Alignment won’t stay

My 09 won’t stay aligned I’ve taken it to 3 different shops and even bought the life time alignment package at Firestone. Only one shop has managed to properly align my truck and it lasted all of 1-2 days. Firestone has said they are tired of doing my truck but I could give a rats a** when im sitting on new Nitto’s. One of the techs said I could get a bigger lift that has new lower control arm mounts and torque factory bolts down. As enticing as that is I don’t have the money right now, and I’m soon to be off to college. Any recommendations or diagnosis for my truck?

 

I would say first off, that a forum diagnosis isn't going to be doing you any justice my friend. Understand that on a forum there are too many missing variables to give you a definite diagnosis. We can, however, give you a general direction to sniff in though...

I personally would take a good look at your front end and look for worn or broken parts. Look at your upper control arms, your ball joints, your lower control arms, tie rods, etc. An alignment that is only good for a few days usually means something in your front end is worn or out of specification OR the alignment tech didn't tighten the bolts down...
The tech mentioned your lower control arm mounting location. Why? Sounds like he may have noticed something...
I am assuming a stock truck but do you have any modifications? Lift? Spacers?
If you can afford it - spend your money on a quality diagnosis and work from there. I am willing to bet your front end has some heavily worn parts.

Good Luck!!

 

Your cam tabs are probably frozen or not torqued to spec.
But as mentioned above... something sounds worn out.

 

Check all of your upper and lower control arm bushings, ball joints, tierods, steering rack, all of the lca adjustable bolts, and make sure your coilovers are not loose. Then after you know all of this is good and replaced whatever needed replaced. Than go get the alignment done. Good luck OP.

 

Have them double check the cam tabs and make sure they're not folded out.

It's a semi-common problem, since the cam tabs are weak and bend out of the way, allowing the cam to rotate (thus throwing off your alignment). If they've bent once, they're susceptible to bending again and again. Lots of folks weld in some reinforcement to fix the issue.

Read up some here and see if that's what you've got going on: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...eccentric-adjustment-frame-tab-broken.146983/

 

Do you have a 2.5”+ lift with no new UCAs??

 

Would worn out shocks with a rough ride cause the alignment to keep going out?

 

I have a 3” with jba uppers

 

No in 2 days, unless the items that keep the alignment work in place are damaged, loose or worn beyond normal.

What part of the alignment do they say keeps getting out of spec? If they didn't say, have them answer that question, in detail (ie toe in/out, camber, caster) and that'll focus the problem area.

 

Check your tie rod ends, alignment cams, and alignment tabs. Make sure alignment cam hardware is torqued to spec.

 

All 4 of my tabs are bent a shop told me it wasn’t a problem and another shop told me they could tig some new ones on if I wanted but It shouldn’t be making it go out. I didn’t think that made sense cause there for a reason

3 inch rough country front struts... I know I know. And JBA upper control arms. The tech only said that Cause the bolts keep coming out. The 3 shops I’ve taken it have all said everything looks fine and normal wear and nothing needed replacing.

 

Caster is what keeps going out making it hard to keep straight on highways

 

Lifetime Package at Firestone is a joke if you have aftermarket suspension, you likely need custom numbers to get the correct alignment and most Firestone locations have a policy that they only do factory specs on vehicles. I've heard some locations are run by guys that'll work with you but most won't, I have the package too and I never use it anymore because they could never get it right.

Found a local 4x4 shop near me that does alignments for $120 and they are spot on perfect. I tell them I want 3 degrees caster and they give me 3 degrees, Firestone could never get it over 1.5.

 

Yea the off-road shop I took it to told me to same thing. They said there was no reason they couldn’t get it right but after they aligned it perfectly it only took 2 days to go out again

 

Adjusting tabs are all bent? Fix that first. Good luck.

 

Shop that put these on didn’t put washers on the inside and now refusing to fix their mistake and calling me a kid that doesn’t know what I’m talking about, could this affect alignment?

 

The tabs are there to give the alignment cam something to adjust is relation to. If the tabs are bent, the alignment *might* be able to be put into spec, but the slop will allow the cams to rotate, rather easily, if the suspension is worn and the truck is being driven over rough roads, all that jolting will throw off an alignment quickly if the tabs aren't as intended and the LCA bolts aren't tight enough.

If the other shops keep saying nothing in the suspension is worn to the point of needing replaced, and one shop is saying the cam tabs are bent, then I'd advise you to look into repairing the tabs.

Bent tabs won't MAKE your alignment go out, but they will ALLOW it to go out, because the cams aren't secured. Some think you can over tighten the cam bolts and prevent them from rotating, but it doesn't work well in practice.

With the information presented, if it were my truck, I'd get the cam tabs reinforced or just welded back to a 90* angle, shouldn't be too much $$, then realign and see. I'd be that's your biggest problem if what the shops and you are sharing is accurate.

 

I’m in Lowe’s at moment but everything single one is bent flush with the frame of that gives you an idea