Mystery "bounce"!

Sometime in the last year, our RAV4 has been acting… strangely. Highway speed left-hand turns (the kind that would be rated for 55 mph and taken at 60-65mph, even 70mph)… OK.

Highway speed right-hand turns? Well, the best way to describe it is that I’m under the impression that suspensions (or suspension systems, or whatever you call this part of the car) are supposed to dampen lateral shocks. At these speeds, it feels like the system is amplifying lateral shocks!

It seems to take highway speeds (60+ mph) for this to happen. Two hands on the wheel, the bounce is less bad, but this isn’t entirely a pleasant sensation.

Even worse, this doesn’t happen to either my mechanic or my wife! My wife has felt it, but when she drives the car (alone) it doesn’t happen to her. My mechanic checked six months ago and didn’t notice it.

I have not isolated whether or not this only happens if there’s a wife sitting in the passenger seat.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be, and how I can describe it to my mechanic to get it fixed?

A long post, but quite short on actual information. Amplifying lateral shocks? Huh? Please describe the effect more accurately. Take as many words as you need.

Please provide us with the year and mileage of your RAV4.

Believe it or not, it helps.

My guess is we’ll never hear from LpAngelRoB again.

Hey! I’m still here!

2008 RAV4, 51,190 miles.

I’ll try with different words. Left-hand curves feel normal, like the car has a good “grip” on the road. Right-hand curves feel erratic, like the car does not have a good grip on the road. At times it feels like the rear end of the car is swerving, though I’m pretty confident it’s not actually swerving.

I did run into a curb last April, if that helps. The damage was fixed by a shop.

Long ago I had a Mazda GLC that did what you describe. It was a bad CV axle.