Hard Braking issues?

[scathma]

On a couple occasions now I've braked hard and I've noticed that the rear end seems to want to come around.

In these situations (for example when a line of fast moving traffic slows down abruptly) I've been on straight stretches of road so there is no steering input. I'm essentially just pressing the brake pedal firmly - not locking the brakes to the point the ABS kicks in. My tire pressures are all the same at 35 psi.

The rear end feels really loose and the car gets a little squirrely. I've had a fair number of economy cars and have never felt a car as loose as this one in these types of situations.

Anybody else experience this or have any relevant thoughts?

[PhatRoyale]

My guess is that it's the design of the rear suspension, which a torsion beam setup that gives that feeling.

What other generation economy cars did you own before the new Corolla?

[johncal]

Originally Posted by scathma

On a couple occasions now I've braked hard and I've noticed that the rear end seems to want to come around.

In these situations (for example when a line of fast moving traffic slows down abruptly) I've been on straight stretches of road so there is no steering input. I'm essentially just pressing the brake pedal firmly - not locking the brakes to the point the ABS kicks in. My tire pressures are all the same at 35 psi.

The rear end feels really loose and the car gets a little squirrely. I've had a fair number of economy cars and have never felt a car as loose as this one in these types of situations.

Anybody else experience this or have any relevant thoughts?

My relavant thought would be to lower the air pressure to 32psi as recommended by Toyota. That will help to some extent because at higher inflation pressures, the footprint on the tire becomes smaller. Under heavy braking, the front tires load up increasing the size of the footprint and the rear tires unload making the footprint even smaller. If that doesn't help, I would take it back to Toyota. That should not happen at all in a straight line. You may have a defective proportioning valve in the braking system or something else seriously wrong. The Toyota braking system is very complicated and if you have VSC it is tied to a computer. Anything could be defective or in need of recalibration.

[scathma]

Recently I've had an '01 Hyundai Accent, '02 VW Golf, '05 Scion xB and an '07 Yaris. All had ABS except the Accent. Only the Golf had rear discs.

I have VSC and the rear TRD sway bar for what it's worth...

It does feel like there is something that needs to be recalibrated.

Thanks for the input.

[RollaRed]

The rear end does swing out when you break hard. I was waiting on left turn to go green like 3 days a go and the driver across from me is waiting to make a right. Im not sure if he saw me coming but when i was taking the turn he also took the turn with me and He nearly hit me so i breaked pretty hard and my rear end swung out. The car slid and I had to counter steer to bring it back. It was pretty scary, my stomach got tight when i saw the curve getting closer but i managed to swing it back around.