Prius leans left

And no, I don't mean politically...

I have an '09 that we bought 3 weeks ago. The car runs great. It "tracks" pretty well, with no obvious "drift" to either the left or the right when driving on relatively flat roads. And it also seems to wander very little. So overall, I'd say that the alignment must be close to being on the mark.

My only complaint is that the steering wheel is slightly off-center to the left, which is a pet peeve of mine that I've seen on other new cars that I've driven. So tomorrow morning I'm going to bring the car to the dealer to have the steering wheel centered. I'll also ask for a full alignment with a printout.

I currently have my tire pressures set at 40F/38R.

Now here is the reason for my post: I noticed after I got the car home when we first bought it three weeks ago, that it seemed to "lean" slightly to the left (driver's side) when parked in the garage. I thought that it was because of the way that I had it parked in the garage.

Today, I looked at it more closely, and took some measurements with the car both in the garage and in the driveway (both are concrete). I made certain that the vehicle was parked on areas that seemed level from side to side.

I measured from the highest point of the wheel openings in the fenders to the ground for all 4 wheels. And I found that both openings on the driver's side were 1/4" lower than those on the passengers' side.

In addition, this was also evident when measuring from the bottom of the rear bumper skirt to the ground. The driver's side was lower. So I wasn't just imaging this.

I tend to be a little crazy about such things. I can usually quickly spot something that is not "straight" either vertically or horizontally, usually without even meaning to do so. So the fact that I saw this prior to measuring it doesn't mean that it is really all that noticeable (to "normal" people). But it bothers me a little. Especially since no one is sitting in the car, and I imagine that the lean may be more pronounced when a driver is present.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing with their Prius? (Rustling sound as a bunch of new Prius owners go looking for their tape measures....:scared

Could it be that the right side of the car has slightly stiffer springs, since the engine is on the right side of the engine compartment, and Toyota is trying to compensate for this by making the suspension a little stiffer on that side? This could make the right side of the car sit a little higher, I guess. Maybe this could be useful when cornering, to keep the car from leaning to the right as much from the engine weight.

I'm probably thinking too hard about this. But I can't see anything that seems to be wrong with the suspension. So I find this tendency to be really curious.

I'll ask the SA to have this looked at also when I bring the car in tomorrow.

 

Hello KK:

Thanks for the information. Wow, I just finished reading the thread by Toy08. I guess I feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who has noticed this.

Do you know if Toy08 or anyone else ever got this problem fixed on their car? The deviation that both he and you have seen is just about the same that I am seeing. My front end is about 1/4" left leaning, and the rear is about 3/8" (measured at the top of the wheel well skirts).

Thanks again for the reference. I'm posting the link here in case anyone is interested:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/52014-inspect-very-carfully-before-purchasing.html

Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Although I've noticed lean on other cars, it's not something that I go to the dealership thinking ahead of time that I should "check out" prior to making a purchase. And then there are all the things that you cannot see. So it's probably not worth saying, "gee, I should have noticed that".

Probably once I get the steering wheel centered I'll just choose to ignore the lean (unless it gets worse over time, which probably won't happen). Obviously there are many others here who are not bothered by it.

Fortunately, thanks to the many members that post their experiences and advice here on PC, I've already had many questions like this answered for me. There have been issues that have really bothered me, thinking that maybe "I was the only one" to have seen a particular strange behavior with my Prius, only to discover a post that explains the very issue and then I think, "oh, that's how it's supposed to be...so it's not really a problem at all".

For this I am grateful.

 

Hey, thanks for the encouragement, Tom. I try to keep it under control, because I can irritate my wife with it sometimes! You should have me when we were having our kitchen remodeled!

 

Hello Fray:

Could you elaborate on this question? Are you refering to my kitchen remodeling project, or how the Prius handles??

 

Hello Mark:

Are you saying that the lean returned as in "it returned and remained present"??

Thanks

 

Hello all:

Here is an update: I brought my '09 to the dealer yesterday to have the alignment checked, the steering wheel centered, and to ask about the body lean.

I was impressed that the SA, upon hearing my description regarding the body lean, immediately took a tape measure and measured from the rear wheel opening skirts to the garage floor. He confirmed my measurements, that the car is slightly over 3/8 inch leaning towards the left at the rear wheels. It was gratifying to see that he took this seriously.

Once all the work was done, he told me that the service techs had gone and measured other Priuses on the lot, and that they were all left leaning, some more, some less. (He also gave me a very detailed alignment printout, which was exactly what I was looking for -- but I'll put that in another post).

When I had first gone in, I had told him that this topic had been discussed on "an online Prius forum", and that we were under the impression that Toyota didn't have a fix for this, but that I just wanted to know if they had maybe recently come up with a solution.. When he talked to me after the service, he verified that Toyota's stand on it was that it was indeed within spec, and that they would do nothing.

On another note, I was on a long business trip today, and saw several Priuses. The ones that were travelling in the same direction as myself all appeared to have the "left lean". Granted, they had drivers in them. But one had a driver and occupant and stuff in the back, and it also leaned to the left. So I guess that it's pretty standard for them to do this. However, none looked really obvious. If I hadn't been looking for the lean, I might have not noticed it.

I noticed some other brands that were also leaning, even large size trucks/SUVs. The Priuses that I saw really didn't stand out from those of other brands that much (again, I would have had to be looking for this).

In Toy08's thread, he stated the body lean is unsafe. I really don't see it that way. As long as the thrust angle of the vehicle is not affected, I can't see that there would be a safety issue. It's really more of a minor annoyance, But not enough to give me a negative opinion about the car. For that matter, there are other areas that could use improvement (alignment of some exterior body panels is one). I still think that overall these are phenomenal vehicles.

I wish that I could drive our Prius more often, but alas, I have to drive my Chevy Uplander for business.

 

Agreed. I'm not going to worry about it now. When I first really noticed it I was bothered, thinking that maybe it was a problem specific to my car. But then I started this thread, and KK immediately directed me to Toy08's thread. This forum really is such a huge help, especially to new owners.

After reading Toy08's thread, it was obvious to me that many Priuses had the same lean, so I decided not to worry about it. And what I discovered yesterday while at the dealership for an alignment further confirmed that fact (actually, even an '09 in the showroom had it).

It certainly doesn't seem to cause any handling issues with my Prius.

 

Hello Bob:

Please let us know what the dealer says. I would have thought that by the G3, that Toyota would have had this corrected. That may have been an erroneous assumption on my part.

Best wishes,