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2005 Rolla S Tracks To Left




Guest JetMech

Hello All,great site..........

Purchased a 2005 rolla s back in Sept and drive 110 miles to work round trip 4 days a week all highway.The car tracks (pulls) to the left.Had back to dealer and they aligned front end.It still tracks slightly to the left,enough where i have to hold the steering wheel slightly to the right while i drive which gets a little old.....Has anyone else had this problem?I am bringing the car back to have it looked at this friday...Any help would be greatly appreciated...PS :I ck my mileage evey fillup and i average around 35-36 mpg....great car..................dano default_biggrin

Take it back and have them fix it again until it is right. The dealer telling you to hold the wheel to the right on a level road to correct for the pull is totally unacceptable behavior. You bought a new car - should drive like one. I'd have them straighten the wheel out or buy back the car. There have been issues with the wheels being offset from the factory - looks to see if your steering wheel is crooked when the wheels are pointed straight ahead.

Good Luck.

Guest JetMech

hey fish,maybe i wrote it wrong but the dealer never said to hold the wheel to the right,thats what i have to do now until i bring the car in to the dealer this friday...they said no problem to bring it in ,but i just wanted to know if anybody else had this problem with there 05 rollas...........thanks dano default_smile

My goof, sorry.

Yeah, that has been a problem that seems to have cropped up quite a bit since the introduction of the 2003 Corolla/Matrix. The generation before that had many vibration issues.

You would think that they would have fixed it by now - but I have seen at least one other asking about that on this forum and three others on other forums in the past month on the 2005 Corollas. Same behavior - pulls to the left, alignment done, but doesn't fix problem. Had to pull the wheel and straighten it.

Good Luck.

My commute is much the same as yours -- mostly high-speed (80-85 mph) left lane interstate driving, about 65 miles each way. I have 104,000 miles on my 2002 Corolla already!

Since I'm in the left lane almost all the time, I've found that the crown (the side to side slope) of the road causes the tires to wear oddly, and over time, a pull to the left exactly as you describe starts to develop. The wear on the tires from constantly correcting for the crown on the road looks like wear from misalignment after a while, even though the car is perfectly aligned.

In the world of motorcycling, a similar phenomenon is fairly familiar -- the left side of motorcycle tires always wears out first, ****uming you spend most of your time on two lane roads. In states with a lot of rainfall, they build the roads with more crown, and these problems are magnified.

The only solution I've found is high quality tires (the stock tires are complete garbage), frequently rotated side to side instead of just front to back.

I have about 4,000 miles on a set of Michelin X-Radials from CostCo, and they have maintained their "neutrality" far better than the stock Badyears or the Krappy Kellys that preceded them. They also have amazing grip in wet, dry, and snow conditions, along with an 80,000 mile warranty. At CostCo, a set of four was less than $300 out the door, about the same as cruddy house brand tires at the local tire shops. I'll have them rotated every 6,000 miles, as recommended by Michelin.

Your dealer may be reluctant to rotate side to side, since the manual calls for front-to back rotation. There's an old mechanic's tale that it's dangerous to rotate side to side, based on belt failures of early radials back in the 1970s. It's not an issue with modern tires, but many mechanics, being gullible and rather slow-witted, still believe and pass on what their uncles told them years ago.

Although you probably don't want to replace the stock tires so soon, it's worth considering. You'll be much safer through the coming winter (Toyota inexplicably mounts really awful tires at the factory -- almost anything has far better grip) and you'll most likely banish the pulling. If you spend a lot of time in your Corolla, high quality tires are worth every single penny.

Guest JetMech

thanks ringer & fish,,,, but i only have just over 5000 miles on the car..wife went and picked up car from dealer so i will see what they say when i get home tonite...hopefully they fixed it............let you know,dano

Sometimes aligment shop does not put the steering wheel in 'zero" position. I had my aligment done and they set the wheel slightly to the right. So while I was driving I kept the wheel in "zero" but in reality I was turning to the left.



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