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Sedans Toyota Corolla Toyota Corolla Electric-Assist Power Steering (EPS)
98 messages, Last post on Oct 29, 2009 at 2:09 PM
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Replying to: denvecsr (Oct 09, 2009 7:22 pm) |
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I'd suggest reading some consumer reviews here at Edmunds. You'll find them by clicking a link on the right. It's worth noting that the first five or six mention steering in a detrimental way. I haven't has time to read more.. Not even Trident gum can get 5 out of 5 kind of agreement though!
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Replying to: thegraduate (Oct 14, 2009 11:06 am) MNF |
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I recently rented a new Toyota Yaris sedan for two weeks and drove it around in the Pacific Northwest. I was surprised to discover that the Yaris sedan has the same "wandering" steering effect as the several 2009 Corollas that I tested last year. The Yaris sedan is a great little car and it's ideal for around town use, but keep your eyes on the road! Look away for more than a second or so and it starts drifting off to one side or the other, much as the 2009 Corolla does. The steering wheel provides very little feedback in this situation, so there are no tactile clues to tell you that you're drifting off centerline. (I think the 2009 Corollas that I test-drove last year were a bit worse in this respect, as their steering issues became immediately apparent during the test drive, whereas I didn't notice the problem at all when I test-drove a Yaris liftback. Of course, it's a completely different body type, so that might account for the difference.) The interesting thing is, by the second week of my trip I found that I had completely adjusted my driving habits to match the Yaris' steering feel. Basically, I learned to keep my eyes on the road most of the time and to keep all "look-aways" to a bare minimum. Also, when going in a straight line I found that it's best to drive kind of like a robot, that is, don't make any unnecessary arm movements. That seemed to work. Eventually I got so used to the new driving style that I hardly even knew what I was missing. The only real difference was the higher level of awareness required, plus the fact that the overall driving experience was a bit less relaxing (but still acceptable). Still, at trip's end I was quite relieved to get back into my Honda Civic with its more "normal" steering feel. Bottom line: I expect that most drivers will be able to adjust to Toyota's EPS, but I don't think it's enhancing their driving experience any. Quite the opposite, in fact. Also, I wouldn't recommend that anybody drive a 2009 or higher Corolla or Yaris sedan while in a partially-impaired condition (e.g. sleepy, drunk or stoned, even slightly), because (in my opinion) these cars require more focus to drive safely.
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Replying to: dantz (Oct 15, 2009 2:09 pm) |
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For those who share my highway speed steering complaint on the 09 Corolla, here's what I've done: Went to the dealer and booked an appointment for a 4-wheel align on a day I figured they'd not be too busy. Zeroed in the tire pressure exactly to spec on my way to the dealer. Talked directly to the technician and explained specifically and exactly what I was concerned about - fortunately I did that, because the service adviser was totally clueless. Told him that the car had no on-center feel and wandered constantly at highway speed, used the hockey-stick-on-a-basketball analogy. And explained to him in a nice way that I'm not a total idiot about such things - I'm a mech engineer working in auto manufacturing, with over a million miles of driving experience,and that this is my 3rd Corolla. When he checked the alignment all was within factory spec except for one rear wheel a bit toed-in. We discussed it, and agreed to fix the rear toe-in (it requires shimming, not just an adjustment, so it costs extra) and adjust the front toe-in just a bit so that the car will track straight in the right lane on a crowned road, and most importantly added more caster. (Caster is like the rake on bicycle forks - the steeper the rake, the more the front wheels tends to fall back to center when you let go of the handlebars. Not enough rake, and the wheel won't return to center) End result: steering is very much improved on the highway!! I still find the EPS kind of vague at higher speeds, and I may still go back and get them to crank the caster all the way to the max spec value, but it's certainly workable as is. Need to bear in mind that one of the last steps at the factory is to do a wheel alignment, and it's done at a rate of about one vehicle a minute. They don't fine tune and tweak your car and then road test it and tweak again till it's perfect - they just adjust it to somewhere within factory spec range and ship it out. Note that there is quite a range of "within spec" values - if you go in and just ask for an alignment check under warranty, they'll verify that you're within factory spec, but they won't change anything for free unless it's out of range. That's not good enough. Before you give up on the car, pay the money to get a good alignment done by someone who knows what he's doing, and insist that it's complete with a highway speed road test. It's a $20,000 (Canadian) car, so I figured it was worth coughing up the $165 to get it aligned properly. Mistake I made was I lived with it for quite a while so I opened myself up to the whole argument of whether it wasn't aligned right at the factory, or whether I or one of my kids hit something and knocked it out of alignment (we didn't....). I'll be interested to know if anyone else gets the same results. |
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Replying to: gerrya (Oct 28, 2009 4:54 am) The EPS will become more vague at higher speeds as this is it's design. Perhaps Toyota should just make the specifications more precise so those of you that are experiencing this phenominum would not have to go through what you had to. Too bad someone with your automotive background and driving experience didn't happen to notice the drift before you purchased the car, you could have asked for this additional adjustment before you made the deal. Glad it all worked out for you though. While it really shouldn't be necessary for a new car owner to go through what you did, $165.00 is a small price to pay to put this problem to rest for a pleasurable driving experience.
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Replying to: terceltom (Oct 28, 2009 5:41 am) I do wish I'd done a longer test drive when I bought the car, but I doubt I'd have picked up on it even if I had. The car bounced around a bit on the road, but it didn't strike me as unusual at the time. My 2 previous Corollas were quite susceptible to buffetting from crosswinds, so I put it down to the same thing - it was a typical January winter day in Ontario, not exactly ideal conditions for a test drive. I put snow tires on for the winter, and I kinda put it down to that for a while - snows can affect your steering. But I got concerned when I put the OEM tires back on in the spring and it still wandered. Foolish me, I should have got it aligned much sooner. There's a young guy working at the same place as me who commutes long distance with an identical car. He has had no issue or concern whatsoever. On a happier note: I don't know how accurate the in-car fuel economy readout is, but running little over the limit (105 km/h = 65 mph) the economy on this car is incredible! |
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Replying to: gerrya (Oct 28, 2009 4:54 am)
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Replying to: zikzak (Oct 29, 2009 12:11 pm) However, I'd be very wary of increasing the caster beyond design spec. It might introduce a whole new spectrum of handling issues. Better to wait until Toyota redesigns the steering geometry so that everything works the way it should. |
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