New 2023 SR5 4x4 pulls to the right

I’ve had my Tacoma for a month. 430 miles on it. It always seemed to pull right and steering wheel has to be slightly left to go straight. If I have steering wheel straight, it starts veering right. I’ve taken it to two different dealerships who both said it was out of alignment and performed alignment. Neither resolved the problem. Any ideas or advice about what to do next or ask when I take it back in?

 

Ask for the alignment specs. Post up an image on here. The gurus will advise on how they look.

And you’re certain it’s pulling? You have driven in different lanes, different wind directions, and are totally certain? It can be deceptive.

 

alignment and check tire pressures

 

This is the printout from the second alignment. The first was last week.

 

if you let go of the steering will it drift to the right.
if so have a tec at the dealership do exactly that.
maybe right brake pad is a little to tight against the rotor? guess a wild guess

 

The vehicle will pull to the side with the most positive camber and the side with most negative caster
A.) drive it for 2000km first because the suspension has to break in before a proper alignment can be done.
B.) as per the current settings plus road crown is it aligned to pull right. Alot of people nowadays are not good at alignments/don't understand them.

without knowing how you drive or where you drive or truck use etc, if you want specs that will drive okay and not pull:
Camber: 0.3+ on both sides
Caster: 2* left and 2.5* right
Total toe: 0.06"
The difference in caster is to compensate for road crown

 

Two hands on the wheel Jim.

 

Going straight the steering wheel is at 11:00/ 11:30. If I hold the steering wheel straight with the Toyota logo straight up and down I start going to the right and have to turn left before I run off the road

 

That sounds like a steering issue, not an alignment.

 

Worse senecio, it could be a tweaked frame.

 

It’s totaled

 

Hopefully not a frame issue. At the dealer again now. Does not sound like a tech will ride with me. They “can’t promise anything” They do not inspire confidence

 

I've dealt with new vehicles off the delivery truck that pull, it's your 85% chance your alignment.
A.) wait a couple thousand kms for the suspension to settle then b.) try a different dealer

 

Thank you. If they don’t address the issue today I will wait a couple of thousand miles before taking it in again. I just didn’t want to wait too long and they blame me.
Seems odd two alignments in a week and both dealers said it needed adjustment. The second one said the alignment was “all jacked up”. Could an adjustment too soon exacerbate the problem?
I also don’t like going toward the right with steering wheel straight. It’s not a slow veering. If I’m going 40 or so I have to immediately adjust or run off the road. Seems not great for a brand new truck. This is my first Toyota

 

Sounds like the tech did not put the steering wheel holder on when he did the alignment. I do this with every car. Make sure the wheel is straight, put the holder on, then set the alignment. If I have to resweep the caster, I do the same process again. Im picky about a straight wheel.

 

The first step in troubleshooting this issue should be to cross rotate your tires. This is the easiest way to eliminate tires as a possibility. If you cross rotate them and the problem goes away or switches to a left pull, you know it is the tires.

The next step is verifying your steering wheel is centered. This is done by adjusting the tie rods left and right. Sometimes people think they have a pull because they try to keep the steering wheel centered while driving

Outside of tires, it is understanding alignments. Roads are crowned to the right so if you let go of the wheel, you should go to the right anyway. It would be very dangerous the other way around. Your alignment is fine. There is nothing wrong there. No need to worry about a frame issue. That has nothing to do with this issue since your alignment numbers are good. Now when I say your numbers are fine, they are within spec. It looks like they adjusted tow and that has nothing to do with pulling. Caster is the cause of a pull, but you would need a 1 degree difference left and right to cause a pull and it will pull to the lower side. For instance, you have 3 degrees on the left and 2 on the right, you will get a pull to the right. .1 will not make a difference.

Now you need to clarify something. Are you feeling a pull or a wander? That is a big difference. A pull, you let go and you are in the ditch. A wander you let go and you follow the road. Sometimes you go straight then drift off. You get into the left lane on a 4 lane road that is crowned to the left and you wander left, etc. Get the point? A right pull would send you across 4 lanes if you were in the left lane. A wander wouldn't.

My guess is looking at your numbers is that you a getting wander. That is caused by low caster. Your caster is within spec, but by industry standards, it is low. low to zero caster causes wander. I would want closer to 2.9 which is the high range of the spec. That should correct your wander. Problem is they are going to tell you 1.9 is within spec, which it is, but specs don't mean that you will like the way it drives. The range is 1.4-2.9. 1.4 would be miserable to drive.

To sum up, cross rotate your front tires, verify the steering wheel is centered and adjust caster to 2.9. Other than that, your truck is operating normally.

 

Thank you. It does seem like a steering issue more. The most noticeable problem is I have to steer left to go straight and steering wheel straight sends me to the right. Hopefully they find out the issue and don’t get stuck on alignment if that’s not the problem

I just saw them driving it around their parking lot which isn’t going to tell them anything

 

Got to wonder if the truck had an incident during shipping or while at the dealership. Check under it for scrapes.

 

Any damage would show up in the alignment check and it looks good.

 

Well, they said alignment is still good and had tech, asst manager and manager drive it. They said it seemed good to them. They did mention road crown could be a factor. Submitted it to Toyota so there’s a record.
I think it was initially off and adjusted. Then maybe I was over analyzing. Looked under it and everything looks clean. I’ll give it a couple thousand miles and see what happens.