Camry - Car of choice for Anesthesiologists?

[ottopotamus]

This is my first post in this forum although I have received much help in reading many of the previous posts.

I recently inherited a 2001 Camry and although it is a good car, one thing I really dislike about it is that the steering is so numb to the road.

I've been searching the internet on how to gain more steering feel, but the only thing I found that seemed worth while was someone trying to make his BMW M3 feel more like a Porsche (not like he had it too bad to begin with). He went through all the suspension mods, but the thing that he claimed helped the most was using urethane bushings. I know that Energy Suspensions and SuperPro make urethane bushings, but nobody seems to make all of them for the Camry. I assume that the biggest impact would be in the steering rack itself and saw that SuperPro does make urethane steering rack bushings. I would really like to hear from someone that has specifically tried these, but would also like to hear from anyone trying other urethane bushings. If your tried them, did it enable you to get more steering feedback and be able to feel the road better?

[touringcamry]

Dunno about anesthesiologists and Camry, but more millionaires own Toyotas than any other brand of car. About 10 years ago, the car of choice was Ford Taurus.

[Luckynumber5]

Do your struts and get some springs, look for Tokico struts and some Eibach springs (they are pretty good quality)

You could try this first, its only $10 (and shipping) and it really changed how my 92 Camry feels.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/STRUT...spagenameZWDVW

[ottopotamus]

Originally Posted by Luckynumber5

Do your struts and get some springs, look for Tokico struts and some Eibach springs (they are pretty good quality)

You could try this first, its only $10 (and shipping) and it really changed how my 92 Camry feels.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/STRUT...spagenameZWDVW

I had already purchased the Tokicos and planned to go with the Eibachs to get rid of the boat (floating) feel when going over bumps. The stock setup just doesn't recover fast enough for my tastes.

I am willing to try the strut bar also, especially if these eBay versions are good enough.

I still would like to hear from people that have changed their bushings to urethane and what impact that had.

[marc780]

Dunno about anesthesiologists and Camry, but more millionaires own Toyotas than any other brand of car. About 10 years ago, the car of choice was Ford Taurus.

I think maybe he is saying something like the Camry steering has a numb feeling like an anesthesioligist make it numb?

[Drifta89]

I'm not sure if this the numb feeling you're talking about, but have you tried checking the tire pressure?

My uncle gave my brother a 93 camry. It rode like it was floating on air and didn't have much grip to the road. We checked the tire pressue and it was ways past were it should have been for normal driving situations. My uncle must have looked at the max tire pressure that the tires could handle and filled it up to that. I think there was like 45psi of air in the tire when it should have been around 30psi for normal driving conditions.

Dropping the air pressure made a huge difference and the car finally felt like it touching the road.

[ottopotamus]

Originally Posted by Drifta89

I'm not sure if this the numb feeling you're talking about, but have you tried checking the tire pressure?

Thanks, but the tire pressure is good.

All the Camry's that I have driven (1989, 2001, 2005) feel numb to the road to me. It is a trait that seems to be common to many Toyotas, especially those based upon the Camry since test drives of the Sienna and Highlander gave me similar feelings. My old 1987 Celica GT-S felt okay and the first year that the RAV4 came out it felt okay, but the latest RAV4 feels numb. The Toyota 4Runners (new and older models) have a much better feel of the road to me.

[midnightmach]

Well if you look in your owners manual there says there is should be about 30mm of freeplay on the steering wheel (meaning you can move the wheel a little with no action from the car), maybe find a way do get rid of that.

[Toysrme]

You'll never change the actual feel & feedbakc of the steering. You'll need to replace everything associated with it minus the power steering pump.
You can change the suspension, not the steering.
it's that simple.
It's meant to basically out-ride a caddy/lincoln type car of the same class at 1/2 2/3 of the cost.

[tacomasrock]

Maybe it's the numbing thing. Might have something to do with novocane steering.

I had to. Sorry. If anything, they are teacher-mobiles.

The new Camry looks sweet. I would recommend it, but there are some people on this site complaining about tranny issues. Mabye next year they will be better.

[Grayguy]

this is exactly why I've been tryign to think of a way to put a differnt rack in my car.

[marc780]

The new Camry looks sweet. I would recommend it,

Glad someone thinks so. To me there isnt one good looking car on the road that doesnt say Ferrari on the badge. I bought the Camry cause i need to get to work and i am tired of working on unreliable crap. That makes it beautiful to me.

[akira751]

If you want to feel the road in a Camry buy a 2007 SE model. This is a new Camry that just turns heads when you drive by.