Protege5 Drifting
 

any p5 owners out there experiencing a drift? about 2 weeks ago, i had to take mine back to mazda to correct that. i also heard there was another scheduled that day for the same thing. anyone else have that problem? :confused:

What do you mean by drifting. Like steering one way or what?

Drifting
 

yeah, it was pulling to the right a bit. the y fixed my steering whell and adjusted my alignment. anyone else come across this?

Wil
 

Get that thing fixed. dang how long has it been that way like a month. :p

I took my car in twice cause I thought the alignment was off. The first time they did an alignment, and it does the same thing. The second time the tech went out with me, and drove it alone. He said something about how the car will generally go where the road takes it. I guess cause highways are kind of humped, so that water drains to the sides. So, if you're driving in the left lane, the car pulls to the left. Right lane, pulls to the right. It makes sense. I checked it out, and it does that. (I don't usually drive in the right lane...) He said he has seen it in other cars with lower-profile tires. BS? Who knows, but it does seem to make sense.

Not sure if low profile's would have anything to do with it but yes if the road is at a angle your car will steer over the way it is leaning.

If you are driving on a totally flat surface and the car drifts one way or the other, then your alignment may be out. I have noticed with my P5 that the alignment and steering seem to be set up so that the car follows the slant of the road more than some others. How the alignment is spec'd can affect how strong the car holds its line. If I go on a road that tilts to the left, it goes left, if the road tilts to the right, it goes right.

Also, if the tires and rims are wide and low profile, the car will tend to follow the ruts in the road. I have 7" wide rims on my VW Cabrio, and it really likes to track up the ruts (pulls uphill in a sense), but my alignment is good. The P5 does not seem to do this nearly as much, but I think the P5 has only 6.5" wide rims.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Pro5girlie - if your car goes straight on a flat surface, then your alignment is probably OK.

Also - one more thing - uneven tire pressures can make a very significant impact on how your car pulls. If one tire is really low, you may feel like you have an alignment problem. Always check your tire pressures first.

Drifty...
 

My new P5 pulls to the right on the highway too. :squint:

drifting
 

My MP3 seems to pull to the right a little as well.

yes, exactly same thing on mine, puling to the right... they redid the alignment and said it's "not usually done" when new ?!?!? hmm... anyways, seems ok now... we'll see...