Last November, I finally could stand it (the excessively hard ride) no longer and I swapped out my car's yellow/HD Bilstein dampers for black/touring Bilstein dampers. I installed the shocks; the struts+alignment(+L.upper.strut.mount+L.CV.boots) was done at the dealer. The car has never been the same (correct) since.

Once I got it out on the open road I noticed that the car didn't track properly; it was a bit like a table with one leg shorter than the others; just trying to go straight I'd make a minor course correction steering input and it would almost feel like the car teetered in response, engendering an unwanted/extra response, which would then require its own correction, and so on. (What a miserable cruise that was...!)

The dealer re-did the alignment (it was way off), which helped the car's ability to track OK (but still not quite the same as before) down the highway. But other symptoms persist:

1. The car is chewing up (feathering, mostly) its [front] tires.

2. The steering has anti-self-centering action once I've turned about 1 lock from straight-ahead: at that point I no longer have to apply force to increase steering angle; instead, I have to apply force to keep the steering from increasing steering angle on its own!

3. In a ([very] low speed) parking lot situation, when I'm turning, I can commonly feel the car take little sideways steps as it moves forward. To me, this indicates that the 2 slightly-different arcs described by the front wheels are no longer in complete harmony. At higher speeds, it's tougher to tell, but that seems to also be the case.

IOW, what I'm sensing is that the steering geometry (the designed-in angles of the suspension/steering parts which cause the wheels to turn at slightly different steering rates, to account for the slightly different turning radii between inner and outer wheels in a turn) is messed up (either wrong or just not remaining constant/correct during use).

Any/all insights/advice will be appreciated. What could cause such sypmtoms? TIA

It was a tough call determining that the old 850 was even worth putting new struts (+ inst cost) on it; now it seems like that decision, for whatever reason, has effectively killed the car, at least in terms of it still being a good car (and just as the ride 'quality' finally became tolerable).

- Dave; '95 854T, 191K mi