Loose handling

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone has some feed back. I have a 2017 Tacoma off-road with about 67k on it. I feel as if my steering is loose or something. Not sure if anyone else as experienced a similar issue but when I go over bumps my steering wheel will jump around. Also, when I turn the wheel slightly, it just feels loose (hard to explain the feeling) I’ve looked into bump steer but I have no clue where to start. Should I try and get an alignment and see if that helps?

any suggestions?

 

Have you had an alignment recently?

 

No I haven’t had one in a awhile. The truck isn’t lifted but there are new tires on it. Starting with the alignment might be the way to go eh?

 

1st thought: is you air pressure higher than normal with the new tires? Higher tire pressures makes the steering feel freer.


if not, a proper alignment introduces some tow-in into the front wheels. This takes up all the play that developed in the various steering and suspension components over times, so the truck feels tighter going down the road.

Any competent alignment technician will also tell you if you have loose ball joints or control arm bushings. That will also make the steering feel loose.

 

Have your suspension components inspected.

It's likely you have a bad left inner and/ or outer tie rod that's gone bad.

It's pretty typical on these Toyotas, given that they basically just grabbed everything off the second gen chassis it's HIGHLY likely you guys run the same rack as the 2nd gens, and the racks on the 2nd gens are total garbage.

 

Okay thanks for the advise fellas, I will start with alignment and see if they can check the ball joints and control arm bushings. Plan B will be the tie rods.

 

My 64k mile Tacoma just began to show similar symptoms as you and assumed my lower ball joints were the culprit... bought some new Moog LBJ's, took it to the shop and they told me they didnt feel comfortable replacing good LBJ with new ones. I am going to get an alignment when I rebuild my shocks in the next couple weeks and hoping that is it. Tie rods will also be my plan B.

 

A good alignment tech (or shop tech) should be able to inspect and tell you, with certainty, what the issue is.

 

I will try and get the alignment next week and I’ll post the results. Hope the alignment will fix the issue

 

Which tires did you go to?

Some tires are notorious for wanting to tramline, which on the right (wrong) road will make the steering feel all wonky.

 

They are the same as the OEM tires. I couldn’t fork up the money for new rims and tires sadly.

 

When you changed tires did you notice any wear on the old tires that would indicate wheel alignment problems. I am sure the tire guy would of noticed. just saying

 

Increase caster + will give the wheel more heavy feel less floaty

 

I'll just throw this out there too for immediate safety reasons since you said you just got tires. Make sure your lugs are tight.

 

Yep, you could get what happened to me once just a bad set of tires. Had 2 shops try to balance them. Finally just traded them in at the original place purchased for another brand that were good.

 

Definitely suggest pursuing. Can't speak to higher mileage, but my '21 OR's steering is relatively tight at 15K miles, so something must be amiss.