10k miles alignment?

I've got 10k on my 07 Taco and it pulled to the right. I got my tires rotated and now it pulls to the left. Is an alignment normal for this # of miles?

 

I have 40k miles on my and still goes on straight. Have you hit your tires on a curb or sidewalk? That sometimes can throw the alignment off.

 

as in tires out of balance? I hope

 

Chris in Tempe, were you earlier saying you too had a front end shake at speed? If so, how did it work out? Regards, Bill in Chandler

 

I took mine in at 5K to NTB and bought the lifetime Rotation and Balance from them. All went well. Came back @ 10K to get it done again and when I hit the interstate right outside their door I took the first exit and circled back. Another hour later it got done and I tried it again and it was better but still had steering wheel shake. Next weekend took it back for the third time and got it back a little better but it still shook.

Took it to the Dealership and they immediately pointed out that they did not mess up my rims. I agreed that NTB had run the socket across the face of the rims and buggered up the rims by using the wrong type of weights. They balanced them and were so confident they did not even test drive it, said the balance was way off. It once again drives as new with no steering wheel shake. There is now an ongoing BBB dispute against NTB. NO response from NTB or Tire Kingdom of any sort over my damage or the fact that they can't balance my tires. I even sent hard copies with pictures. We will see but I doubt I will get any response whatsoever.

 

Sorry, but who is NTB?

 

National Tire and Battery.


I've been buying my tires online for near wholesale from a couple of different racing shops and taking them to a guy that owns his own tire mounting an balancing business. He does awesome work for 50% of what any other chain shop would charge me. He and his brother-in-law are IBM'rs who do this as a side business.

 

It is not normal, but the dealer will make you beleive it is and you will have to pay for it just to find out that it will continue to pull to either side. Good luck with Toyota, they claim to have a great quality a customer service, bu the truth is that their pride wont let them aknowledge that they have an structural problem with tacomas, including the noisy engines.

 

Quoting myself here: Good News, NTB made it all right. Or should I say the "new" Service Manager made it all right. I got a call the other day and it was the "new" manager who said he found my claim/complaint on his new desk and wanted to make this right and close this issue. He said if I would leave the truck with them for a day or so, 24 + hours, that he would have the wheels repaired and would refund what it cost me at the Dealership to get them balanced. I asked him why no one had contacted me before. He said each store manager is supposed to make things right and the old manager was just burnt out and had to leave. He explained the manager is the one who hires and trains the techs and that the old manager had been taught wrong to balance tires himself and had taught his guys the same thing. He said he has gone from 4 compalints a day down to maybe one every other week or so. I left the truck with them and in about 30 hours went to pick it up. The manager said one of the lug nuts was dented so he threw in a lock set from Toyota for free. He asked me if cash was OK for the refund! Opened the drawer and peeled off $54 into my hand for the refund. The wheels look brand new again with the proper stick on weights inside the rim/back. Balance is great too. So this has a happy ending after all. BBB was informed of the positive result and NTB/Tire Kingdom was informed of what a great Customer oriented Service Manager they got there now!

 

Orig post asked if needing an alignment at 10k mi was normal. No, if set properly the first time, unless you hit something, you prob won't need an alignment for a LONG time. That being said, my new Tacoma had a slight pull to the right and a high speed shimmey in the steering wheel. All 4 wheels were balanced 3x and one tire replaced before dealer got the shake removed. Since they already had auth from Toyota to replace my new Bridgestones with new Michelins they did and checked my alignment too. It was off from the factory, not much, but it was off. So, five new tires and a 4 wheel alignment and my new truck finally drives like a 'new' truck. Thank you Toyota.
Moral of story? These trucks do seem to be sensitive to wheel balance being spot on and sometimes even new vehicles need to be re-aligned. I wish the Big 3 could build/sell something as nice as this double cab 4WD Tacoma. I love it.