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I find that when I drive in the left lane the car did not pull anymore not even to the left. Has anyone noticed this? Could it be it needs to be adjusted to be driven in the right lane instead of the left?
Last edited by Cool Rondo : 04-03-2008 at 02:31 PM.
I've rented 6 V6 Rondos now, 2 EX and 4 LX, and find that they all track perfectly. There can be lemons, however.
One question I have is when the vehicle is tested, is it on a flat road surface ?? This can make a real difference if the road is crowned to aid draining.
I would not think the engine choice would make much difference in this problem.
This might sound simplistic, but I noticed this on a trip to Detroit yesterday. On roads with heavy truck traffic my wife's Rondo pulled to the right in the far right lane. The older and more worn the pavement the more pronounced the pull. Less or no pull in the far left lane. On a brand new section south of Detroit there was no pull whatsoever, in any lane. Food for thought.
John
Goggles Pizano - was reading your technical feedback with interest, I'm not very technical myself when it comes to vehicles, but I was just curious as to what your reaction is regarding the fact that all these pulling problems appear to be just for owners of V6's and not the I4.
I have the I4, and my vehicle tracks beautiful and handles great, absolutely no complaints in that area.
Conwelpic;
Take a look at my prior post about Mechanical problems... I haven't had a chance to stick my head under one of these yet, but if they have in fact put different length drive shafts in the V6 (and even length in the 4 cyl), then this is what could be causing the problem. But, if this is the case, you would notice it more under load then just general driving. Because of the different motor it may sit less centered in the engine bay so this may be the problem. Not sure yet!
As to I4 being perfect bat spit. I was sent here by someone in another forum. This I4 my wife bought is the worst handling piece of junk I have ever driven. I4's have unequal drive shafts, something that most other manufacturers seem to have fixed. Even found old engineering record where Ford decided to fix that problem by adding an extender to transmission output to stop that issue.
Alignment man is correct in what have been tricks of trade. But I also found doing a search for something else a couple of years back where Ford lost big law suit because of such fixes as grinding, changing bolt sizes, bending struts, etc. I sure as hell don't want such modifications done to a factory new vehicle.
I am in the process of filling lemon law paperwork on this heap. I have to give them one more opportunity to fix handling issue, by law, after filing. The dealer tried to hide the fact they were going to grind holes in front struts to fix cambor on front, but I have no idea what they were going to do about the excessive caster. And still there would be the issue of cambor on RR. And even if they chopped, beat, bent, etc., and put alignment in specs, they would have no fix for torque steer as I see it. And for good measure there is the question of tires. The Hankook that came on this vehicle have a slight angular pattern running from one sidewall to the other. KIA dealer claims these are not directional tires. Called Hankook and talked to technical engineer and it was like he was unaware. I discussed possible squirm and reaction to both tires on axle encountering deep water simultaneously. Not admitting a problem, he suggested having the tires swapped for a different design, prorata. Perhaps Hankook expected KIA would mount all wheels with the same sidewall out, which they obviously did not, and that was brought up as well. It was after I questioned which sidewall should be out that the engineer reached for replacing tires. I guess maybe they don't know which should be out, that is, if the tires were mounted symmetrically should the slant grooves be working away from or toward center of vehicle, rather than all left or right.
That said, there certainly can be a trick matching the best tire to any vehicle. And one of the handling excuses I've heard from two KIA dealers and with vehicles in general is that low profile tires are the culprit. Bat spit again. First the manufacturer should know how the vehicle will handle with the tires they put on and it should not be badly. Especially if they offer a lower profile option. As one tire maker used to say, "where the rubber meets the road." And lower profile is all about more rubber meeting the road. Brakes are only useful to the extent that tires do the job, so in my opinion tires are more important than brakes.
My vehicle has 235-55-16 and I believe that qualifies as low profile. If I roll over an anomaly that causes a slight shift in the vehicle, do nothing as it will return to straight as quickly as it crossed that spot. Not with this KIA, be prepared to wrestle it into going straight again.
And that brings me to another connection, the size of the steering wheel. They must have designed the driver seat around a short small Korean. I say this because of the curve to the seat back, a head-rest that many complain about, tilt-steering which I thought was a comfort thing but instead ends up being an adjustment for seeing the speedometer. One position for seeing highway speeds and the other for city speeds. And a hard surfaced, slippery surfaced, small diameter steering wheel that forces pulling my shoulders together. A larger diameter wheel would also make for easier steering. As it is, I find myself putting a death grip on it to control this rolling accident waiting to happen. And any distance over a few miles causes fatigue and pain in hands, arms, and shoulders. And it is not just me. My wife, maybe 135#, also mentioned she found herself putting a death grip on the wheel resulting in the same. (It took until the new wore off before she would admit vehicle faults.) I have overcome some of this issue by wearing leather gloves that will stick to the wheel.
My suggestion would be that anyone who wants a good ride, get a car. There are some things that just can not be designed out of a vehicle that sits high in the air. Especially when it is designed to be light weight and sits on a narrow wheel-base.
Looking for the good, the vehicle is far more quiet than I would have expected, but is already showing signs of deterioration such as a wind whistle.
BTW, on getting help from KIA, I was told by dealership it would take six months to get technical engineer to show up. I called KIA and was told the same garbage.
Linear Mode
