2001 toyota corolla

glogan

I just bought a 2001 Corolla CE. A nice car, a
new front end that looks really nice, its quick,
its quiet, nice car, my problem its that it fades
to the left on the highway, where I do most of my
driving. At fist the dealer said, low tire
pressure, then he said, bad tires, then he said, I
have to drive in the right hand lane of the highway
for the car to drive straight because of the crown
of the road. Whats that??!! They don't make
Corollas anymore that can handle the passing lane??
Any thoughts?? Anyone??

liufei

When you said its fade to the left, do you mean its drifting to the left side when driving on a straight lane?
If thats the case, check out the wheel alignment (since the tire pressure is not the culprit). Your dealer should fix it regardless, because its still under warranty (1 year warranty for alignment and wheel). The reason the dealer offered is one of the most pathetic one I ever heard! Drive in the right hand lane to drive straight , HA!
I wonder how the heck can these kind of people sell car without having a single clue what the car is about ???

mazda323

Actually, I think that the dealer has a valid point. Roads are built to drain water. The surface of the road is convexe (or is it concave), so the surface slants towards the sides of the road, with the middle, or crown, being the highest point.
I remember reading in a tech article that cars are designed to compensate the slant in the road surface by 'steering' a little to the left even when goin straight. Without this feature, the car would constantly be pulling to the right. Since cars are mostly driven on roads slanting to the right, this effect goes unnoticed. But when you drive in the left lane, the road is sometimes slanted to the left so water won't flood the surface (like on a highway). Since the car is designed to slightly steer to the left, you might find that the car 'fades to the left' when driving in the left lane of a highway.
The pulling to the left is usually minimal and shouldn't affect the driving or performance of the car. However, it't still possible that there realy is something wrong with the car.

glogan

Thanks for the info, the dealer has checked the alienment, balanced the tires, and replaced the tires. This is a noticeable drift to the left where I have to turn the wheel to the right to compensate. The dealer has been helpful but the car is still not acceptable. The dealer is having the regional factory rep check the car out Friday. The floor manager said another 2001 has the same problem maybe a factory problem. Service manager said, no way. I'll let you know. Thanks.

pat455

Since we already have a topic here in this conference on Toyota Corolla Trouble (Topic #255), let's take further discussion of this problem there.

This way we keep similar discussions in one place, which helps our members more easily find the information they are looking for.

Pat
Community Leader/Maintenance & Repair Conference