VSC kicking in after steering shaft swap

Hi. I just changed the intermediate steering shaft on my 2011 Tacoma. The old one had a seized u-joint. I didn’t get the steering wheel quite straight, in fact it’s off by almost 30 degrees. Everything seemed fine until I go above 15mph or so and then the vehicle stability control slams on the brakes! Is the VSC taking into account the steering wheel position? I didn’t change anything else, so the two front wheels are still perfectly aligned with each other.

 

That will definitely do it.

VSC works by using steering angle, accelerometers, and wheel speeds among other inputs to determine if the vehicle is traveling in the direction the driver intends, if it determines it isn't it reduces engine power and/or applies individual brakes to attempt to correct it.

You need to correct the steering wheel so it's straight +/- a couple degrees when the vehicle is traveling straight then do a VSC reset/calibration.

 

Thank you! I’ll fix it tomorrow and will look into the VSC reset procedure.

 

Jumper wire method can be found here, just be sure you don't spread the terminals in the OBD port.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ibrate-your-vsc-computer-the-easy-way.467485/

 

So I ended up breaking my clock spring in the process. I took everything apart again and managed to end up with the steering wheel facing to the right when straight. That’s worse than the other way around, as I found out as soon as I turned the wheel all the way to the right to get out of my driveway. I could hear the clock spring tearing apart. The airbag light came on right away, just for extra confirmation

Lesson learned: once the steering stem was misaligned, I should have just gone straight to the steering wheel and fixed it there.

Installed the new clock spring tonight after driving around the neighborhood for a bit without airbag, clock spring nor angle sensor to find the correct position for the steering wheel. Once I was convinced it pointed straight I put everything back together and calibrated the sensor according to the above link.

The truck drives great, no lights on, no VSC kicking in, and the steering is lighter than it has been for the past five years.


This is now clock spring by number four for my truck…

 

Fun tip for anyone else reading this thread:

Before removing any of the steering linkage, bungee cord the steering wheel to the front seat and/or A pillar handle to prevent it from free spinning.

 

Absolutely agree. I had even watched a couple of YouTube videos about this beforehand.

The problem was that in my case everything was so rusted together (welcome to Vermont) that I literally had to take a chisel and breaker bar with a 3lbs mallet repeatedly to both ends to get the steering linkage off. This required a lot of rotating back and forth to alternate between the two ends. Would be nice if they aligned the screws and slits in this part so all can be done in the same fixed steering position? When it finally disengaged it happened suddenly and then it was too late… But yes would try harder to avoid what I did the next time, for sure

 

I feel for you. Did that job in October and needed a 4# hammer i also didn’t tie up the wheel for the same reasons. As soon as it broke free, i saw it start to spin and screamed oh shit. Luckily i knew enough to start with the wheel straight and it only spun fast enough to go part way and settle back. I also then made sure that i had 2+ turns in both directions (it is a 5 turn device), before putting in new shaft. I had a buddy kill a clock spring the way you did. At least you have the comfort of knowing that you have helped a fellow taco owner from making that mistake.

larry