Steering Issue Help

Recently bought an 09 Tacoma and have been obsessed with it, it drives great except for this one quirk that is mildly concerning.
This has happened twice, both times backing out of the driveway. While backing out, on the brakes, when i crank the wheel there is a clunk sound, then notice when getting on the road that the steering wheel is crooked to the right. Then once stopped again, if i crank it back to the left, it clunks and the wheel goes back to straight and all is well. Almost like it’s popping in and out of place.
Mildly concerned about this considering i have had the truck for 2-3 weeks, but does anyone have any idea what this could be or any tests to diagnose it?

 

Crawl under an inspect the steering rack for excessive movement when you crank the wheel to full left and full right lock.
You'll need a friend to turn the steering wheel for you. You can NOT have the truck on jack stands to do this. The tires need to be on the ground.

 

Check the front wheel bearings.

If ok, have an alignment done at a quality shop. They'll find any worn parts that need attention. Could be any number of things, but you don't want to wait till something breaks, like a ball joint.

How many miles on this?

 

Give the universal joint in the Intermediate Steering Shaft a look. You can see it through the drivers side wheel well.

 

Appreciate it! i'll give this a try

 

thanks for the advice! Added some photos, but i'm not sure exactly what i'm looking for. Let me know if there's anything you can tell haha.

 

How should i check the wheel bearings? any specific test or anything?
185,000 miles. I am also driving home for the 4th of july weekend on Wednesday (about 600 miles on I70), pretty easy drive but not sure if I should be concerned with this.

 

Also, i forgot to mention the dealership had replaced the CV shafts.. Not sure if this could have any affect based on incorrect assembly or something?

 

realizing i was looking at the wrong part. lol. still learning. here's photos:

 

It almost sounds like one of the alignment bolts is loose. Take a wrench and check if the four bolts are tight.
A friend had this problem after an alignment at the dealer and I found a loose bolt.

 

which bolts exactly?

 

This is the Universal Joint I'm talking about. Check to make sure it isn't sloppy by watching it while someone turns the wheel back and forth. I will say that visually it doesn't "look" bad, but looks can be deceiving.

 

Wondering if i found something? from my understanding (youtube haha), these bolts should be vertical... right?
LEFT:


RIGHT:


Thoughts? Hope this isn't a huge issue because i'm driving 8 hours starting an hour from now..

 

They are fine, as long as they are tight.

 

I currently have a similar "clunk". I had someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while I inspected all of the steering components.

The two rack bushings have finally gave way.

$73 ENERGY SUSPN Energy Suspension 8.10106G Rack & Pinnion Bushing Set

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E6O61KY?ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

These will be going in soon.

 

After checking, finally found where we think the problem area is. It’s not the joint, but below where it connects to the steering rack (green circle).


it only does one clunk, almost all the way to the right and all the way to the left. Any idea what the fix is here?