New taco steering not aligned?

To m3bassman. You obviously know nothing about alignment and what spec ranges are all about. Let me give you one quick example. Take caster. The approximate range is from 1.2 deg. positive to 2.7 deg positive. If all you do is set it to green, you could end up with 2.7 degrees of positive caster on the left and 1.2 on the right. All the lights would be green and the alignment tech *could* say that it's "in spec", but that sucker would pull you right into the ditch the second you let go of the wheel. Since caster has the most control over whether your truck pulls or goes straight, it's very important to get it right, and in the case of caster, you generally want .3 to .5 degrees LESS on the left than on the right, which provides just enough compensation to counter road crown. Remember that the vehicle pulls toward the lower number with caster. This is just one example and all the parameters are important and work together, but this is the best illustration as to why you can't just have it in the green.

Then, depending on how you drive, where you drive, whether your truck is lifted or not, you may or may not want to go even outside of spec to make it drive how YOU want it to. That's what I do on my 911 where we're up to 6 degrees positive caster and about minus 2.5 negative camber in the rear. Driving that car is where you really learn how alignment affect how the car drives.

 

If “problem like this” is “super frustrating” I feel sorry for ya

 

1 look at the road surface, if its uneven you will have correct for it by turning the wheel. its not rocket science

2 quite easy I assure you.. the middle of the range is optimal because a machine works best when everything is as close to optimal as possible, the edges of the range are "almost correct". I prefer spot on, not almost spot on.. but thats me. furthermore, as tires and bushings and other components wear out, your much better off with a spot on alignment, mitigating the possiblility of it dropping out of spec because something wears out or you tweak something from hard driving.

3 definitely straight out of my ass. numbers used as an example.

 

My steering wheel was perfectly straight until I took it it in for its 5K check up. Asked them to verify that the alignment was ok due to the front tires slightly feathering on the outside treads. Picked it up and was told it was a little off and they did an alignment. Damn steering wheel was cocked to the left about 5 degrees after that. Got underneath with some wrenches and turned the tie rods in opposite directions until I got it perfectly straight again (about 5 tries). Went to an independent tire alignment shop for a free alignment check and they found my adjustments almost dead perfect and offered me a job - haha.

 

lol! thanks. Don't feel too bad about my first world problems.

 

Mine was bad from factory, they aligned it but it still pulled — factory specs apparently don’t compensate for road crown, oddly. When i get new UCAs i’ll pay to have it aligned with that compensation - regardless of “green” —i’m sick of having to hold the wheel constantly

 

One of the robots probably didn’t fully tighten a caster nut on it and the nut came loose during shipping. It happens

 

You my friend are hilarious. I have nothing to say except please educate yourself on what the yaw sensor is and how it affects the steering wheel position after an alignment if the sensor is not reset.
Must suck to think you know everything and tell others they don’t, when it’s you to blame.... mr 10 comments with your judgy opinion.

 

Exactly what a failure to do the Yaw sensor reset will lead to.

 

Dealer confirmed and fixed that it was not in alignment. I'll be pickin it up after work. Hopefully it'll be driving straight as an arrow.

 

Good to hear!

 

I'm confused,
How would a Yaw sensor interact with the mechanical, and Hydraulic steering system in the Tacoma?
To affect the steering wheel position?
Is there actuators, cylinders, or and electric motor hiding in the steering system that I never noticed?

On systems like on the Tacoma I would have just adjusted the tie rod ends equally till the steering wheel it centered (yes technically part of an alignment), then checked alignment again.
I always thought that it sometimes get screwed up (wheel position) when they are setting the Toe.
I always thought the Yaw data was only used for stability control and part of the airbag deployment data on the Tacoma.
And when the Pitch/Yaw sensor(s) is "out of whack" (like after doing a lift), it throws a code and the stability light comes on then you perform a Zero point calibration (short pins 4 and 12 on the diag port)

On electric steering systems I would have thought to look at a Yaw sensor after checking the encoder on the steering wheel...

