Check your alignment.

I'm in for my 5k service, noted some minor feathering in the outer blocks of the tires and asked them to check the alignment. They just came back and showed me the toe is out of spec. -0.8 left, -0.25 right.

Get it checked guys.

 

Mine was out at the 10K service. They told me it was free before 1 year or 12k miles so had them fix it up.

Something is not being torqued correctly.....

 

Mine was out at 3500 miles. Tires also out of balance.

 

Just got it back and no highway driving but it does feel tighter.

The negative about having toe zeroed in is that the steering wheel will never appear straight when driving except on the flattest of roads. I suspect this may be the reason for some sloppy toe from the factory. Every road has a crown to shed water and that angle is usually to the passenger side which means you'll slightly pull to the right on those roads.

Have had this experience with multiple vehicles after zeroing in the toe. If you're OCD like me you'll want to question what's more important, your tires or your OCD.

 

Thanks for posting this.......I was in dealer for accessory and told them to check it. Sure enough needed to aligned at 180 miles.

 

Is this not something you guys get checked regularly? I've always done an alignment shortly after purchasing a vehicle.

 

1st new vehicle I've ever purchased......usually buy pre-owned but wanted new on truck so I know the history!

 

700km on mine and I know it's out. Pulls to the right all the time

 

after my hit getting the right pull i expected it to be a toe issue. the right pull was strong and consistent, so i figured it had to be the front left wheel toed inward. but, to my surprise, the toe was dead on, factory spec... it was the camber that went out. apparently the strong one-sided pull can come from uneven camber with these kinds of tires (mine are ST Maxx). the front left got some negative camber from the hit (-0.6), where normally these are set at 0.0 camber both sides. less than a degree of negative camber led to a strong consistent right pull... something i learned about trucks vs. sports car setup. in cars it's similar of course but not near as strong an effect.

 

An update to this. After more driving yesterday afternoon I was seeing a pattern of steer ahead potentially being off. Took it back in this morning and confirmed they zero'd toe with the steering wheel slightly off. It still tracks the road with zero toe worse, but the steering wheel is centered appropriately now. Definitely would recommend having it checked and zero'd.

As an interesting side note....the rear cannot be adjusted but showed +.39 LR, -.18 RR and a thrust angle of +.29.

I haven't had many solid rear axle vehicles before so I'm not used to their limitations and characteristics but this seems very odd to me as the rear has a slight dog walk to it.

If you all get yours checked, please share your rear results. PS: they also wouldn't do caster for some reason.




edit: google images of "tacoma alignment" is showing this toe and thrust angle is not uncommon.

 

Road crown is corrected by slightly more negative Castor on the passenger side. Camber also affects road crown, but I prefer equal camber on both sides. Wheel offsets and tire widths play into alignment as well, but if you're in the green you should be fine.

Find a good local tire shop that offers lifetime alignment and free wheel balance/ repairs/ rotate. Take it in every 5k. Keyword here being "good". Our local wheels works is pretty decent. For the amount of changes I've done to the front of the Bro-Coma the lifetime alignment has saved quite a bit of money.

 

They are being lazy and didn't even touch your alignment cams.

You have to be dicks with them, till they know you know what your talking about. My service rep told me you can't adjust castor on Tacomas, I asked to talk to the alignment guy, and I told him exactly what I wanted, and he got as close as they could. Took him a good while, it wasn't a simple toe adjustment.

 

Yep, by default Toyota puts slightly negative caster on the passenger wheel for road crown.

I had mine setup to 2.8 caster, and close to 0 toe and 0 camber as possible. Don't remember exactly. Took 2 visits to an alignment specialty shop. I do not trust wheel works/ america's tire, or any big box shops for alignments.

 

i'm getting a final alignment check on a Hunter rack on Monday. i'll report back as well. i'm driving pretty straight but the steering wheel is a bit off since getting the sway bar installed, as well as something, possibly thrust angle. not a pull, but the truck likes R more than L.

 

If the truck drives straight, and the wheel is only slightly off, you can easily fix that yourself. I found that my ideal straight is not the same as the alignment shops. Just adjust equal turns of the front wheel tie rods.

 

Good info here fellas

 

I am going to request they put my new one on the alignment machine before I take delivery.

 

I would drive it for a bit and then check. Let all suspension pieces settle in FIRST.

 

Just went in for my 5k service and made them check the alignment... had ~15deg negative toe at both front corners. Seems to be indicative of how this front suspension settles.

Realignment was covered under warranty.