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Car Forum / Toyota / Toyota Cars / February 2008Driving straight
Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it was. If the road is flat, the car goes straight if I let go of the wheel. But sometimes the roads are slanted, I guess to drive the rain water to the sides and if I let go it tends to go to the right. I wonder if that's a common condition for the Corollas. As always, I appreciate your comments. Thank you. > Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the > machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it > was. If the road is flat, the car goes straight if I let go of the > wheel. But sometimes the roads are slanted, I guess to drive the rain > water to the sides and if I let go it tends to go to the right. I > wonder if that's a common condition for the Corollas. That's common for almost all cars. You're correct that roads are slanted, usually to the right (although on roads where there is a median, the right lane(s) may slope to the right and the left lane(s) to the left). If the roads were sloped a bit, the rain would build up and it would be easy to hydroplane. Plus, in the winter, the ice and snow would melt, but the water would buildup and refreeze at night. jeff > As always, I appreciate your comments. > > Thank you. > Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the > machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it > was. If the road is flat, the car goes straight if I let go of the > wheel. But sometimes the roads are slanted, I guess to drive the rain > water to the sides Yep. Like porch floors. Sort of. Cathy and if I let go it tends to go to the right. I > wonder if that's a common condition for the Corollas. > > As always, I appreciate your comments. > > Thank you. Roads are slightly slanted to drain rain water. Highway engineers are worth their keep sometimes. :) > Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the > machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Thank you. It sounds like your car is performing normally. The tendency for the car to drift to the right when the road is canted to the right is a common condition in all cars, not just Corollas.  SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) >> Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the >> machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > to drift to the right when the road is canted to the right is a common > condition in all cars, not just Corollas. I've always heard that they made cars go slightly to the right on purpose because someone might fall asleep and hopefully that would get them off the road semi-safely. >>> Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the >>> machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > because someone might fall asleep and hopefully that would get them off > the road semi-safely. That is an urban legend. Cars will tend to drift to the right due to the crown in the road, not due to the suspension setting in a passenger car. A car's tendency to move in a straight line can be enhanced with more positive caster, however, the car will not corner quite as quickly as it would with less caster, and more effort is needed to turn the steering wheel, although power steering has made the effort point moot. SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) -- Ray O (correct punctuation to reply) > But sometimes the roads are slanted, I guess to drive the rain > water to the sides and if I let go it tends to go to the right. I > wonder if that's a common condition for the Corollas. I believe it's a common condition for all cars... Think about this: the curves at most race tracks are banked. Can you guess why? >> But sometimes the roads are slanted, I guess to drive the rain >> water to the sides and if I let go it tends to go to the right. I [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Think about this: the curves at most race tracks are banked. > Can you guess why? I thought it was because most roads are slightly higher in the centre, for drainage purposes. That might require a continual correction to the left, were it not for a slight off-centre setting of the vehicle's setting. (This would be reversed in England, for example, where one "keeps left".) Of course, I am just guessing! "Hachiroku" ... > PCman: > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Think about this: the curves at most race tracks are banked. > Can you guess why? Centripetal force counteractant. Tomes >> But sometimes the roads are slanted, I guess to drive the rain >> water to the sides and if I let go it tends to go to the right. I [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >Think about this: the curves at most race tracks are banked. >Can you guess why? So the rain will run off? ;-) SignatureScott in Florida It is common for all cars. The variance on "common" is in how fast the car drifts to the right. I would suggest than an unattended steering wheel will maintain straight and level flight for a few hundred yards at best on a flat freeway lane. The performance will vary widely on any other kind of road, and such variations are not to be taken as a sign of failure. If the car (on the freeway) takes an immediate drift to the side, then there is cause for concern, but if it goes straight for 15-ish seconds, then all is well. As it starts to drift, the rate of drift can change or remain the same, if it remains the same, then the car is really going straight and the road is dropping off, if the rate increases, then the car's geometry can be feeding the problem. But, as I said earlier, it if takes several seconds to begin drifting, you should not be alarmed. Drifting to the right is preffered over drifting to the left. > Recently I took my 2003 Corolla CE for an alignment. According to the > machine, they left it almost perfect. It is now much better than it [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Thank you. |
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