Tacoma Alignment Issues (2017 TRD Sport 2WD)

I got new tires and an alignment. The shop said they could not get the right front to be in spec.
Any ideas on why this could be. They did not see any damage.
Right front camber and caster are slightly out of spec.
See the attached report.

As for tires, I bought Michelin Defenders from Discount Tire. Total price was $1,051.10 for 4 tires after all taxes and fees.
I researched every tire and figured these were the best road tires. They were way quieter and much less vibration than the tires that came on my Tacoma when I bought it used (Cooper Discover ATP 265 /70 R17 115T). I am glad I went with the defenders.
MICHELIN
DEFENDER LTX M/S
265 /70 R17 115T SL OWL
Pic with the defenders attached.

 

Might be worth trying another shop. I wouldn’t worry too much about the caster reading but the camber setting could cause some issues with tire wear.

 

C'mon. That caster reading is exactly what you should be worried about, and having the passenger side half a degree less than the driver's side will cause it to pull to the right and even more so on crowned roads. The camber should be matched on both sides and not have the disparity that you have here. Total toe is too high as well. Whoever did that alignment, well, they weren't trained very well. That's embarrassing.

 

Caliber Auto Shop in the Houston area. They are owned by Caliber Collision. I would think they would be experts at alignments being part of a huge Collision repair company.
I will try someone else.

Are the camber and caster adjustable or is this possibly from some kind of damage?

 

The camber and caster are all adjustable, but just how adjustable depends on the vehicle. You said that they did not see any damage but if those are the best numbers they can get there may indeed be something damaged that they missed. Just being part of a big company doesn't really help much. It's really down to the person who is doing your alignment and whether he wants to do it right or just get it all in the green. I don't remember if you had any sort of a lift on your truck or not, but that can often affect the numbers you can get.

I had my totally stock '18 OR aligned last week here in Culver City after it was out after hitting some pretty big holes in dirt roads out in the desert near the Salton Sea. We started out by max'ing out the caster on the passenger side, which it already was - at +2.8 degrees then set the driver's side to +2.4, got the camber to -.1 on one side and -.2 on the other. By the time you go back and forth a couple of times because adjusting one affects the other a tiny bit, we ended up with +2.3 caster on the driver's side and a toe on each side of .05 for a total toe of .10. You don't need to fret about a tenth of a degree in caster or camber or a couple hundredths in the toe. If you got in the truck and sat in it while it's on the rack, all the numbers will change a bit. When I get the 911 aligned, I usually put a bunch of my photography sandbags in the driver's seat to mimic me and that helps too.

 

It is all stock, no lift.

 

If that's the case and there's no damage you should have no problems getting a good alignment. Taking to another shop is probably the best, and, of course, show them that printout and tell them you want to max the caster on the passenger side and then set the driver's side .3-.5 degrees less which will help compensate for driving on crowned roads. Try to go for zero camber but definitely not positive camber. If anything, err on the negative side very slightly, but neutral is a fine target and they'll know what to do with the toe. Once you get a grasp of the basics of this, it's really not that hard to understand. It always amazes me at how many of the techs simply don't know what they're doing. Good luck.

Just curious what alignments are going for there these days. Five years ago when I had my truck aligned when it was new, and yeah, it was way out from the factory, the alignment was $120. Five years and one pandemic later it's now $160.

 

Are the adjusters frozen that they couldn't adjust it? Otherwise something is bent. They should have been able to tell you what was wrong.

 

It was $135 all-in including taxes and fees. Another shop said $99, but not sure what their taxes and fees would be on top of that.

All they said is that is the most they could adjust and they did not see any damage. But this was an office person telling me this, not the mechanic or tech directly.
The right wheel was definitely out of spec before and it was pulling to the right a little to where the steering wheel could not be perfectly centered. It is much better now. They definitely adjusted it.
I will look for an actual alignment shop.

 

yes, research a good alignment shop. Caliber doesn't have the greatest name.
The new shop should be able to align or repair it, so it does align. I would take the bill and two alignment sheets back to Caliber and request a refund.

 

The fact that you didn't get the 'before' readings would be enough to make me ask for a refund. If that is the best they could do, they should have told you what was bent. You must have hit something pretty hard. I'm not a big fan of Caliber auto body. They are essentially maco that works with insurance companies.