Steering and alignment issues

Howdy y’all. First post and previous lurker.
21 Tacoma sport 4x4 - 120k miles

Been fighting alignment issues for 60k miles. Recently heavy vibration in steering wheel driving and braking. Brought to new dealership and alerted me tires were badly out of balance. Religiously rotated BFG KO2 every 5k. They had 60k miles on them so decided to just swap for Toyo open country AT3

Alignment comes out and Toe, Total Toe and Steer ahead out of spec. Alerted me that inner toe rod nut was seized. Took truck for drive and still felt slight steering wheel stutter.

brought truck through automatic car was with roller track. Truck got stuck twice with wheel pulling aggressively to left.

need opinions on what could possibly be wrong. Also could use a referral for an independent shop in DFW as dealership(s) are leaving a lot to be desired.

 

I could see how the original alignment might pull to the side and cause tire wear. But they adjusted the toe, and the rest isn’t perfect but not terrible to start with.

If you’re still having vibration and other issues, then you should start to chase something like tire balance or bad components with excessive play. Jack up the front and see if each wheel is tight or has play somewhere.

 

I feel your pain, my Tacoma was bought new and been fighting alignment issues for 124k miles. Nobody has been able to align it. If you go to the dealer, they get your some green numbers, charged you $80-100 and call it good. Doesn't matter if the truck actually tracks straight. It's infuriating.

I also have gotten the vibrating steering wheel when braking, but it seems to be an intermittent issue. Almost like it happens in certain conditions but usually while doing freeway speeds.

I got new brakes not that long ago and the issue existed prior and after that. I'm wondering if this is a Tacoma thing.

 

My second Gen does the steering wheel vibration around 60 mph. Only on the way to work, doesn't do it on the way home. Don't know if it is temp related or what. Doesn't change when tires are rotated or when new tires were put on. All components tight. I think it is a feature.

 

You need to separate your issues here. It's a common misconception that alignments fix all. In reality aside from tire wear and pulling from really bad caster, alignment won't fix much. Looking at your printout they adjusted toe. That is pretty common. Toe cause tire wear an nothing else. No impact on ride quality.

Vibration is caused by out of round tires or out of balance. Balance you can fix. Out of round not so much. Both of these issues are fixed by a skilled tech and a balancer.

Vibration while braking is caused by your brakes. Likely out of round rotors.

Pulling after your car wash disaster sounds like something is bent. The only way to determine this is to put it on an alignment rack.