Auris Hybrid Ride Quality

[vonkhaled]

Hi everyone! 

I need some help with my Auris Hybrid. I’ve had the car since July last year and in the beginning I really liked the ride quality, but since a few months it’s been awful! The car was vibrating and almost jumping it’s way forward.  The car has been back to Toyota at two occasions and they have changed ball joints, lower control arms etc. No change whatsoever and they then switched focus to the tyres since they were low profile, but I’ve changed to new tyres and even tried the car with winter tyres and it’s still the same. I’ve even changed all the brakes (pads and discs).

Today the ride is dreadful, it feels like the front tyres are oval and the car is doing little jumps on the road. It’s never settled. The car feels heavy somehow. It’s like driving a Lada 😓

Has anyone noticed something like this? 

[TonyHSD]

Hi and welcome to the club. Auris are small Japanese cars despite made in the UK and like so they are of the harder side of a ride quality. In the winter with lower temperature the things are getting even worse, switching to winter tyres and constantly monitoring tyres pressures helps with the ride in general, same applies for the summer, equipping with softer tyres like Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance will help you get the most of it. Changing suspension and break parts will not help you. There is a possibility the Hybrid versions to be fitted with harder shock absorbers but this needs to be checked first, I am not sure about it but if it is indeed than only option to make it softer is to fit springs and shock absorbers from non hybrid versions, but handling may be affected. Golf and Focus has better ride for sure, but no hybrids there. Lexus ct200 for example has a rough ride quality exactly like Prius gen 3 and Auris. You may need just to get use to it. 

Regards 

[eygo]

jack the car up and spin the wheels have a look at the tread and see if the tyre is running true

the attached video is for checking for a bent rim but if you used the same method and placed the piece

of wood in front of the tyre you would see how true the tyre is

 

[HS78]

Another option would to have the front wheels balanced at a garage. This would also enable a visual inspection of the tyre at high speed to see if it is out of shape when rotated. The original poster mentioned vibration so potentially wheel balancing issues. Worth checking as wheel balancing is quick and reasonably cost effective. 

[eygo]

if they are clip on weights there maybe some missing

although imo you should never use clip ons on alloys

as they ruin the lacquer and cause the paint to crack

and chip off.

[vonkhaled]

On 3/3/2019 at 9:37 PM, TonyHSD said:

Hi and welcome to the club. Auris are small Japanese cars despite made in the UK and like so they are of the harder side of a ride quality. In the winter with lower temperature the things are getting even worse, switching to winter tyres and constantly monitoring tyres pressures helps with the ride in general, same applies for the summer, equipping with softer tyres like Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance will help you get the most of it. Changing suspension and break parts will not help you. There is a possibility the Hybrid versions to be fitted with harder shock absorbers but this needs to be checked first, I am not sure about it but if it is indeed than only option to make it softer is to fit springs and shock absorbers from non hybrid versions, but handling may be affected. Golf and Focus has better ride for sure, but no hybrids there. Lexus ct200 for example has a rough ride quality exactly like Prius gen 3 and Auris. You may need just to get use to it. 

Regards 

 

On 3/4/2019 at 6:46 PM, eygo said:

jack the car up and spin the wheels have a look at the tread and see if the tyre is running true

the attached video is for checking for a bent rim but if you used the same method and placed the piece

of wood in front of the tyre you would see how true the tyre is

 

 

On 3/4/2019 at 7:12 PM, HS78 said:

Another option would to have the front wheels balanced at a garage. This would also enable a visual inspection of the tyre at high speed to see if it is out of shape when rotated. The original poster mentioned vibration so potentially wheel balancing issues. Worth checking as wheel balancing is quick and reasonably cost effective. 

 

On 3/4/2019 at 9:06 PM, eygo said:

if they are clip on weights there maybe some missing

although imo you should never use clip ons on alloys

as they ruin the lacquer and cause the paint to crack

and chip off.

Hi everyone and thank you for all your help! Sorry for the late answer, I’ve been quite busy at work the last week. After driving the car for almost 100 miles this week, it’s very evident that the car is “jumpy”. I realize that the suspension is firm but this is beyond firmness, it’s jumping around like crazy on the left front side. No wheels are loose, checked them all this morning. I’ve had a friend and neighbor drive the car and they all feel the symptoms which I have described earlier. Today I also visited my uncle who is a car technician and he drove it for awhile. According to him, either the shock absorber on the front left side has stopped working or the engine has moved (mountings out of place). I’m leaving the car with him on Monday and hopefully he’ll find the cause of this. 

I’ll keep you all informed :). 

[vonkhaled]

So a little update: I’ve had the shock absorbers changed in the front and I’ve ordered new ones for the read aswell. The car is really smooth now and I don’t have any more jumpy behavior which I did before. A bit surprised that the shocks gave up after only 60000 km (~37000 miles).

The car will probably be traded in this summer, as I’m in the process of ordering a new Corolla. Well, the new owner will be pleased by the smooth ride 😅😄

 

once again, thank you for your help!