Hard steering?

No thats not too loose. If its under warranty then you have no worries really.

 

Fair enough.

Well...lets see what happens in about a week and a half when I go up to Nanaimo to get all this nonsense straightened out. I'm curious to see what the problem actually is.

I will keep everyone posted.

 

So what was the issue? My 06 just started doing this last week. Really tight steering and I have to turn it back to center.

 

Sorry for not following up on this thread. The folks at the Nanaimo dealership ended up wasting my time and played the whole "it's normal" routine.

Since then, I joined up with an auto shop club near me and checked a bunch of things on the suspension myself. So far I haven't found anything.

Currently, my steering is still stiff. It has gotten to the point where I am hearing and feeling a knocking sound if I turn the steering wheel while stationary and the engine is running. Turning the steering wheel actually bogs the engine down a little.

As much as I don't want to do it, I am going back to the Victoria dealership this Friday to have it looked at again. If they try to pull the "it's normal" card on me again, I won't have any qualms about making a scene.

 

Thanks for the update. It is driving me nuts. Fluid is fine. Belt is tight. Nothing loose. I go in for my frame check on Monday and I'll ask them then what their thoughts are.

 

Just bought a 98 and has started doing the stiff to steer deal as well. Going out my drive the ball joints on the right separated. Pulled the inner CV joint out and ripped the boot. The parts store sold me a pair of ball joints but think the bottom is the wrong one. It is a bare ball joint abd all the repair videos show them replacing the whole cast piece. I am waiting for my battery on impact to charge as the bottom caliper bolt I can't break loose with my 24" snap on breaker bar. I am 6' 2" and about 212 though am old but not weak.

I have worked on a lot of older Fords but not much on Toyota. Did maintenance on mining equipment as well but Euclids are a different beast to work on.

 

The dealership said my intermediate shaft u-joint is bad. Going to have them replace the shaft when they do my frame replacement.

 

I'm having similar issues. The first I noticed it was mid last winter when it was so brutally cold in Ontario. For the fist few minutes driving it it was as if the engine was off. I had to wrestle it into a run and wrestle it to straight again. After warming up it was OK. I still find it odd that that would happen even in extreme weather conditions. It's a truck for heck's sake. But now I'm noticing it to a lessor degree mid summer. It's intermittent. It has a similar weight/feel to as a less than optimum alignment on a road with a severe crown. It usually happens on a straight section of highway (with no obvious crown) in a situation where I'd normally not need more the a finger to keep it straight suddenly I need to really grip the wheel to make a minor correction and then have to pull the wheel back to centred. Of course it never does it for the mechanic at the dealership.

Any opinion are appreciated.

Cheers

 

If it is doing it each morning I would opt to leave it there over night so it will be cold for them to test and diagnose. Pump maybe getting weak or oil is too thick to pump until it warms up. More then once has a company made a mistake putting wrong oil in places. Relief valves cause a lot of trouble. One spec of dirt under a valve in a hydraulic system can sure raise cain with the WHOLE system.

 

Any root causes found by anyone? My 2012 five-speed access cab 2.7 4x4 has started with stuff-feeling steering A few days ago. Thinking the power steering went out or works intermittently as sometimes I it feels assisted at very low speeds but very heavy at 40+. Got the power steering fluid changed at 120k miles 4 months ago.

 

This was my solution, as it turns out. Had a almost close to failing U-joint. Got it fixed locally.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2nd-gen-lower-steering-shaft-rebuild-diy.543377/page-6

 

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but these are the same symptoms that I'm fighting with on my 2011 DCLB 4.0 5spd AT currently. There is power loss at times but only slightly, like a dead pedal feeling from the accelerator and loss of fuel efficiency and truck slows down rapidly when the accelerator is not depressed. I though I must be losing my marbles, but recently drove my friend's 2007 DCLB and his acceleration and steering are what I remember mine feeling like when I bought the truck 2 years ago. Have flushed the transmission and replaced both CV axles with NAPA parts and a new Dorman hub/bearing assembly on the driver's front. PS fluid was a little below the indicator level and I filled to the mark with ATF. I'm hoping that this is something easily remedied that I'm just overlooking and I'm not battling a steering rack and trans slip issue at the same time.