Suddenly interesting handling

I just collected my car from it's service - and whereas it was very stable before, it now feels very unhappy out of town. I'm not talking silly speeds - but 50,60,70mph it seems very unhappy. It's a bit like it's reacting badly to the road surface - suddenly it will change direction and even sway / weave for a second or two and then settle down.

I'm going to call the garage tomorrow to check - but I suspect I know why. The tracking was apparently out - so a full alignment was done. But I was also told that the tracking was out enough that one of the front tyres is very worn on the inside - the other less so but still worn.

I guess that now the tracking is correct the unevenly worn tyres are not going to be sitting happily on the road - and I'm therefore following every irregularity on the road surface? I guess a new set of fronts might fix it.

It's actually bad enough that I stopped on the way home to make sure my wheels were properly bolted on!

Im suffering similar, the Supe used to always feel so planted and stable, now she seems to be getting dragged all over the place. Im hoping mine is sub frame related as Im getting a lot of creaking on the front end when slow turning, so hoping its the old issue of the sub frame bolts working their way loose.......

Still she is off the garage at the weekend for a new bill of health, depsite what its gonna cost me.....

good luck guys, i've been chasing a problem like this for over a year. over £1500 later i'm hoping this last attempt will fix it.

I don't want to hear things like that!

Mine had no problem whatsover before the service, so I have to assume it's the result of the change in tracking / alignment. Or they forgot to bolt something up properly!

I don't want to hear things like that!

 

Mine had no problem whatsover before the service, so I have to assume it's the result of the change in tracking / alignment. Or they forgot to bolt something up properly!

sorry dude.

Jot_ie was having a problem with his similar to this as well and his turned out to be a problem with the alignment as well.

mine is going in to get a new rear upper arms fitted to renew the wishbones and get a full alignment done (again).

fingers crossed that'll sort it so it can be sold in perfect health.

if not she'll be going in the skip

I'm getting new front tyres fitted at lunchtime - will see if that makes a difference.

I've had the car two weeks - service at the start of this week (although it was a very reasonable £300), now 2 new tyres.... I'm beginning to think I may have not bought the correct vehicle for my economical daily driver!

You could be suffering from tramlining (from larger lorries leaving ruts in the road). My car has perfect wheel alignment, but does this on motorways etc.

You could be suffering from tramlining (from larger lorries leaving ruts in the road). My car has perfect wheel alignment, but does this on motorways etc.

I would expect that - the 911 does it quite badly, but this feels like something else.

I've put new tyres on - only a short journey so far so not sure. It actually feels more like it's suspension related - like small bumps really unsettle the car and cause it to rock for a few seconds. Maybe it did do it before and I didn't notice, and my suspension damping is shot.

New tyres? Aftermarket wheels? Offsets?

Could be the old (wrong?) alignment was masking something else. Where did they get their alignment figures from? If it's the stock figures and you're running different springs/shocks/wheels then it won't be accurate for your car.

Stock wheels, and as far as I know stock suspension. It's a completely standard car with nothing changed as far as I can tell.

The alignment was done via Phoenix - although they don't do it themselves - so I would expect it to be correct.

I suspect you might be right, that the way it was set up before might have been masking something else.

although they don't do it themselves - so I would expect it to be correct.

I took a car somewhere once three times until they realised the gimp they had doing it was using the wrong figures.

Could be a knackered rear shock.

-Ian

I have had a similar problem recently. The steering was pulling left and right, felt like tramlining. I am hoping a new set of front tyre will fix it

Could be a knackered rear shock.

 

-Ian

Yes this... I had the same, but the ride was more 'hard' than 'sloppy'

I replaced the shocks and the cars feels like new.

Mine tramlines a bit and all four tyres wear more on the inside than outside. i believe it has none standard suspension though so that might be it.

new tyres on this weekend on all corners so that might be interesting. drives and stops straight as a die though so i don't think there is anything wrong.

m.

It might sound stupid but i had this with an mr2 turbo and it turned out to be the tyres were put on backwards,check the directional arrow to see if yts mechanic hasnt put the wheels on the wrong way around:d

I had already checked the tyres - although I haven't actually found directional arrows on the sidewalls but I think they are on the right way around.

However - the news is : I think the car may have cured itself (that's my kind of car!).

Over this weekend I've done about 500 miles - roughly 250 each day almost all motorway. It was pretty bad yesterday - my g/f commented on it - the car was definitely swaying quite often. It seems to be ruts in the road that set it off, but it reacted far worse than it should. If I had to guess, I'd say the rear of the car was the problem.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a local tyre dealer to get the alignment checked to rule out any possibilities that it had been done wrong. They found the alignment was mostly OK - front tracking slightly out which they corrected. Made no difference - but at least confirmed it had been done correctly when the car was serviced.

Today, it seemed to improve slightly on the morning journey. It was reacting less often. On the way home - it was far far better. I'd say there were only about 3 or 4 instances where it was a little unhappy within 120 miles, and the reaction was far far less than it has been in the last few days and lasted for far less time. In fact - if I hadn't had problems in the last few days, I don't think I would have noticed the problems on the way home today at all.

I will give it a few more days to see if it continues to behave itself. However - I'm beginning to think the problem was caused by the uneven wear on the rears after the alignment. Now they have been scrubbed in for about 600 miles since that was done, I think they have settled down. It was reacting badly enough that if this was the cause it's probably a sign that something is wearing out - wishbone bushes or suspension / dampers - but for now, I'm pretty happy. Will keep my fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

any more problems with this mate?

I'd say it's probably back. I don't know why it was OK on Sunday, but it feels fairly unstable again. Journeys are shorter (work is only about 5 miles away) so it's not so easy to be sure - but it really does feel unhappy.

I did a search last night and it does seem to be a fairly common thing. I am going to head to Phoenix either Sat morning or one afternoon and see if they can take a look.

Took the car to Phoenix today. Verdict is : knackered rear shocks. Now I need to decide whether to replace with standard Toyota parts (I was told roughly £100 + 1 hour per side) or try Bilstein. I don't want a modded up car, so unless the price is close I will probably stick with stock parts.

Took the car to Phoenix today. Verdict is : knackered rear shocks. Now I need to decide whether to replace with standard Toyota parts (I was told roughly £100 + 1 hour per side) or try Bilstein. I don't want a modded up car, so unless the price is close I will probably stick with stock parts.

toyota bilsteins will also cost you about £100 a corner mate.

if you get the yellow jap billies then they're the best compromise between comfort and handling.

Got same prob but think car too low.getting it sorted nextweek hopefully

Nic has quoted me - I'm going to sleep on it. It's tempting to do all 4 - and if I do, I'll go Bilstein. But Phoenix told me the front was actually fine, and this is supposed to be my economical car - I don't actually drive it particularly quickly and I don't use it to go belting down twisty roads (use the other car for that) - so it's a bit hard to justify getting all 4 done and doubling the cost.

I'm not sure I'd actually appreciate the difference just commuting to work.

Took the car to Phoenix today. Verdict is : knackered rear shocks. Now I need to decide whether to replace with standard Toyota parts (I was told roughly £100 + 1 hour per side) or try Bilstein. I don't want a modded up car, so unless the price is close I will probably stick with stock parts.

Did you see mine while you was there......? Grey one, Ash on the plate......

Did you see mine while you was there......? Grey one, Ash on the plate......

I did. There was a black one, and I remember the grey one with the private plate (I assumed it was private anyway). Can't remember which one was on the lift - I think it was yours. If so, your exhaust is huge!