Is anyone paying attention to the uneven weight distribution on left hand drive genII prius models? The transaxle weight according to a diy replacement shipped to his house was 350lbs. The ice weighs about 175lbs. The combination is off centered in the engine comparment imho.. With single occupant (driver me 200lbs) this puts approximately 300lbs more on driverside front tire... This isn't a problem for right hand drive model prius sold in other countries (right side driver probably ballances out well).. But here in america I have to consistantly run a couple extra pound of air in drivers front tire.. I always rotate my own tires and all tires have assumed this front driver position many times after a fresh rotation . the drivers front tire buldge is nearly equal to passenger front tire..but as miles accumulate additional pressure is needed on drivers front. I have orignal goodyear tires orignal alignment, and have perfect tire wear and have 53k on orignals and will last approx 80k miles if trend continues. With out equal distances from street to bottom of front wheel rims tires will rotate uneven amount of turns while going straight causing unneeded wear on differencial gears producing unneeded contaminated to transsaxle.. Hope this helps fellow prius owners reach the million mile club.
How have you verified this claim? Did you take it to get corner weighted? Have you measured tire temperatures?
epoch- You come up with the craziest stuff I have ever heard. You have the worlds worst tire. Goodyear Integritys. That tire is one big pOs! The car rides like a stagecoach with those tires. There dangerous in the rain and terrible in snow. They handle really bad and may be the loudest tire I have even ridden on. I counted the days till I could get them off my car. The tire is not leaking air because of the extra load its leaking air because its cold out. The Integrities are crap and will lose almost 3+ lbs each in one night if it gets really cold. We have all known about this for years. They are a LRR tire which means the sidewall is very stiff and makes for a very poor seal on the rim when temps change. Get used to checking the tire pressure almost daily.
edthefox my tire is not leaking any more than the rest. you an others can verify the load imbalance simlpy by measuring clearance from front tire tops to fender . Just make fist and insert between front tires and fender. Ive never seen gen2 left hand driver prius that isnt leaning!
No kidding! It made me think back to guy who was siphoning off oil periodically. Turns out, it's the same guy as the OP. See mobile-1 15k good to 4k milles only | PriusChat.
People said the same about Einstine, Gallaleo, and others "Those guys said the craziest stuff" ( as interpeted by the less intelligant).
let me add to the club. Firzt set of turanza's 195 55 16 I had an uneven wear on the front (I have right hand drive). Then I have fitted some other tires, I have uneven wear on front: Driver side 3mm Passenger side 2.0mm Rear tires are brand new. I will have wheel alignment done next Wednesday by Toyota dealership. Can you advise if the uneven tread on front would affect the tracking? Should I put two new tyres on front to ''balance the height'' on front before the wheel alignment? or if I simply move the two front wheels to the rear and swap the rear to the front, would this work okay for me?
Agape; I don't think one milimeter would be noticable on tracking or effect an alignment. How many miles on your front tires that produced the 2mm and 3mm wear? How many miles are on your prius? Does your prius have the orignal alignment (negative camber = bottom of tires stick out from vechicle) ? If your front tires are perfectly verticle (tire tread meets the road equally) your vechicle has been aligned before (no problem, I was just wondering 0camber) Eyeball compairing front wheels to rear wheels (rear have negative camber and cannot be adjusted easily.) will be able to tell if fronts still have negative camber. If your prius still has negative camber (factory alignment) a one millimeter difference might be noticable tracking while heavy braking. If your prius has been aligned with near 0 camber 1 or 2 milimeters difference shouldn't be detectable.. I'm not sure what mileage is on your front tires but to get the best alignemt the newer rear tires would be best on the front before you get the alignment done.. Its interesting that your drivers side had more wear (right hand side) I would have expected the passenger side (left side) to have more wear..
My prius has 187, 000km's I can't tell exactly what mileage on these tires. On the rear I have two brand new ones. I will swap these to front for the Wednesday alignment.
The picture of today's wheel alignment may answer some of the questions. The rear have negative camber. The front appear to have negative camber as well (there is some discrepancy on the camber (between the left and right). link to the picture: Some interesting Recall happenings. Need advice | Page 3 | PriusChat Newer tires were moved to front before the alignment, the tires pressure has been corrected.
