The car handles great on smooth roads high speed and low speed. As soon as a series of bumps or just a bump comes along the car loses its stability big time. I have heard that adjusting raised toe can help this. Has anyone else experienced this and if so what have you done to remedy this problem? My alignment is set to manuf spec right now. Would coilovers help or changing align help? Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Coilovers would plan the car lower and the dampening and spring rates could help slightly but really it needs to done on the alignment rack.

In the rear run some toe in with a whiteline bump steer kit. After I did this it takes quite a bit to unsettle the car. I can live on the rumble strips all day if they were so annoying.

Loss of grip over bumps on tarmac is usually a result of too much rebound. AFAIK the MR's Bilstein's are not adjustable in either rebound or damping, though. Dampers that feature adjustable rebound damping could help.

Bumpsteer may also become an issue if the car is too low. You cannot acount for dynamic toe in bump/compression with a static toe-setting, unless you like replacing tires. How much is the car lowered with those springs?

The car is lowered about 1.1" in the front and .9" in the rear. I just put my rear swaybar the the firmest setting and it feels better around smooth turns but the bumps are still very appearant. Don't get me wrong the car is still very fast around these bumpy turns, I just feel that it could be more stable.

It doesn't seem likely that bump steer is your issue, then. If the car feels crashes over bumps/skates over many bumps, its a sign of overdamping or simply too much spring.

Also, what're you tire pressues at? Overinflated tires can lead to a "loose" feeling.

Yes please verify that bump steer is your problem. If the car feels like it suddenly turns with no input from the wheel when you hit a bump that is bump steer.

Basically what is happening is the bump is changing the toe of the vehicle suddenly.

If the car just feels like it has no traction and you are sliding over bumps then that would be a sign of a improperly set up suspension or something else effecting the handling of the vehicle. I would take it to a professional and have it diagnosed.

Now since you are on stock struts with springs it will be not be possible to change the spring rate or dampening of the strut.

Part of your issue might be the rear sway bar being on full stiff. Essentially that takes away the independence of your rear suspension and makes them act as one. So if one rear wheel hits a bump and compresses, it causes the other rear wheel to want to lift up too. This leads to a reduction in traction in the rear .... try reducing the stiffness of the rear sway, that might help some ...

the car handles absolutely perfect except for the bump steer. With the swaybar on full stiff the car is perfect and it feels so solid that I don't want to change it. I'm going to try different alignment settings. What specs on alignment are you guys running? Stock specs or something else? BTW the car only feels like this on cement turns, on asphalt it is fine even with bumps.

BTDT, ive got the whiteline bumpsteer reduction kit & an adjustable rear swaybar, & have played W the alignment. if your swaybar is set on full stiff & your having stability issues, its the rear swaybar. go back to a softer setting & you will notice increased stability. the swaybar increases the effective spring rate at the outside wheel & with the soft MR struts, it may noy be enough to control the increased springrate from the stiff swaybar

to clarify you DO NOT have bump steer, bump steer is a problem with your suspension geometry where as the wheel travels up the curve of the upright connection with the steering linkage does not have the same radius as the curve of the steering link (best way i can describe it althuogh not technically perfect) you can always look it up if you still car. you car is overdamped or over sprung, my guess is over damped. how fast are you going when this happens? the blistiens probably arent designed for the high speed damping that your experiencing

Did you ever have an alignment done after installing your new springs and shocks? If not, perhaps an alignment is in order (if only to save your tires), and if for some reason during the installation someone did something whacky to your toe settings, that could be causing your stability issues.

Swaybars do not have any appreciable impact on straight-line stability. They work mainly in steady-state cornering. If the OP's only issues are with straight tracking, then adjusting the swaybar will not solve his problems.

I did have an alignment done after the suspension changes and it is set to factory spec. The reason I like the car with the swaybar on the firmest setting is that it seems more predictable on what it's going to do. I had my friend drive it who is a very experienced race driver and he said it felt alot better and he could make it do what ever he wanted. It was truly amazing to go on a ride with him because he could go faster than I ever thought possible in that car. The bump steer didn't seem to bother him at all. I guess it's just me and my inexperience in how to deal with it. He understands that I wanted to make the car as sick as possible without spending a boatload on suspension. His only suggestions were more power and better brakes. After riding with him I see how capable this car is. I'm sorry for starting this thread due to my inexperience in dealing with the "problem".

While your friend may be able to go very fast with the way the car is setup now, YOU may not be able to do the same because you simply don't feel comfortable with the setup. in other words, whats fast for one person may not be fast for another, even though the car is set up in the exact same fashion. Driver comfort plays a very large part in how fast you can get around the track; if you don't fee confident in the car when pushing it to its limits, then you will not be driving 100% (or 110% as some like to say..), and therefore will be slower.

If the issue persists and you're not able to adapt to it, then this is indeed a problem and you should seek a way to cure it. Tracking a car should be fun, above all else, and you can't have fun if you're not comfortable with the car (no matter how fast anyone says it *can* go).

Some good comments and advise on this thread No one mentioned hitting the bumpstops which may in fact be the cause of the "bump steer" feeling. The Evo does not have a bump steer problem until it is significantly lowered (below where his car is now). I would surmise that during hardish cornering on a bumpy road he is getting momentary bump stop contact which is causing a spike in spring rate which he is interpreting as bump steer. The lowering springs would be the root cause...as mentioned before more high-speed compression damping would be the fix but you can't adjust that so pull out the springs and get stiffer ones (bit of a band-aid fix I admit) or better still put in some proper suspension

In my testing The Whiteline "bump steer" kit actually causes understeer BTW and should only be used on EVOs with enough front end grip improvement and driver skill to warrant it. In other words the toe change in the rear of the EVO actually helps the car turn by minimising understeer (and the Whiteline kit lets you adjust how much).

I have the Whiteline kit and I have to agree with Paul - it does cause a bit of understeer (I didn't realize it was tunable tho - I'll have to investigate). On the plus side it keeps the car slightly more stable under hard braking.