Brand new 2019 Tacoma won't hold alignment???

It is very likely only the one was changed being that new... at least that is what we did if the customer had an issue like that. From what I remember, a last drive was done after changing out the tire.

Then the tire would get "evaluated", "written up", and then finally sent back to the factory.

But this was back from the '90s-2004 when I worked as a tire tech.

Btw, this situation is different in the sense that in my cases, the customer would "buy new tires" and come back claiming up/down that the vehicle drove just fine before the new tires and that is when a radial pull was suspected as a "balance" does not exhibit a "push/pull" affect.

In this situation, the customer NEVER drove it, within reasonable "lengthy" distances before, so it is hard to target what the cause would be, if that makes any sense?

Anyways, as I was reading the thread and you were going back/forth with the alignments, I had extremely HIGH DOUBTS that the alignment tech(s) were THAT bad??? BUT, with that said, I would also think an alignment tech would be more knowledgeable in this regard??? I mean, I was just a tire tech, but had to know about alignment symptoms and what the typical cause would be just by looking at the tire(s) and gathering a little background history of the tire or tires before making a judgement call of what is going on (i.e. tire cupping, edge wear, etc etc etc).

Anyways... again, glad to have helped and apparently I still remember things confirming I haven't quite completely lost my mind yet!!!

Btw, don't forget about eventually installing comms!!!

 

Oh, slightly off topic, but PLEASE, for the LOVE OF GOD or whatever "altar" you "pray" to, do NOT put "tire slime" and/or similar into your flat tires!!!!!!! That stuff is just bad news all around and no real good way to "dispose" of it when having to clean out the tire. Let alone the wonders it does to your tire/wheel the longer it stays in and not cleaned out with clean water (tap). I can honestly say, "I don't know about the slime that is out now, but pretty sure it hasn't changed all that much."

It just does WONDERS to the inner liner of the tire and tire/compound. And, for the wheel, if left not completely cleaned, the metal just, well for the lack of a better description... the metal just gets trashed/eaten/etc etc etc.

 

I've heard the term tire cupping but I don't know what that mean.

Yes and I'm glad you mentioned the radial pull because I asked them about it not sure they would have check for it had I not asked.

comms?

 

Keep in mind the before and after specs are deceiving. The steer ahead is not centered on either of the before specs. basically when the tires are turned to even it out it will change your toe angle. ex. on the 2nd alignment you had -0.21 and + 0.16.. once the steer ahead is evened out the toe angle would be -0.025 on each side. the toe angle spec range is from -0.13-0.00 therefore the toe angle was within spec when it arrived. they did adjust it a bit but the specs where nowhere near where they appear at a 1st glance.

 

The best way I can describe "tire cupping" is HIGH/LOW spots around the center and/or edges/shoulders of your tire(s). Typically pretty consistent around the whole tire. Tire cupping is mainly due to lack of rotation or something wrong with the suspension system. From what I can remember, and it has been quite a few years now since then, but from what I can remember, alignment doesn't affect or cause tire cupping. I was just mentioning different odd tire wear patterns or maybe it does if the "toe" is off? I honestly don't remember about that part? But yeah, not to beat a dead horse, but like I said, when I was reading your posts, I just had the hardest time with it being alignment. To me, complaining about the constant "pulling" was a dead giveaway. I just had to give my 2cents from my tire tech days.

regarding comms ---> talk'n about radios. CB, HAM, etc

I have CB... yeah, yeah, people crap on CB, but I would still prefer CB if all else fails. Little story, not my own true story, but something I watched a few years ago. I was watching some tv "documentary" about a couple that was going to the, at the time, in-laws house or something like that and they had decided to drive through the mountains instead as it was a much shorter route overall. The problem was was that there was a major storm in the area. The couple, soon to be married from what I remember, got caught up in the mountains as the boyfriend/fiance decided to finally turn around, but the rears got stuck in a ditch or something like that. No matter what he/they did, they were unable to get the vehicle out of the ditch... the rear wheels. Anyways, the boyfriend leaves to try to go get help with his gf/fiance to be left in the vehicle (I believe it was a Jeep Cherokee). The snow storm was just raging on outside at the time he left. She was in the vehicle for almost 7x days surviving on tomatos and what not that they had in the vehicle. During this whole time, people were searching for them, but not realizing the route that they typically took they were NOT on. So, after a few days, the bf never came back and she decided to leave because she realized she was going to die if she stayed as she was quickly running out of food. She gets out and it is still snowing outside and finds her bf roughly 100yds, from what I remember about the story, from the vehicle. He apparently couldn't even make 100yds without freezing to death. In the mean time, some family members or possibly friends went off of a whim to check that particular area out and commandeered a snow plow. They found her laying/sitting next to her dead soulmate, but she was still alive by the time they had found her.

Ever since I saw that show, at the time I didn't own a truck yet, I was like, "damn, that sucks not being able to contact someone...". So, a few years later, I get my truck and that show/incident keeps popping up in my mind. I installed my CB within a few weeks after getting my truck. Knowing off-roaders crap on them, but I always go back to that moment of watching and knowing what happened to that couple and I'd much rather have any comms... CB, HAM, GMRS/FRS, SatPhone, annnnnnything rather than nothing like what happened to them.

I have CB, HAM, even a scanner as well as a GMRS/FRS blister-pack radio/walkie-talkies. I'm building and getting ready to do a pre-test on a "radio box"... HAHAHAHAHA... that has been in the making for a few years now and finally getting ready to take it out on a test run to get ideas on what I need to do/get for it. Cell phone, well cell phones are "brick communications" when out in the sticks or desert terrains. I call them brick communicators because I can probably get better communications and results by wrapping a note around the phone and throwing it as far as I can. I've had various phones over the years and it doesn't matter who the carrier is, in the end, cell phones are unreliable when typically off-roading.

