centering steering wheel yourself......

Yeah, but it is perfect now and took me all of 10 minutes and no waiting

 

When you take the steering wheel off and center it, won't this throw off your steering angle sensor?

 

Is that kinda related to your blinker fluid?

 

I'm having the same issue. I got an alignment at Firestone (lifetime) and I have to hold the steering wheel to the left to keep it straight. I took it to a different Firestone and they claimed it's "normal".


I'm going to take it a third shop when I have time....


At least my numbers look good but still, I want my damn steering wheel straight.

 

Not if what you are doing is putting it back where it should have been in the first place. When the bozos at Toyota replaced the intermediate shaft because of the TSB rattle issue, they were a spline off when they reassembled the shaft. Elsewhere, in a similarly named post, it is explained how to correct this when it is off-center.

 

Kind of, but not really. You're thinking of the muffler bearing. I do alignments everyday, and with the new Toyotas, you have to reset the steering angle sensor after making an adjustment. Its tied into the VSC system. So you all with second gens, make sure to take it to an aligment shop that has the software and equipment to do it. By the way if you got an alignment and the steering wheel is off, they didn't do it right.

 

Not normal, and if your numbers are all good, it's probably tire pull. swap your front tires.

 

This doesn't go well. They don't care.

I like the little green nitrogen caps on my valve stems. The dealer has broken them every time I've gone in by over tightening them. Every time I have to ask for new valve caps that are green and not black, which is a constant battle. I found some green caps for $1.99, so I bought those.

 

adjust yourself. just do each side by same amount (quarter turn at a time or so)

 

no need to fear doing it, its very easy and fool proof to do it as long as you pay attention.

the way I do it is: loosen the tie rod lock nut and then unbolt and drop the tie rod out of the ball joint or spindle, now just turn the tie rod one rotation screwed in or one rotation screwed out, then reinstall the tie rod and retighten lock nut. do the same for the other side and all you do is turn it the opposite way from the other wheel so if you unscrewed the drivers side you screw in one turn on the passenger side the same one turn. this means all you change is the steering wheel position and not your alignment. usually just one turn on the tie rod moves the steering wheel position about 1/2"-3/4", if you need less movement then that then just leave it alone.

so you don't disconnect and separate the tie rod at all? do you just break the lock nut loose and turn the inner tie rod shaft to adjust it?

if that's what you are saying to do, then that does sound a lot easier then separating it, but it also sounds a lot harder for the "average joe" to do in his driveway and be sure to get the "exact" same amount of turn on each side so im thinking this way is more likely you could mess up the alignment unless extra care is taken first to mark things first so it can be compared side by side.

 

From post #59 here https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-do-an-alignment-at-home.252256/


"On a 1st gen 4wd Tacoma, once alignment is complete, if the steering wheel is slightly off, it can be brought to center by turning both inner tie-rods in the same direction (red arrows) by the exact same amount (one direction or the other, looking at the rack from the rear). If one is turned a different amount than the other, Toe will change."

I use the "flats" on the ITR as index marks to judge just how much each has been turned. One sixth of a turn makes a perceptible change in steering wheel position. "One spline off" on the steering rack splines makes a pretty big change, 10.3 degrees to be exact.

Here's a pictogram. The disk at top represents the steering wheel.

 

thanks DP, that's a great description on how to do it the right way so you don't mess up the alignment.

I had always been afraid to get the rack alignment off centered if I did anything other then turn the tie rods but that moves the wheel a lot so slight adjustments weren't possible with that method

my only question is the point of view im seeing, are we looking at the front of the rack in this picture or from the back of the rack in that picture?

 

Having done more than a few alignments in my day I would not attempt to do this without toe plates or an alignment rack. The tie rod adjustment is very sensitive and you'll likely end up with a slight pull and tire wear issues.

 

this is why I used to always unhook the tie rod and turn it not the shaft. its the only way to be 100% sure you are not changing the alignment but the drawback is its only going to move the steering wheel about an inch at a time so fine adjustments wouldn't be done that way.

 

That's like holding lug nut with a wrench and rotating the car. Toe adjustment is intended to be done by turning the ITR.
As long as they are both turned the same there is no change in Toe. It's that simple.

I made up that "pictogram" with Taco inner/outer tie rods and the steering wheel on the left side to be as easy to read as possible. It's looking forward at the rear of the rack.

 

thanks, I always like to ask about the point of viewing angle because you just never know how a person is drawing it

 

I guess I'm anal then. When I'm aligning a car I like to get it dead on perfect to .01 deg so a couple degrees of ITR rotation can throw that off.