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New Corolla - Rough Ride

By ever_green, December 23, 2012



ever_green

i used to own a 2000 corolla which i bought new. lot of people on this forum helped me maintain that car. i ended up selling it last year because of high city fuel consumption that nothing seemed to fix. it also needed new tires, shocks and springs so i just sold it and bought a civic hx. big mistake. anyway the civic is gone now due to tranny issues. my sister also totalled the RDX which i also bought new :/

so i decided to buy a 2012 corolla s 5-speed black on black. i had to wait 4 months for delivery but i finally got it. now everything is good and the car is great. im getting 35mpg all city which is much better than what i used to get with m 4AT 00 corolla. i also did my first oil change with german castrol 0w-30. the car feels great on the highway and its got pep.

now my problem is the rough ride. i didnt really pay attention during test drive but man this car is bumpy. its good and soft on nice roads but as soon is you drive on bad city roads its got no dampening. tire pressure are set to 35f/33r. is this because of the mediocre tires or a suspension issue?

Why are your tire pressures at 35F and 33R? Set them all at 30 psi cold as recommended, and it will ride much better.

What are the make and model of the 205/55-16 tires?

ever_green

goodyear rs-a. i tried 32 psi as recommended on door jamb with no significant difference

Yeah, Goodyear RS-A tires are relatively low priced with only fair reviews overall... It would ride better with 15's if you're on rough roads like here

What mileage are you at?

ever_green

about 5000km. yea i had no choice on the tires, came with the car. it would be waste also to dump them and buy new tires.

I know... My original Goodyear Integrity 185/65-15's were even more horrible, but I wore them out anyway and now run 205/60-15's.

My '09 S came with 10-spoke alloys shod with Bridgestone Turanzas. The ride was definitely what you'd call "European", and was a wee bit harsh when compared with my wife's '09 Focus SEL.

Swapped the Turanzas for some Cooper Lifeliner GLS tires (same dimensions), and the ride and grip is about the same.

ever_green

i took it to dealer today and they blamed busted shocks. the car was in shop for 4 hours and had a front left shock replaced. again i did not see any difference. i guess it is how the car rides.

I had my front right strut replaced on warranty. It broke at about 30,000 miles.

By the way, Toyota warranty does not cover subsequently required front wheel alignment. I have the tools to align it myself. Your front left wheel is now most likely toed-in, and with positive camber... Loosening the two strut to steering knuckle bolts to raise it back to near original slightly negative camber would bring toe back to near 0. You can compare both front wheels with a carpenter's bubble level when parked on level ground... I also have an old Snap-On toe tool (wheel to wheel 'caliper').

friendly_jacek

I didn't drive the new corolla, but I did test drive new matrix and didn't like the ride in a short test drive. I don't remember specifically harsh ride, but it could have been part of it. I do specifically remember mushy steering.

I've run Goodyear Eagle RS-A on the old 2003 Matrix XRS - ironically, one of the best wearing tires I've every owned. Almost 90K miles out a set and perfectly worn to the wear bars. Also one of the most finicky on air pressures. Had to play around with them until I got it just right - ended up running about 47PSI all around (51PSI max cold inflation) - manufacturer (Toyota) recommended is 32PSI.

Of course that was specific for my needs - mostly highway, decent roads, more or less three season driving (Virginia). I've also checked that this is the optimal tire pressure as verified by a tire pyrometer.

I'd try plumping the tires up and bleeding them down until the handling/ride/MPG is satisfactory. Don't worry - tire won't blow up - they can tolerate a surprising amount of air pressure before that happens. Very rarely do I find the recommended tire pressures to my liking - it is a compromise pressure - balancing tire life with good fuel economy and manageable handling. Choice of tire will greatly be influenced by those tire pressures. Some tires will wear excessively in the middle at every 35PSI, some will still act under-inflated even at 50-55PSI. Different front and rear tire pressures can be used to tailor the handling of the car - but will require a bit of knowledge of the tire's ability. Once you find a good pressure - then you can start playing around with tire pressure balancing. If I really want to fine tune the handling of a stock FWD car - I tend to run a little more pressure up front than in the rear to help counteract some of the understeering tendancy of FWD.

ever_green

thanks for the replies.

fish, i did play with the tire pressure. I used to be running 38psi front and 35psi rear. But i have noticed a pattern of busted shocks with high tire pressure. On my impreza i was running similar tire pressures and also had a shock die on me. This is why i went back to factory recommended - i used to never follow the recommended PSI. Now i only run them that high in summer time when i do spirited driving.

My roads are mostly bad and covered in slush or icy patches. So right now im sticking to 34psi front and 33psi rear.

So, was it aligned after your strut was replaced?

ever_green

nope dealership claimed the car is perfectly aligned.

It's practically impossible for it to still be perfectly aligned for camber and toe after replacing a strut. Dealership wouldn't have checked and adjusted it since it's not also covered by warranty.

ever_green

had the tires replaced last week with continental extremecontact dws. I have not noticed rough ride anymore. Also traction in the wet has improved immensely. One thing i have noticed is the RPMs are ~200 rounds higher during highway cruising I'm not sure why since they are both the same size spec tires and the older ones had much less tread depth.

The relation between indicated speed and indicated rpm cannot change with different tire dimension... It can only change your actual speed.



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