Sorry for the long post, but I needed to share that story that I saw to make my point more clear. I get it that people don't like CB because of the short range and what not, but what most ALL fail to realize is that you actually can get QUITE the range due to atmospheric skip, typically during the evening hours on HF, which CB frequencies are a part of the HF band. At the very least, you have a better chance of getting help, even though the contact maybe WAY out of states, but at least you can relay communications on the situation and your chances of survival are greatly increased compared to nothing.

 

I wonder if the third gens suffer from the same poor design the second gens do with their half baked intermediate steering shaft designs (lack of protection on the exterior one from the elements, which leads to eventual binding while turning, soft bushing on steering shaft rag joint which can cause wandering even if alignment and tires are okay)?

 

Sooooo.... I think I have the same issue. Dealership is a bunch of lying sons of b*tches but that's another story. Did an alignment check "looks good", but we'll get it on the rack. So about 45 minutes later they say its done and that the steering wheel was just crooked. So I take it and begin driving home. Same issue. Turned around and went back. Asked for the tech to take a ride with me. He said he drove it and it was "perfect". So we go for a ride. Veers to the right.... says he has a different driving habit (whatever the f*ck that means). An hour they come back and they said the alignment was good. The swapped the left tire to the right and right tire to the left. After this it pulled left.

So..... did they put a new tire on? Nope. They said they took the problem tire, unmounted it, flipped the tire and remounted/balanced. Said its now good to go. Condition is better but still have to steer left slightly as it has a right pull.

I didn't want to be there any longer as 3 hours was long enough for an alignment. Next step is to push for a new tire.

 

Mines been off since factory and has been aligned multiple times at different shops. Seems the factory specifications have no caster for road crown - so if the road has crown it pulls

 

Well shit. Maybe i'll just deal with it. My 2016 was PERFECT.

 

You've got .2 degrees more caster on the left, so of course it's going to pull to the right, especially on a crowned road. And the dealer didn't check your tire pressures before their first alignment. That might have a tiny effect, but it's the caster that will really define it. Always remember that it pulls toward the lower caster side, which is this case is to the right. Add to that a road crown and there you go. Certainly the tires didn't help but your numbers are off from the git-go.

 

Yeah, it's not really solving the problem by flipping the tire... even THOUGH it is slightly better.

So yeah, push for a new tire, but then you have to take into consideration how much older the one tire is that is left on vs the newer tire that is left on, talking about tread depth mainly. As someone has stated, air pressure is going to affect "performance", but would have to be a fairly appreciable difference between the two.

Finally, rotate that tire that got flipped to the rear and if the pull goes completely away, you found the problematic tire or highly likely found the problematic tire.

I will admit, never thought about "road crown"? Yes, that has affect as well, obviously.

Anyways, good luck!!!

 

It shouldn't be an issue as the tires only have about 1000 miles on them.

 

I've looked it over numerous times and it just confuses me, I somewhat understand now.

 

Wow crazy story! I'm very familiar with being in the mountains and I use a Garmin Inreach which is awesome unless you are in Alaska on Mount Denali. My brothers froze once they were above 18,000 feet and we lost contact with his team for two days. I guess it is to be expected the temps were -10 degrees. I've never had issue with mine but I've only been up to 14,000 feet.

 

I turned into a complete jerk and the thing that I left out was I sent a email to Toyota. The next day I got a call from the sales manager and I told him I wanted my money back he told me to come in and pick out another truck. I called the bank and they told me it was a huge pain to get out of one vehicle and into another. So after I posting here I decided to make them fix it. Once I got the the head service manager it was finally done correctly. I'd be as much as a pain as you can and work from the top down.

 

Oh okay cool thanks for explaining

 

I actually found the story... I was wrong about a few things, but right with most of it... I do remember the "documentary" saying that she was in some sort of tree or something, which makes sense as far as surviving the cold a little longer.

Anyways, the link is the story and it's pretty crazy. The REASON I do NOT trust cell phones when off-roading. So yeah, get comms as well along with your Garmin Inreach. My humble advice and I hope you enjoy the read...

https://www.today.com/news/snowstorm-survivor-made-video-say-goodbye-her-boys-flna1C7572453

 

basically when you drive the tires will automatically even out the toe angle between each other. Lets say the LF tire was -0.5 of a degree an the RF was a 0.00 degrees, when the truck is rolling with no one holding the steering wheel the steering would turn to even out toe angle in this ex. the toe would even out to LF -0.25 and RF -0.25. this would cause your steering wheel to rotate to the right and not be centered. when doing the alignment the steering wheel would be centered prior to adjusting the toe angle. this would cause a change in specs that you wont see on paper. I've aligned plenty of vehicle where with the steer ahead zeroed out the specs are all within the factory spec range however the steering wheel in way off center. in those cases we would normally save the before measurements with the steering wheel straight so that on paper it would show the toe angle out of spec. other wise it would appear as if the before and after specs where the same and nothing was performed when that was not the case

 

Okay totally get it thanks for taking the time to explain it

 

I had this issue with my '17. The stock Goodyear Wrangler Kevlar were absolute junk. Not only did they wear out in 2 years, 30K, it constantly pulled right no matter what I did. Rotated every 5k. I had it aligned at a local place instead of the dealer. The guy there said if it's still pulling he would bet the tires are bad, sometimes it takes a while to show.

Well, I just called goodyear and got them to discount some Duratracs, and the problem is gone. Straight as an arrow and im not fighting the wheel anymore. I know they sent my old tires back to goodyear, probably never going to hear that they are bad from them, but I would like to call anyways and check.