96 camry-steering slips during right hand curves

Had new rack and pinion installed. Mechanic tells me there is nothing wrong with car but cleaned and adjusted rear brakes. Brakes and steering are now tight, but wheels still slip. It almost caused an accident during a rainy night and i took it back again the next morning. Still they tell me there is nothing wrong with it but they did another wheel alignment anyway. now it pulls real bad to the left. I think my tires will be worn, along with my wrist, and eventually the wheels will start slipping again after alighnment adjusts itself. By slipping, I mean I was describing to friends as if during a curve it was like the front left wheel encountered ice. But when it rained and it slipped I could tell both wheels (the steering) slipped,like a fishing rod responds to the big one, but so far it only slips once and then its only every 3-5 right hand curves. Thanks for any advice!!! Mark

Reply to
markdraugelis
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If you mean wheel-spin, then you need to make sure your tyres have adequate tread for the rainy weather. If you apply a lot of engine power in newly wet or muddy conditions, you'll get front wheel slip on corners from the wheel on the inside of the turning radius as body weight shifts away from that wheel to the other.

If this is the case, as they say in some workshop manuals: "revise driving technique" or slow -down a bit.

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

I dont know what you really mean but some tire makes go slippery, hard and dangerous in as little as 4 years regardless of tread left. If tires are over 4-5 years replace them. A broken belt that could not be detected by a pro even taking the tire off the rim on my Michelin with

35000m made my car Jump around corners once in a while and made the steering wheel shake. Tires are always my first suspicion, fronts get major abuse on a fwd car.
Reply to
m Ransley

Check your differential fluid! You should do this immediately before driving the car. The differential is kind of interesting. It delivers a functionally solid link providing power to both axles through a series of bevel "spider" gears which can also allow the axles to rotate independently. The effect is that you get constant power delivery to both wheels even during turns. During turns, the distance traveled by the outer wheel is actually slightly further and the inner tire is actually tracking a shorter distance, so the differential allows the wheels to receive power from the transmission while turning at slightly different rates. If the axles were solidly locked, we could expect to see the behaviour you're describing. If you have the four cylinder, you probably have a separate differential fluid reservoir. This is nice because that oil remains completely uncontaminated by any wear of the clutch disk friction material in the automatic transmission (assuming you have an automatic). However, it is not uncommon for mechanics to forget to service the differential properly. The fill plug is all the way in back. If someone drained the differential with the transmission, and forgot to refill, or you have a slow leak at an axle seal or elsewhere, and the unit has allowed to run low on oil for any length of time, and now your differential is locking up from lack of lubrication, you may wind up needing a replacement transaxle, which is the automatic transmission and differential together as a unit.

Reply to
Daniel

You are describing understeer (also called "push"). Your front tires are skidding on wet roads. If you have anti-lock brakes and you apply the brakes while the front tires are slipping the ABS system should start pulsing.

Go to

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and follow the steps to do a search for tires that fit your car. When you have a list of tires click on the "survey" to see how other drivers rated individual tires and pay special attention to wet traction.

For example my Sienna was delivered with some Firestone or Bridgestone tires that were awful in the rain but I replaced them with better tires and the car is fine. Right now I'm using Bridgestone Turanza LS-T tires. I put Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires on my daughter's car. You should find plenty of good replacement tires for your car.

ACAR

Reply to
ACAR

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