Tacoma alignment toe setting

Hi All,

Had a question that I couldn’t find the answer to. My steering wheel was off about 5-10 degrees after having an alignment done. I didn’t have time to bring it back, so I adjusted the tie-rods by about 1/2 a turn. I eyeballed it but tried to do it as equal as possible. Would this greatly affect the alignment spec?

Is there a rule of thumb for how much of rotation of the tie rod is equal to how much toe?

Thanks!

 

Your other specs could be off to. Is the steering wheel straight now and goes straight down the road? If not you will have to get it realigned. Camber could be off also. It's best you take it back. And get the printout after completion. We can help you more that way

 

If you were able to adjust them exactly the same, you’ll be alright for a while and shouldn’t see excessive tire wear, but your best bet is to take it back and get it corrected. After all, you paid for an alignment and it wasn’t done correctly.

 

When I do alignment on truck and cars I make sure it goes straight and wheel is perfect position before I let it go. So take it back. And drive if around and if still not good go right back.

 

Right now, the steering wheel is straight and it tracks fine down the road. If I let go it will wander very slowly, but it did that before as well. I'll grab a photo of the alignment sheet from before I fiddled with it. Everything was in spec as far as I can tell.

So a small adjustment like half a turn will really make the difference on throwing it out of spec?

 

If you make a half a turn on each tie rod the overall toe should stay the same but the steering wheel turns. But if you turn one in the wrong direction, your toe will definitely be off.

 

I did my best to turn them equally. Half-out on one side, Half-in on the other. When tightening the locknut, I also made sure I didn't twist the lower portion of the tie-rod.

I guess my question is. Would half a turn(equally for both) make my already in spec alignment now out of spec. I know it's a bad question and I should just go back to the shop, but it is far away and I won't be back in that area for a while.

 

This is exactly how my alignment guys to it, both for the Taco and at a different place for the 911. I've never had an issue and the last alignment I had pre Taco, on my '93 PU was still going strong ten years later when I finally sold it. Most of them simply don't want to re-attach all the alignment gear for something like this. Now, once, I did have some idiot go and manually adjust a tie rod for a severe pull. Asked him how he knew how far to adjust it. He guessed. Went across the street to the best shop in town and never looked back. They laughed at the story, and it was way way off from the guesswork. If you were careful, and it sounds like you were, you should be fine. You can always pay for an alignment check later on if you want.