Alignment issue?

we took our first road trip in the truck this weekend. I noticed it was pulling to the left on the highway, while in the left lane going 65+ mph. Once we got to a smaller highway, still sometimes going 65+, it stopped pulling to the left. Occasionally it would pull to the right but not as drastic.

I aired up all tires to 33psi the night before the trip.

The dealership told me they rechecked the alignment and it was “fine”. Any ideas what else they could check?

Would camber above or below 0 cause this odd drift?

Also sometimes when I come to a stop the wheels / steering wheel turns on me.

 

Maybe there was road crown to help with drainage. That causes the truck to pull a bit.

 

if you want better speculation then provide the alignment report from that last check as well as your current wheels, tires, pressures, and any other stuff like heavy loads, etc.

 

True. I’ll call dealership tomorrow and get them to redo the alignment. Last I checked he said they didn’t have a printout.

Bf Goodrich 265/70/16 set to 33psi
Just myself and son and less than 10lbs of stuff in the back seat
240lb driver, 160lb passenger

 

i also agree with the above that these trucks track quite a bit and can start to grab a line and go off in that direction. if your alignment specs show as normal then I'd attribute it to that. but all those contributing factors like your response to wind, road contour and camber, momentum, aligned camber, etc are all changeable, of course. but that's another discussion.

 

Good to know. The last truck I owned was a 95 S10 with smaller tires and it drove more like a car. I wasn’t sure if this kind of symptom is “normal”.

 

you're probably on stock wheels & tires? if so you have C or SL load rated tires. those are actually pretty easy to drive and hide a lot of the truck characteristics. if you run E rated tires and have a firmer suspension the truck side shows much more in the handling.

 

Had them “redo” the alignment. I say “redo” because salesman told me it was done and that the technician showed him on the rack that it was fine, but the sales manager told me they had it sent to Meineke to do the alignment last time, with zero issues so there was no paperwork. Interesting.

So now it doesn’t seem to pull like it did on normal roads, but still a decent pull in the left lane on the highway which could be a road crown issue. Dunno.

He offered to replace all 4 tires if I pay mounting and balancing but I don’t know what tires he would put on. Probably not BF Goodrich equivalent. Something cheap, no doubt. Current tires passed inspection in January.

Other option, he mentioned keep the tires on and come back in 6 months or so and he would work some kind of deal. Buy 2 get 2 free kind of deal.

Also the steering wheel is now off center. Annoys the crap out of me when that happens after an alignment. You would think they know better.

Thoughts on those numbers?

 

Your steering wheel should deff be centered and that is the techs fault, They probably did not center it correctly and/or use the "adjust toe with wintoe" setting on the hunter alignment machine.

SOoo. Looking at the toe it is good. However i see a major issue with whoever performed this alignment.
You HAVE!!! to perform a caster sweep so the alignment machine can see those number and adjust all other specs accordingly. Because the area is grayed out its clear the tech never perform a caster sweep before adjusting your toe. So who know if the toe was adjusted correctly.

Your front right camber is slightly off and I would adjust because its pretty border line but technically it is in the green and some techs let that go . But you deff want that as close to the center as possible and well who knows where your caster is at.

A lot of people do not like adjusting caster and camper on these trucks because the centric bolts are usually seized after 40k miles. But in your case is looks like either the tech was not informed enough to know better, lazy or was trying to hide what those measurements were.

 

100% agree with this. and very well said.

 

So I should tell them to go back and do the caster sweep and take a look at the right front camber? I think I read somewhere the camber should be as close to 0 as possible?

looking at the sheet again it looks as if the only thing that really changed was the toe?

 

Absolutely have them do it properly! 0 is usually refereed as the center point on the alignment monitor for each adjustment. When dealing with most measurements they will never be 0. Depending on the year, make, model and manufacturer they set the specifications that the vehicles alignment measurements should be at. So basically you will want each adjustment caster, camber and toe to as close to the center of the print out as possible. As you can see from your print out your front left camber looks good and both front toe adjustments looks basically perfect that measurements are fine, it just should be been done properly.

Here is a link to a forum at has a Toyota pdf file that explains more.

 

Thanks. I dropped it off this morning and they're going to actually have the Toyota dealership technicians work on it this time, instead of the muffler shop.

It feels better than it did but like you said, I would like the alignment to be done correctly. He (sales manager) said he would take care of the tires one way or another. If they're ok now, he will give me a discount when they need to be replaced. I'll see if he can give me that in writing.

 

New alignment completed. Looks like the toe was the biggest problem.

 

Has anyone ever been told that rear end alignment can't be done and that its a "fixed" position. Reason I am asking is because my rear end reading is off and the mechanic showed me that when he clicks for the parameters to adjust it says no adjustments can be made. My truck feels like I am constantly "drifting" at turns and at higher speeds having a sort of sway left and right at different times and never consistent. I'm having to constantly straighten my steering wheel to stay in my lane. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

There's really not much adjustment at all in the rear. The only way it should be off would be if your vehicle was in an accident and the axle or rear frame is bent, or the centering pin broke and the axle is no longer sitting aligned with the leaf springs. What was your rear alignment readings? An easy check is to measure fender clearance both sides and see if there's any significant difference. If you get more curious you can loosen the rear ubolts and see if the centering pin is still in there. The only "adjustment" would be loosening the ubolts and kicking the axle a bit to line it back up, but that adjustment is so minor that i don't see it making a difference in the feeling of the truck.

 

Thanks for the info, unfortunately I did not get a print out of the readings. I am starting to wonder if my truck was in a wreck before I bought it. It was a used 2014 with only 20000miles at the time and the report was clear of any wrecks but doesnt mean it was reported. My dad is a painter at a collision center so I am going to take it there and see if they can tell what the issue is. I'll let ya know the end result of this major headache of a problem.

 

Latest alignment after new tires. Actually this is the 2nd alignment after new tires. 5th alignment in less than two weeks.

Tires were put on yesterday. Alignment done. I drive it around the block, now pulling to the right and steering wheel not center. Took it back to them.

They realigned today. Steering wheel still crooked, pulls to the right. The steering wheel actually centers itself and then car goes to the right.

Losing my patience with these guys.

Any thoughts? Sales manager is calling DSI, who he says specializes in lift kids or Offroad upgrades. Maybe something is loose or more than alignment needs to be checked

 

The toe and camber are within specs but could be much better. I'd take it to a different shop that can dial it in.

 

Alignment shop showed me lower control arm bolts are seized so the caster can’t be adjusted. He said that’s what’s causing the pull.

Oof

Now back to dealershit to see if they are going to pay to replace the LCA’s

They’ll pay 50%. Don’t know what the estimate is yet.

Are lower control arms part of a lift? I don’t think they are but if so then I could just wait and do it when I decide on a lift.

As of right now it’s driving straight and the steering wheel is straight. Berts said he adjusted the toe to reduce some tire wear that will be caused by the unadjustable LCAs.