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Sometimes car feels wobbly / hard to control on freeway (only once in a while)

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by MilkyWay, Jan 4, 2017.

  1. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    I put on winter tires and on the freeway in dry pavement it was terrible wobbly...like you are driving diagonally but going straight...very hard to stay in control...

    Well, I swapped those tires for all season and it is a lot better....but still once in a while it feels a little wobbly.

    It is subtle. Doesn't happen all the time. Any ideas on what it could be?
     
    #1 MilkyWay, Jan 4, 2017
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    probably the tyres and certain types of pavement. balance and alignment good?
     
    #2 bisco, Jan 4, 2017
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  3. wrprice

    wrprice Active Member

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    I second the suggestion of getting a thorough alignment done. My '05 was all sorts of squirrley on the road with a bad factory alignment.

    My brakes needed adjustment, too, in its first few months as, to my horror, the car pulled hard left during my first panic stop.
     
    #3 wrprice, Jan 4, 2017
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  4. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    I had a wheel alignment done at Belle Tire and they usually will say something if they notice a bad front end part --- they said nothing.

    Tires are brand new and I have a feeling it's the tires... at freeway speeds it's kind of hard to stay in the lane steering wheel will even wobble as the tires bite into the ground and fight each other...

    Either that or something bent? Or needs to be re-balanced...?
     
    #4 MilkyWay, Jan 4, 2017
  5. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    For the winter tires add some tire pressure. Maybe 0,2Bar or 3psi more than what you put in the summer tires. This should reduce the bad behavior to same level as with your summer tires. While still having the benefit of winter tire grip.

    But the problem lies in somewhere else. It just easier to feel with winter tires as they are softer. With a bit higher pressure in winter tire the overall hardness will be the same.

    How is the wheel alignment report? 0 toe in at front is within specs for a Prius and that can make it behave like that especially if there is even a slight play in anything. Also sometimes wheel alignment just goes bad or bad parts are not noticed while doing it so I wouldn’t rule that out yet.

    Or maybe the car was like this all the time? And you just started to notice it with the (softer) winter tires. In that case just raising the tire pressure for winter tires would fix it.
     
    #5 valde3, Jan 4, 2017
  6. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    With my original tires at 5/32 tread no problems drove 25,000 miles.

    Winter tires were atrociously bad and scary. Returned those.

    Current tires are a Kelly brand and are not winter tires. They are all-season.

    It is subtle and only at freeway speeds.

    I got wheel alignment done with the winter tires on about 1k miles ago.

    The tire shop is family owned with older equiptment so perhaps the balance is off? I went to belle tire for the alignment.
     
    #6 MilkyWay, Jan 4, 2017
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    maybe a nice pair of michelins...
     
    #7 bisco, Jan 4, 2017
  8. wrprice

    wrprice Active Member

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    Grooved pavement can do that, too. But if you have to put effort into tracking a straight line on regular pavement then something is physically wrong with the car or the tires.

    Prius definitely needs a little bit of toe. I really hope it's just alignment. Take it back if it was recently done and say you're not happy with it. Make sure you get the alignment before/after report; compare with factory specs (don't trust theirs). Sorry I don't have the exact numbers, it's been awhile since my Gen2.
     
    #8 wrprice, Jan 4, 2017
  9. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    I threw the paper out but Belle Tire had a range of numbers for front and back....It was slightly off in front and they adjusted.

    They said rear was ever so slightly out of range but they said they cannot do anything about it?

    I will get it back to them soon.
     
    #9 MilkyWay, Jan 4, 2017
  10. wrprice

    wrprice Active Member

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    Yeah, my understanding is that the only way to adjust the rear alignment on Gen2 is with shims. I wonder if that's still true on Gen3/4, particularly now that 2016+ has independent rear suspension?

    Good luck!
     
    #10 wrprice, Jan 5, 2017
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