Freeway Straight Line Stability

I haven't tried it in a couple of weeks, but when I did, I couldn't point the car straight ahead and have it go that way for more than a second or two at 70MPH.

It didn't always pull either left or right. It wandered on an equal-opportunity basis...

 

I noticed that the steering has a lighter feel than my Echo did -it ran dead-straight, even at 85 mph. It took a bit of getting used to, but I blamed it on the new snow tires I put on 2 days after I got my Prius. It got better after a couple weeks and I guess I'm used to it now. Brigestone has a replacement tire out for the RE950 that is supposed to be the best ever. They brought it out at the Chicago auto show, I think. I might consider them, along with some VERY light weight wheels in the spring and just keep the snows mounted on the stock wheels. Lower unsprung weight should improve the already nice ride.

 

hi
i too am in san diego fred, and tho i only have 300 miles (and therefore too new to judge) i've been very pleased by the cars straight line ability on the slab. yes, it does seem very sensitive to my touch, just like my '90 Miata that i had for 10 years. for the last 3 years i've been driving a lincoln and so now i need to re-develop the sensitive non-intrusive touch i once had. but if i keep my hands off the wheel, so to speak, the car tracks incredibly well and straight.

 

I am still battling with the squirly (my term) steering. I had my 04 re-aligned at Toyota and still feels the same. I want to try changing tire pressures, front vs back, to see if that helps.

 

We could have gotten our 2004 Prius on Friday evening, but we decided to allow the dealer have it over the weekend. That may have been a good choice or it may have nothing to do with the allignment.

My motorhead friend drove the Prius on a flat portion of a local divided highway. It is two lanes in each direction and surrounded by farm land where we were.

He floored it several times until it got past 60 mph. He let go of the wheel while cruising at 60. It would pull to the right. He stopped the car and squinted. He tried the same thing straddling the two lanes and the car stayed in a perfect straight line. Then, at 60 mph with no hands on the steering wheel, he hit the breakes very hard, but not hard enough for the ABS to engage. Again the car stayed straight.

He was very impressed.

 

We drove about 45 miles today on the freeway in slushy snow. The handling was good except for the sensitivity in the steering. There were high winds on the way there. On the 45 miles back home, the snow had melted but the winds were still gusting.

Isn't the steering by wire between the steering wheel and the steering rack mechanism?

Although there is spring back to the steering wheel when turned, at the center there is little sensitivity or "feel" in the steering wheel. I found myself reacting to the visual movement of the car and trying to correct that rather than feeling a heavier push coming through the steering wheel with a new wind gust and naturally reacting to that by a sensitive correction. Any thoughts?

 

ok, this is just theory, but if the car drives straight when straddling the centerline of a two-lane but goes to the right when you're in the middle of your lane, it might be that the road is crowned. years ago, front suspensions were set up to actually pull a bit left to balance this out, but as more and more roads and superhighways became "flat", i think this has died out a bit and cars are set up to track straight on flat roads.

my 2 cents...

 

I have to say that, as one of your more obsessive-compulsive, picky guys, I really can't fault the 04 Prius' steering so far (5,500 miles).

A few months ago the only thing I changed relating to wheels was to lose the useless trim rings, install metal stem caps and raise PSI to 42 front and 40 rear. That's it.

I've only forced the VSC to come on twice, that while climbing up a mountain east of Seattle on a poorly-maintained and designed, reverse-camber asphalt road. (OK - so I was lost and trying to make up time ...)

I dove it into a particularly manky V-turn (lay the "V" on it's side - you'll get it) and a sensed a trifling hesitation, felt NO tire slippage and glimpsed the VSC snapping on twice in 3 seconds. Haven't seen the VSC come on since.

This included driving in snow, ice and slush earlier this year, by the way.

Like many lighter cars, my Prius will try to track or climb wear valleys in freeway pavement, but not to excess.

Even my brute (weight-wise) of a '91 300E would do that, time to time.

I don't really want to defend Toyota Motor Sales of North America Company, Inc., as I DO have other issues (believe me, they know), but on the matter of steering and handling, this car has become a very pleasant surprise.

Toyota made some compromises in delivering this 2nd genration hybrid. Every manufacturer ends up having to do this. You have to freeze the product at some point and ship or it will never get to the customer base.

Some announced features did not make it into production. Some features are not available in the U.S.

For this car, above average handling was included. I'm happy with the way my '04 Prius handles.

If I want more I'll do some sort of "priuschat.com concensus handling tweak" (that probably becomes popular in a year or two) to the rims, tires, springs, etc, or buy a damned sports car!


Bob

 

3500+ miles so far, and I must say that the car is not stable in high winds. A Jeep Cherokee needing new tires is more stable in head or cross wind conditions.

Despite that, I wouldn't trade it for any other commuter.

 

I don't understand what ya'll are talking about. On Friday, I drove my new car with the cruise set at 72 in strong cross and head winds across north and west Texas. I drove 900 miles around and sometimes through strong thunderstorms. I only had to slow down twice due to poor visibility. I was impressed by it's ability to handle gusty winds at high speed. I never felt any bad manners and haven't experienced any pulling or fading. I'm impressed with this car. Just enough performance in all regards. In my opinion, this car should be the absolute minimum vehicle that we should expect from manufacturers. That we had to wait so many years for this to hit the market is shameful. My next car will get 80 mpg. I sure hope I don't have to wait 20 or 30 years for the auto makers to provide it because I really don't want to drive this car that long.
Ray

 

I am very happy with our Prius handling. Have driven in the winter to NH from OH in blizzard and gusty wind conditions and all over OH area and find the car to be very stable - tracks true. I am picky about this stuff as a pilot and a car buff. I find the steering to be light at all speeds, which I think is a result of the "electric" power steering. This is different than most cars in that they tend to increase the resistance as the car gets faster. It took no time to get used to. The only criticism I have about the car’s handling is a little too much body roll in hard cornering.

 

the last three posts are what I needed to hear. The car we have exhibits this particular "steering problem" (for lack of a better definition).

When we were deciding to order the Prius we rented a Prius TRAC car for two days, drove it freeway and country roads, and never noticed any handling twitchy-ness. The rental drove perfectly. Except for this problem, the handling is excellent.

I called the Service Mgr. at the dealership today and he noted my concern. We agreed that I will ensure that the tire pressures are correct and drive it for the rest of the week to see if it continues to exhibit the problem. Then, if it still wanders, I will take it in. I was hoping that I would get responses from technically astute drivers and I thank you for replying.

 

I think it wanders slightly at high speed (>100 kph). It was slightly worse when I first got the car. Now after a few thousand km it's better (tire break-in?) but it's still there, esp. in high wind.

I did not notice this issue with my 2001 Prius. I will definitely mention this to my mechanic when I take it in for my oil change.

I'm hoping it's just a tire issue, and not a steering issue.

On the bright side, the handling of the 2004 is WAY better than than the 2001 in the snow, and I attribute a lot of that directly to the low rolling resistance tires of the 2001.

 

Just to throw in my two cents,

In past threads on PriusChat people have mentioned this stability problem. Some think (and I mainly agree) that during shipping the meathods for securing the car can misalign the steering. Perhaps this occurs more with the Prius because it has to make a trip overseas.

I had trouble with my car on the highway. I determined that the right front wheel had a toe-out problem, brought it to the dealer, and they aligned it under warranty.

The car drives beautifully now.

~Andrew