New suspension lift question..

I have a 2011 Tacoma 4x4
I just replaced the whole front end. New steering rack bushings, clamshell bushing, CV axles, wheel hubs, in/out tie rods, jba high caster uca, Moog LCA, stabilzer link, sway bar bushings, and ome884/5100 at .85. I did all the work myself and took my time with it. I just finished yesterday.

Anyways I went to get an alignment today.. the tech said it's the best alignment numbers he seen on a lifted Tacoma but When he finished the steering wheel wasn't straight but the numbers were all great.. First turn i made traction control kicks on going 5mph on a turn. I bring it back. He resets something. It went away, and he straightened the steering wheel. Now the srs light is on. Cruise control, audio buttons, and horn doesn't work. Am I wrong or did he just break the spiral cable??

Also I noticed that my steering is wayyy stiffer than before and feel like the turn radius has decreased. And I had the same height lift with procomps originally and no issues like this popped up. I also had to trim more plastic. I didn't change my tire size. Is this normal?

Any help/info would be greatly appreciated. This is my first post to this forum as well. Forgive me if I'm breaking any rules.

 

Damn, it sounded like he removed the steering wheel, repositioned it straight, and in the process either fubar the spiral cable or left it unplugged.

 

Welcome to TW. You didn't break any rules yet. Hope you can get it sorted out. Sound like the spiral cable for the electrical problems, but I can't see how that would affect turning radius or making it more difficult to turn the wheel.

 

I know the spiral cable wouldn't effect the radius but I'm pretty sure that's what he broke.. I'm going to call them tommorow and have them fix it.. it's an easy fix but I shouldn't have to fix it since everything was working prior to the alignment..

As for the stiff steering. Maybe the old parts were just so bad it tightened up real good and I'm not used to yet ?? When I replaced the bushing in the rack (pain in the mother fuckin ass)I installed bit back I made sure the wheel was straight with equal amount of the rack sticking out.. other than the clock spring I'm hoping the tighter steering is just improvement from the new parts and just need to break in..?

 

Moving the steering wheel to obtain straight will leave the rack offset to one side.
Doing so messes with correct steering geometry.

Not saying you did anything wrong, but I think your alignment guy was blowing sunshine up your butt, while being clueless about correctly doing an alignment essentially from step 1.

Was this a high quality alignments only shop, or a tire store or?

Granted, in the end you should not pay for their mistakes. If a low quality shop, get a refund and advise them they may be paying for broken parts.

Some alignment guys are very good, many are merely a bunch of clueless hacks. They may do anything needed to override the actual settings so it prints out well. They only want to adjust toe in and be done.

 

I think you have a bad alignment, regardless what you were told.

Do you have a printout showing the numbers?

Guessing castor is too low (heavy steering, trimming) and unequal side to side (off centered wheel).

While the spiral cable may be broken, they do fail on their own. However, if he centered your wheel by removing it and repositioning it on the shaft...... which is absolutely wrong!

 

Neg

 

How do alignment guys correctly straighten the wheel? I noticed that one tie rod is damn near threaded out Completely.. when I was installing the rack the wheel might have moved when I disconnected that sliding yoke to get that shaft in the rack. When I got it in though each side was even. I measured multiple times. I may have forgot to purge the air out.. I lubed the ujoint on the intermediate shaft and seemed to help but I will try to purge the air out and see if that helps.

The alignment was done at Firestone since it was the only place open on Sunday and I needed my truck for work.. the guy is going to get an earful today.. called corporate filed a claim and supposidely that shop manager of theirs only has one technician that can diagnose the problem.. what a bunch of joes... But anyways I definitely know that that the spiral cable is busted.. when I turn the steering wheel you can hear a squeaking sound straight from the wheel. On top of that the manager is like oh yeah that's a Toyota and Lexus issue.. well no shit and it was working perfectly fine before they even worked on it and now it doesn't...

Unless there is a way to alter those alignment numbers off the top of my head castor was about 3.5-3.7 camber was .3 toe was pretty low

 

Any mechanic that straightens the steering wheel by removing it and reinstalling it turned has no clue wtf he's doing.

 

I've uploaded the alignment sheet..Turning right it's about two full cranks. Turning left it's about 1 1/4 cranks I also noticed one tie rod is almost threaded completely and the wheel doesn't have equal amount of turns.. how do I center the rack when it's already installed and is adjusting the rack part of an alignment??

 

Seems to me it was a good guess. Those should be in the green, not red.

That is the first thing to set. Then camber, then toe.

Camber is OK, but will change when caster is corrected. And again, as equal as possible.

Toe is OK, but will change when caster/camber are corrected. And again, as equal as possible.

 

Reading your lock to lock turning amounts, your steering rack is not centered.

Hate to say it, they messed up your truck. Find a competent shop and have it correctly setup and aligned.

As for the damages done, you have a claim in. Inform the shop that corrects everything and have them note the previous alignment removed the steering wheel to center it and broke the mechanism which Firestone is liable for.

Honestly though, my guess, fix it correct, suck it up and waste no more time unless Firestone truly steps up.

FWIW, years ago, a local tire store raised my wifes civic. They did not position the lift correctly and pushed up / broke the seam on the passenger floor. When confronted, they looked into it. All records deleted and the car had never been there.

 

So is the centering the steering rack part of when you get an alignment?

 

Based on what he is saying, likely best to center the rack, correct the steering wheel, make the tie rods about equal then correctly align.

He needs a real shop.

 

Typically no, but the guy should have noticed the error in tierod lengths.

Truthfully, centering the rack probably should have been checked by you as you went to install tie rods.

My guess though is the alignment guy adjusted everything on one side only.

 

So how do you center the rack ?

The guy did seem pretty skeptical when he came in to show me the sheet.. he also said that it's normal to have tie rods that aren't even.. I will go back to Firestone today since there "master tech" here.should I tell them they shouldve notified me that the rack wasn't center before they aligned it and broke the clockspring in the process And that they need to center the rack and fix the clockspring due to there incompetence..

 

I doubt telling the mechanic his job will help.

Better to inform him you noticed the steering when driving turns a lot more one way than the other, sharing the amounts. Let him understand this concerned you. You took a quick look and noticed the large difference in tie rod lengths.

Not sure how you explain to him the guy removed the steering wheel. Guess let him know the steering wheel was far from centered when they delivered the truck.

You have a 50/50 chance this guy is better. Then again he may protect his co worker.

All the best with it.

 

That shop sucks! I wouldn't let them change my garden's water hose! The guy that did the alignment has no clue wtf he's doing!

 

The guy wouldn't tell me how he adjusted the wheel. My only guess is he took the wheel off. Those are easily broken so he clearly did something wrong. But I will politely mention what you suggested.

 

Also he straightened my steering wheel after I brought it back since the traction control was going on. So the traction control issue was fixed then the srs light came on.