Steering when weather is hot

Hello! I was wondering if anyone has ever heard or experienced big changes in steering when the weather is hot? I noticed on my 09 Tacoma with 150,000 miles that when the weather warms up and I go on drives longer than 30 minutes the steering gets really loose feeling, and when I make sure and hit cracks my truck will skid to the side. I also noticed I can feel every bump in the steering wheel. As noted it is only mild when weather is colder…. But when the weather heats up the change is drastic. I have stock steering and suspension except for shocks. I had it aligned recently and inspected and they said they couldn’t find any play in anything.

 

Not sure this is it but it’s something to look at I would look at your upper steering shaft rod I’m not sure if that’s the name of it but it has a joint on it that could fail something like a
u-joint

 

Have you ever changed the PS fluid? Old dirty fluid can do weird things.

 

Leaky rack with bad seals?

 

Traced it back to the steering rack mounts. Completely rusted and flaking. The whole rack shifts as wheels are turned. As soon as I got it from the previous owner I noticed I was getting outer tire wear and started replacing parts. Would a shifting rack and pinion assembly cause outer tire wear?

 

Good catch with the rack bushings, OP. What shocks are on it?

 

You may want to give the mounts a small bang with a hammer to check their integrity. The rack itself may be good, but those bushings are documented shit, even in brand new form from the factory.

 

I’m running new bilstein 5100’s no lift. Have any of you installed poly bushings?

 

Sounds like a worn out gear slipping. Check the rack for play.