Truck Handles "Differently" After Suspension Repair

2012 PreRunner 2WD 4.0L
122,000 Miles

Some background. This all started when my two front tires began scalloping and thus making unusually loud noise on the highway. I took it in and was told my struts were causing the issue which is funny because I had just replaced the OEM ones with Bilstein 5100's (no coils) in September 2019.

I took it in to a family member's mechanic and he agreed. He also said I needed to replace the front upper and lower control arms & ball joint assembly. I bought these from Detroit Axle.

Anyways, after this work was done I drove it home and immediately thought something felt "off". First, the truck is out of alignment with some obvious positive camber. Second, while the ride feels much stiffer (as expected) I also think the steering itself doesn't feel right. I feel like turning the steering wheel is more labor intensive than it should be, and that it"struggles" to come back to center after a full turn...as if the power steering got "weaker". Any ideas if this is truly an issue? If so, what it could be? Could it just be part of a break in period?

 

can you provide alignment specs?

 

They turned you in positive and the tires for scalloped because of the same positive camber reason. So basically they took your old measurements and made them more positive and probably screwed up your caster as well in the process to allow for the harder to turn situation you are currently in.

We need to see measurements but I know exactly what happened here.

OE specs call for unusual positive camber and that in itself is bullcrap but a tech who knows nothing will follow what is on the machine and if he sees it's green he will call it good, wash his hands and call it a day.

 

Yup! Turning feel is likely related to caster change. Ask them for your alignment spec sheet and post it here.

 

I will get an alignment check later on in the week.

Does this mean that the fix for this is an alignment adjustment?

 

assuming everything is installed correctly, yes. but it will take a little time to feel right, as the tire wear patterns will need to rescrub. so give it 50-100 miles after redoing to assess.