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Drives: 2003 Ford Ranger, 2007 KIA Rondo EX V6, 1997 Suzuki Savage
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*update*
Got my car back the service center on Friday. No more pull. It drives great.
When asked, he said they had to overcompensate the alignment. They actually didnt do the work. It was sent to an "alignment specialist"...so i guess i would need to talk to this guy if i wanted more details.
I DO have some comments on the pre and final settings....
Goggles Pizano, I have only driven it home that day. I have not since. The Rondo is mainly driven by my wife and when I asked if she found a difference she replied "I never noticed", so she wasn't looking for it.
Like I said, it does seem better but it still seems there. And I am with the post above, it you have to make modifications to factory settings such as drilling, bending, or whatnot it begs bad build quality. After going through what I went through it hard to tell what is normal anymore. I know that my 2003 Santa Fe is more comfortable to drive and that should not even be remotely the case.
I am talking with the local Toyota dealer and depending on how things go I may be finally rid of the problem. Trick is that Toyota will not buy my Rondo, they will only do the deal if they can get a Kia dealer to buy it and funny the Kia dealers don't seem to want to purchase a vehicle that they already sell???? That shows a tonne of confidence in the product they sell, doesn't it?
You would be surprised how much of this type of "adjusting" goes on. We used to grind out holes and aftermarket tool manufacturers actually make add ons to fix these kinds of problems. I've seen where a fix is to put a smaller diameter bolt in the upper bolt hole of the strut-to-spindle mount to get the adjustment necessary, and then they supply a wedge as well to put between the spindle and strut to keep things from changing. It is very common now-a-days for the manufacturers to make vehicles with no adjustments for caster/camber.
GP, why do manufacturers make vehicles without adjustments for caster/camber? If those adjustments are absent, it seems like you're just asking for trouble. The only solutions that are left seem to be half-baked (grinding out holes, using a smaller diameter bolt, etc.) when the problem might have been solved quite easily if there were caster/camber adjustments. Are these type of solutions considered normal in the industry, or does this just beg bad build quality in the vehicle itself (as Narvo has suggested)?
nthums1 has talked quite a bit about the torque steer in his I4 Rondo due to the unequal drive shafts (I'm presuming he knows this for a fact), but quite honestly, I haven't heard anyone else complain about an overbearing amount of torque steer in the Rondo (i.e., a sudden pull to the right when accelerating, although maybe that's what some people are talking about in this thread). Is torque steer inherent, to a certain degree, in all front-wheel drives?
BTW, if my questions sound naive, it's because I don't know what I'm talking about.
Last edited by MedicineMan : 04-09-2008 at 10:06 PM.
I am talking with the local Toyota dealer and depending on how things go I may be finally rid of the problem. Trick is that Toyota will not buy my Rondo, they will only do the deal if they can get a Kia dealer to buy it and funny the Kia dealers don't seem to want to purchase a vehicle that they already sell???? That shows a tonne of confidence in the product they sell, doesn't it?
I don't think this would be any different no matter what brand, the Toyota dealer wants to get its maximum return in order to sell you a vehicle, but if the KIA dealer cannot buy it at the price he wants to pay and make a profit thats pure economics and not lack of confidence in the product.
If you are dealer in a one year old vehicle, regardless of the make, you are not going to buy it and loose money as you are competing against your own product and how are you going to resell it?
In my case, my local KIA dealer is across the road from the Toyota dealer with the Mazda dealer at the end of this short street between the two. The KIA and Mazda dealership are owned by the same auto group.
__________________ Mileage: 21,200 km (13,200 miles), Ownership: 13 months
nthums1 has talked quite a bit about the torque steer in his I4 Rondo due to the unequal drive shafts (I'm presuming he knows this for a fact), but quite honestly, I haven't heard anyone else complain about an overbearing amount of torque steer in the Rondo (i.e., a sudden pull to the right when accelerating, although maybe that's what some people are talking about in this thread). Is torque steer inherent, to a certain degree, in all front-wheel drives?
BTW, if my questions sound naive, it's because I don't know what I'm talking about.
I've been driving front wheel drive vehicles for so long now that I think I expect some torque steer if I boot the throttle hard and with some lock on. I don't find it especially noticeable on my Carens but the diesel does have loads of torque (around 225 ft/lbs - much more than even the V6) and with no traction control option in the UK, I can feel the front wheels 'scrabbling' with my manual transmission if I'm rough with the throttle pulling away at junctions with a loose surface (we have plenty of those now in the UK). This is what your favourite source says: Torque steering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Whether the Carens/Rondo has unequal drive shafts is beyond me short of putting the vehicle on a ramp to look underneath. It's not uncommon with transverse engine installations as the gearbox is normally at one end of the engine. Having said all that, the Carens/Rondo has many feature to minimise the effect including traction control in many markets.
If it was really an issue it would have shown up in a road test report.
I talked to the local Toyota dealer about trading my Rondo for a Matrix. They called around to a few Kia dealerships to see what they could get for it. The highest offer for my 2008 Kia Rondo EX V6 7 passenger was $16,500. Current retail on this model new is $25,545. So my Rondo has depreciated $9,045 in 6 months and 12,000kms. Solid re-sale value.
Anyone else feel they are going to have to drive their Rondo into the ground? Re-sale is looking very bad. I won't be getting a Matrix anytime soon unless I can sell the Rondo privately and do a convenience deal through the Toyota dealer.
no matter what make the first year is always the heaviest and particular if you want to trade on something of similar value. What's the list on the '09 Matrix that you was interested in? Also when there is very little increase in price from one year to the next. My model increased $100 from '07 to '08 and with all the various programs and deals being offered because the the dollar, its going to be worse.
You'd have to buy a $40K + SUV or something like that to make some major headway.
__________________ Mileage: 21,200 km (13,200 miles), Ownership: 13 months
no matter what make the first year is always the heaviest and particular if you want to trade on something of similar value. What's the list on the '09 Matrix that you was interested in? Also when there is very little increase in price from one year to the next. My model increased $100 from '07 to '08 and with all the various programs and deals being offered because the the dollar, its going to be worse.
You'd have to buy a $40K + SUV or something like that to make some major headway.
The 09 Matrix I was looking at was $21,990 (Auto) or 20,435 (Standard). I might see what I can get on the private sale market.
Here are a couple listed in Calgary (Private sale).
Linear Mode
