01 tacoma sensitive steering

I call this pickup my princess and the pea. It feels every thing on the road. Things I have done: new tires a bit smaller. Rack and pinion, new upper and lower ball joints, new struts and rear shocks. While it's better there still seems to be wandering issue. There is no play in the steering wheel. All bushings look tight no slop on the stabilise bar. So may be alighment. There is no lift. We are afraid to drive it on icy roads. It does seem to help with extra weight in the bed. It's an extra cab. Thank you for any thoughts

 

ok i have an idea but need to ask these Q's

the alignment sheet was done 5/22/22
when were the tires replaced? set of 4 or only 2

 

Yes that's correct. Tires were bought probably 6 months before. But we put the truck in storage because it wasn't safe to drive in the winter. So I did all that stuff mentioned around may. Alignment too. But it still continued to have an issue with steering. Either sensitive or wanders. I been meaning to come here and ask for over a year if that Alignment looks okay. Tires are 265/75R/16 all 4 were new. They were bigger and we bought these because we thought that might of been the problem. Same size tires as what's on my husband 02 toyota. No issues with its steering.

 

Ok my guess might be correct then

-new tires bought
-6 months of driving
-alignment done

Wandering typically comes from incorrect toe. Before align, L - .05 R + 1.85.
That’s pretty big
6 months of driving ‘feathered or wore’ new tires.
Now that alignment good/within specs, front tires wander or pull to one side
(You don’t need new tires…..it’s just the bad/ uneven tread wear)

so
1)swap R and L front tires
Or better
2)move rear tires to front, then criss cross front tires to rear

hope this is the solution!!!
Plz f/u !

 

Interesting. Some if what you said went over my head. BUT.. I did have the tires rotated a month or so back. It did seem to be a bit better. I don't know what they did exactly. I suspect it was front to back only. I will ask them. So the alignment looks okay to you then. I have been reading the forums about alignments on toyotas being persnickety. But they were on lifts. I will ask the tire shop about how they rotate an try the other option you recommended. Thank you

 

How many miles are on the truck? Are the lower control arm bushings original? Has a lift been added to the truck to be able to clear larger tires?

While the spec sheet you posted is not horrible, it is not ideal either. The camber is a bit higher than I prefer on my rig and the caster is a bit lower than I like. In addition to correcting the toe, it looks like the tech had to lower the caster to be able to get the camber in spec. Both caster and camber are corrected via cam adjusters at the frame mounts for the lower control arms.

A couple of thoughts...

265/75r16 tires are still larger than stock.

Caster plays a big role in driveability and feel, not so much in tire wear. Low caster, less than 2° positive caster, is low enough that side winds and tire chain ruts in the road are more easily felt. Especially at highway speeds. Adding a suspension lift makes this worse.

Adding lift makes it harder to attain enough positive caster. This is why many aftermarket upper control arms come with +2° of caster already dialed in.

If the bushings in your LCA frame mounts are worn, they will allow the alignment to shift and move around and can feel like what you have described.

IMO, it is worthwhile to do another alignment check. An experienced tech should be able to identify if the LCA bushings are worn and need replacing.

 

No lift. Only 105,000 miles on truck. Yes the tires are not stock. We put that size on because its the same size as what's on our 02 toy. And it didn't have an issue with steering, we bought this truck because we have 450k miles on the 02 toy and love it. Back to the 01 toy, the upper and lower control arms are completely new along with the ball joints, struts, and rack and pinion. I checked the stabiliser bar bushings they seem good, no deterioration. When we bought the truck it had several receipts in it from Les swhab the previous owners had it aligned several times but the upper and lower control arm bushings were definitely bad. We have fixed all that. So now we figure there was a problem all along. Each time we fixed something it was a bit better. Tires first, then struts which went bad after only 4000 miles and had to be redone under warrenty. That's why we ended up doing the rack, and control arms, ect.... thought that was why the new strut failed. All that is from the research I did mostly from this site. Alignment numbers confuse the heck out of me. And goes right over my head. And I am not sure who to have do it. Looks like they just get it in range saying that's good enough. I need to find a alignment toyota EXPERT. I really wanna keep this truck.