Weird wandering on road

Okay, so I know there's a ton of threads on the "wandering" with our trucks and I've read almost all of them. It's a 2003 tacoma DC 4X2 with a 2.5" top plate spacer, SPC LR Adjustable UCAs, 2.5" AAL in the rear and 285/75/16 hankook dynapros. Had it aligned and the specs are "perfect" all the Camber and caster and toe are right where it shouldn't have any problems what so ever. Always wants to pull left, switched the front two tires and it went away for about a week then the pull came back, even worse. On the bridge, not too too windy, but it was scary. Felt like a huge gust of wind hit the front right corner of he bumper then the front left and would nose dive back and forth and man it was bad. Tires follow the road more even though their the same width as stock were? Have all tires set to 35PSI. Would higher or lower help? Any custom steering dampener mounts and mount them help? Anything! Thanks!

 

Not sure if the 03's have the same issues as 98's does with the rack n pinion bushings failing. I replaced mine a couple weeks ago and it dramatically fixed the wondering on the road. When I would hit a rut in the road it was a wild ride . Outer tie rod ends may need replaced as well (both effect the tracking of the truck). My .02 cents.

 

Yeah The lower rack bushing has a little bit of movement but the one above it doesn't i don't think. Oh man, ruts in the road is a roller coaster. Or slowing down to a red light and switching lanes with rutted in lines, it's scary. And could it be the tire balance at all? I have no idea. I've tried 3 different things and still can't figure out the movement, not really in the steering wheel as much as it just wandering

 

Sounds a lot like the issue I was having before replacing the bearings. Check out this link, not sure what you mean by lower rack bushings. http://www.tacomaworld.com/out.php?...mods/kristacoma/rackbushings/rackbushings.htm

Did you mean lower control arm bushings had play in it?

 

You need to check the rack bushings, the rack guide, the inner and outer tie rods, and the steering shaft slip joint.

Rack bushings the whole rack will wiggle.
Rack guide the drivers side shaft that the inner TRE bolts to will have excessive play.
With the front tires off the ground you can grab the wheel at 3 and 9. If there is excessive play you'll know.
The slip joint is a bit bigger of a job. You have to pull the whole steering wheel assembly out of the truck and tack weld the slip joint.

Give the first 3 things a try first and go from there.

 

I'm guessing a itre is worn/has play...
that would cause the alignment (specifically toe)
to change when the vehicle is driven.

^ usually that slight pull can vary or change
from one side to the other depending on the crown of the road
or other road surface conditions.

Check: put yer hand on each itre (one at a time)
as the steering wheel is turned right to left.
do you feel any movement or hear any sound ?

If it's not that...
and not play in the rack's mount bushings...

then my 2nd guess will be...
that possible the rack guide is loose/worn internally...
and is allowing the rack to move up and down vertically (slight)
it only takes a little bit of vertical rack movement
to effect the tie rod linkage and create a pull to one side.

The rack guide can be replaced and upgraded to a newer design
if yours is the early production steering rack.

odd... but usually an experienced alignment tech
would notice worn/loose components when doing an alignment. hmmm

 

Brand new tires and I'm gonna see if they can put em back on the balancer to see if their balanced correctly. Are there any ways the tire tread pattern, PSI or anything make it do that? Ill keep trouble shooting it and get back to y'all. Thanks!

 

Inner tie rods.

I had a wandering problem that pissed me off. constantly going right.

Replaced the inner, outer driverside tie rods, fixed...

 

Interesting! Do you have a link to order them by chance? Or brand, moog? Hear they're always the most reliable

 

Well, you need to figure out which side has the play first...

Thats where the alignment shop comes in handy, because they check for play, and usually let you know.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1418453,parttype,7428

MOOG Part # EV409. The inner tie rods, are universal, right or left

MOOG Part # ES3546 Driversider, outer tie rod

MOOG Part # ES3545 Passenger, outer tie rod.


I replaced both (inner/outer) when i did the inner. The reason is that you usually bang the fuck out of the outer tie rod end, and its usually a shitty rusty mess (castle nut/threads,ect)

plus, you HAVE to replace the cotter pin, and having a horribly desroyed castle nut doesnt help. Also, when you remove the outer tie rod, you have to bang on the housing, but there is a very high chance you will miss a swing, and nail the threads on the outer tie rod, and smash those shits flat.

Its much less of a pain in the ass to change both at the same time, than it is to re-use.

 

Bad news though, mentioned the tie rods and everything to the alignment guy today and he said when I aligned it I checked all the ball joints, bushings, etc. and everything's tight. That concerns me because something isn't right.

 

I have the exact same tires and I Had this exact same problem. I did notice it was worse running around 30-34Psi. I bumped mine up to 44psi and it went away. Its worth a quick try before opening up the wallet.

 

Really? When they got installed they set em at I think 45 PSI? Maybe 50. But I have dropped them all to 35PSI for a better ride. Ill get back when I try it out

 

yeah Mine max out at 50.But I think it rides better when they are stiff, so i like them in the 40-45psi range.

 

I am having the same problem with my 07 PreRunner; it always wanders around. Bumps and grooves in the road or uneven surfaces are a nightmare. I went to get it aligned today and basically found out most my bushings in my control arms are bad... especially the lower left control arm. The tech showed me a quick way to see if you need new bushings or not:

Have your truck at a dead stop,
Throw it in either D or R,
With your foot on the brake, let off for just enough time for the truck to move, then slam on the brake again to stop it.
Rapidly repeat this process for 3-5 times or until you're satisfied
(basically what you see people doing when they've waited on a red light for too long, but more acute)

When you do this (if you have bad bushings in your control arms) you should see some play going on around the actual bushing. Mine was pretty bad unfortunately.
From what I've researched, bad bushings in your control arms will cause a "wandering" effect when driving. Hope this helps!