Understeer
Understeer occurs when you are driving down a corner and the front tyres skid across the track surface due to a loss of traction, while the rear tires still have grip. You may notice that the vehicle is understeering because the resistance of the steering wheel is lower than usual and also because the car skids out of the corner, in a straighter line than the desired direction.
Oversteer
Conversely, oversteer happens when you enter a corner and the rear tyres lose grip and start drifting while the front tyres maintain their traction. You can tell the vehicle is oversteering because rear tyres start screeching at the time that the rear end of the car starts rotating around its axis toward the inside of the corner.
Why Do They Happen?
How To Stop It From Happening?
There are many ways to negate (or at least minimize) understeering depending on what portion of the corner it happens in. When understeer happens at corner’s entry you can adjust front wheels alignment to increase camber and toe-out. You can also reduce front roll bar stiffness, reduce front shock absorbers firmness and lower the front of the vehicle. When understeer happens at mid-corner you may want to increase front springs pre-load, increase front sway bar stiffness or increase front spring rate. On the other hand, if understeer happens at the corner’s exit, you can increase rear roll bar stiffness, increase rear shock compression and rebound, raise rear height, or increase rear spring rate.
Similarly, you can overcome oversteer by making adjustments depending on what portion of the curve they happen. You can align the rear wheels to increase camber and toe-in, increase front roll bar and increase front shock absorber compression to control oversteer at corner entry. You can also reduce rear sway bar stiffness, reduce rear springs rates, decrease the ride height and increase rear camber to compensate for mid-corner oversteering. Moreover, you can reduce the rear height, decrease rear shock-absorbers’ firmness and reduce rear sway bar stiffness to fix corner exit oversteer.
During normal driving in the city or while commuting, you can reduce understeer by easing off the throttle (or the brake pedal if that was the reason for understeering). That way, the front tyres can regain grip allowing you to control direction again.
When Does It Happen The Most?
The chances of experiencing both understeer and oversteer are greatly increased when weather conditions are adverse because traction with the road surface is considerably reduced.
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