Groove wander , similar to Tramlining

Tramlining

Tramlining is the tendency of a vehicle's wheels to follow the contours in the surface upon which it runs. The term comes from the tendency of a car's wheels to follow the normally recessed rails of street trams, without driver input in the same way that the train does...

, is a lateral force acting on a vehicle's wheel resulting from the combination of rain grooves and contoured deformations in the road surface upon which the wheel runs.

When the contact patch of the tire does not form to match the contours of the road surface the stiff tire edges tend to ride on and be guided (or tramlined) by the rain grooves within the surface contour. This force is greater than the contact patch can counter and the resultant force is delivered to the hub/axle, pushing the car laterally. When all four axles are acted upon in this way, the vehicle can experience rapid forces occurring from side to side and corner to corner (similar to encountering wind gusts, only from all four directions instead of just one).

A mismatch between tire design and vehicle weight, or vehicle suspension design, or simply wheel alignment can all contribute to how severe the effect is.