Help me out here.. what am I missing?

 

normally you’d be absolutely on point - but 2nd gen and newer have speed adaptive steering, meaning the amount of steering wheel input is not the same for a given turn at 5mph as it is at 50mph. For that system to work, the power steering is assisted by this speed adaptive system (how I do not fully understand) but the sensor I mentioned is responsible for the adjustment of steering wheel position and input.

the OP said thier vehicle drove straight and smooth but the wheel was not centered. Years ago or on older gen Tacoma’s, yes the steering wheel not being centered could be from uneven amount of toe adjustment on the tie rod ends, but even then, you used to be able to loosen the column and move the wheel over a spline at a time to get it centered for the customer. We don’t do this on the 2nd gen and newer Tacoma’s, you simply perform the alignment, with the steering wheel centered in the vehicle, and then before driving they reset the yaw sensor so that it doesn’t automatically return the wheel to its last set “center” location, in which case your vehicle would drive straight but have a non centered wheel. I’ve had this adjustment done twice on my truck and seen the procedure in person. Nay sayers need to get some education on it before lashing out, that’s all.
On these trucks, the alignment is done first, wheel position is not determined by tie rod adjustment, And the sensor squares it up at the end of the process.

 

yep, tighten one side 1 turn then the loosen other side 1 turn. if it makes it worse then turn the other way. keep doing it until you get it where you want it.

 

Nice! Now his alignment is probably really screwed up lol

 

From the warranty guide...

"...wheel alignment and wheel balancing, which are covered for 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever occurs first."

 

Doesn’t mean much tho I had mine done at Toyota for free after the lift installation... it felt like ass and I blamed it on the lift and began chasing vibrations and a hell of a lot of money- now I finally find out four alignments later at other shops that my vibes now are from my tires being horribly unevenly worn, due to the ass alignment Toyota did originally in which case you can see by the numbers that toe and camber were wildly out of reasonable range (in the green yes but that means nothing), and wore the tires like a biiiish. Now I have them cross rotated to wear them back in the other way, and the vibes are almost completely gone - they will be gone once the uneven wear is worn down to a properly treaded tire. Unbelievable.
Toyota warranty is good for pretty much nothing except more headache and wallet drain than just doin it yourself or having someone who’s can actually flip a light switch do it for you.

 

To further follow up with bassman. Of course an alignment can't compensate for uneven, grooved or otherwise imperfect pavement. All it can do is is make it right for driving on a flat, straight road and then decide whether you want or need to compensate for road crown and if so, how much. There are always going to be times where the wheel is off center going straight. Hell, on a trip to Death Valley many years ago in my '93, the cross winds were so strong that it took about a thirty degree offset to go straight. That's life, but at least I knew the alignment was where I wanted it to be overall.

An alignment might be covered under warranty but I can't imagine a dealer wouldn't push back on that. Should they fix your alignment for free if you hit a huge pothole?

The middle of the spec is just that - the middle of the spec. The range is what Toyota has determined to give acceptable handling, safety, tire life, etc. for the typical driver and vehicle. That by no means says you have to stick with the middle. I find that even on these trucks I can tell the difference between and eighth degree positive camber and a quarter negative. Probably a lot of people can't tell the difference, but I can, just the way I can tell very minute differences in color having worked in my field for as long as I have. You have to learn how to tell the differences. And, having a bit of negative camber in front actually makes the tires wear better so you're not scrubbing the outside so much with a tire leaning out at the top. A perfect example of where you really might want to consider being closer to one end of the range than the other. All of this depends on how well the driver can discern small differences in suspension geometry, which might be harder on a Tacoma than a 911, but still there nevertheless.

 

My 19 sits a shade to the left but doesn't pull to either side. Taking it in for an exhaust leak and will have them check it out. No visual tire wear, yet

 

My TRD Sport was a little to the right as well, but took it to the dealer and they aligned it right away. Tracks perfectly straight now.