need help after leveling

I have had my 2011 4x4 long bed Tacoma (81K miles) for about a month now. it drove smooth before the level kit and new tires/rims. now it has three issues that I would like to know if anyone has seen. I do not have any of the normal lift issues... I had minor rubbing when getting in/out of parking that I took care of with trimming... no drive line vibration (at least not the typical ones discussed in here)... no new noises.. my issues more odd and I have not come across them in forums..

here is what I did (a shop did for me)... standard cheap 2.5 spacer lift in front, 1.5 block in rear, diff drop kit, MT SideRider 17x9 wheels Cooper Discovery A/T3 wheels 285/70R17.

The wheels/tires have been balanced 3 times in a week, the truck has been aligned twice in a week. (I have an appointment for road force balancing and a third alignment next Tuesday).

OK, on to the issues....

1) happens all the time. Pulls to the right. Not horrible but I cannot let go of the wheel for more that 5 seconds at any speed. It pulls the same on a very crowned road like the thruway or a flat road like the blvd near work. The second place I took it to (used to trust them, now not so much) said they tried to align it 3 times and could not get rid of the pull... they said they got it better but I don't feel it as better... charged me $100 for nothing really. Next weeks balance will be free from the place that did the first balance when the lift was put on... My Truck had one owner no accidents reported carfax. no visible damage to any components that the lift shop or either alignment shop reported to me.

2) happens all the time. Notchy feel to steering after lift. What I mean by this is that when straightening out after a turn it chunks ever so slightly till straight... I might feel one or two slight chunks till straight. Best I can describe it is what an electronic assist steering from the 90s felt like... I am not the only one who noticed this... the second alignment shop called it a flat spot in the steering. Note that before the lift/tires this was not apparent.

3) seems to happen at or above 50 (speedo 50). out of balance vibration that is not consistent. This one have me really confused. It feels EXACTLY like a tire(s) out of balance but it comes and goes. I drive the NYS thruway to work and back (25 miles each way). Mind you the Thruway sucks, but there are some stretches where the road is smooth... it is not vibration from the road. The interval between smooth (smooth as glass) and vibration (visible shake in steering wheel) is about 1 to 2 minutes and the amount of time at either extreme is 30 seconds. I know this sounds crazy but I am fixated on this and it is real. The issue is not started by bumpy roads, does not change due to bumpy roads. it just comes and goes. if it was not my truck it would be funny....

Now, I can deal with (1) if it does not go away as long the truck is aligned... but I worry because the lift shop and the alignment shops both say this is not something they would expect to happen after a lift.

as for (2), as long as steering is not broken I can easily deal with this... it is a different feel but nothing that I cannot get used to... if this is a characteristic of wider/taller tires and the steering config of a Tacoma than no problem... what I worry about is I have something going bad that is causing (2)/(3) or (1)/(2)/(3)...

I cannot live with (3), it will drive me banana's until it is fixed... every couple minutes on a 20 minute drive I get a vibration for 30 seconds.... I will need Prozac if this keeps up.


Some other notes... smooth as glass in the city... Note that I have more road feel all the time now, but the vibration is not there under 50, ever... steering and pull are there all the time.

after latest alignment the numbers are:

LF camber .3, LF Caster 1.3, LF toe .03
RF camber .5, RF Caster .6, RF toe .03
total toe .06, steer ahead 0.00

Anyone dealt with this kind of issue (any of the three) that could shed some light on a solution.. I am really leaning toward something going bad somewhere and the new setup moved the timeline for failure up a few notches.

thanks

Carl

 

Sounds to me like you need some aftermarket UCAs! I just lifted my truck and I'm having similar issues. Problem is, without them, you can still get alignment numbers that are in spec...but after lifting above 2.5 inches you need to align it a bit differently and can't do it very effectively with stock UCAs. This is my understanding, at least. Check out the first post in the link below.n I'm very confident it will fix issues 1 and 2.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...driving-report-with-light-racing-ucas.158795/

 

Just a quick update... I went back to the shop that did the level and he was all over the issue... he had me setup another appointment with his alignment shop... I got the truck back yesterday and it is like riding on glass! it is amazing what a good "road force balance" and alignment will do. the alignment shop did do the initial alignment so I am not sure why it was off, but it is now perfect... as for the balancing, the lift shop did that the first time.... the alignment shop redid it yesterday and now it is smooth right up through 70..... I am very happy with the outcome.

to sum up, Road force balance with any kind of steering wheel vibration and find a good alignment shop, they are not all the same.

(still no solution for the shudder in the steering but to be fair I did not ask anyone to look at that)

P.S. thanks for the not on the UCA, I would have jumped on that except none of the shops had an issue hitting the numbers... just that two of the three tries did not hit them well enough.

 

So what are your numbers now?

 

keep in mind that the second alignment I had (which I paid for... doh) came back worse... so I will give the before/after numbers from the place that did a good job....

before

LF Camber (.5)
LF Caster (1.3)
LF Toe (-.03) out of spec

RF Camber (.2)
RF Caster (.8) out of spec
RF Toe (.08) out of spec

Total Toe (.05)
Steer Ahead (-.06) out of spec


after

LF Camber (.3)
LF Caster (1.2) out of spec... both frozen could not adjust
LF Toe (.03)

RF Camber (.0)
RF Caster (1.5)
RF Toe (.03)

Total Toe (.06)
Steer Ahead (0.0)



Not sure which change above fixed the issue, but something did. On Monday I tested on the thruway.. on the left side of the road it still pulled to the right within 3 seconds.... Today on the thruway left side it went straight for 15 seconds then had a slight pull to the left.... on the right crown it has the expected very slight pull to the right.... large wide tires so I am not concerned. At least I am not fighting the steering wheel the entire drive to work.

as for the balance.... they said the tires/wheels were completely out of balance... had to remove and reinstall two of the tires (I thought that was the whole point of road force balance...)... it is much much better now... I still have vibrations but they are due to larger tires with a higher rating... feel the road a bit more.... no balance vibrations.

I could not be happier and I am picky. I will not give the name of the place that did a crap job... but the place that got it going straight and smooth is Uptown Tire and Wheel in Canandaigua NY... I have no affiliation with them... just a good group of guys.


Carl

 

Cool man! As long as you're happy with it! Let's see a pic of your truck!

 

wasn't sure I was going to like black on black.... my plan was to get a grey or blue truck... but this one was too good of a deal to pass on. really the level/wheels were to get it to look the way I like it... completely looks.... I grew up on the pre-Tacoma and first gen... I loved the big tire look and lots of space under the truck... I felt that the 2nd gen lost a bit of that edgy look of old... so I think that now it just has the same tire size/height look that the old ones had. I do like the black truck with black wheels.

 

Looks good!