Too much rust to align my 09

I took my 2009 Tacoma to the dealership year ago for an alignment. They said there was too much rust to get it perfect, so they did what they could. They said just to make sure I rotate my tires religiously. The truck pulls left, not terribly, but enough that it’s annoying. I don’t recall what part they said was rusted, and I have no idea if they put any heat on it or how hard they tried to get the rusted part loose. I’d like to try to put some penetrant and heat to see if I could loosen whatever was seized up. I have time on my hands.

The only problem is I don’t know specifically what they said was too rusted, for sure it was something on the front. Based off the attached picture, do you know what I should be applying heat to? I think they said tie rod adjustment. The nut on the passenger side doesn’t look terrible (see pic), is there another part that could be stuck?

And Yes I know those struts are rusted to hell lol, replacing them next week. That’s why I want to loosen up whatever was rusted for the appointment, because I will get the car aligned after the spring and struts are replaced

 

Usually the part that rusts and prevents a good alignment are the lower control arm eccentric bolts. Those are the two bolts holding the lower control arm to the chassis and providing adjustments for caster and camber. If it's rusted solid you won't be able to heat it because it'll melt the rubber bushings. Only way is to cut them out and replace the arms completely (or cut them out and replace the bushings which is a huge pain and nobody usually does it). Good luck.

 

Shoot, is this the bolt you are saying usually rusts up? See picture, circled in red.
I was going to use the lower control arm method in order to replace the strut and spring coil, and I need to loosen up that bolt. It’s doesn’t look rusted…but you’re saying there is a bushing in there that messes things up? I wonder if I’m screwed now for trying to replace my struts.


***holy crap, just watched a video on how to replace that bushing….yea that’s not happening. Total pain in the A. Does a new lower control arm include new bushings on both ends?

 

New arms will come with the bushings, to do the springs and struts you don’t need to take those loose. Just get the sway bar out of the way and pop the upper ball joint loose, that will give you enough room to remove the assembly.

 

What the hell are we missing here? I would go back and ask quite explicitly what part they think was "too far rusted". I see things so much worse up here in rust belt crap VT, and usually a day or two of PB blaster / similar with some oomph will loosen up just about anything. If I can get a wire brush on something enough to once again recognize it as a nut or bolt (lol) it can most likely be removed. Maybe just some junk in the cam pathway preventing full adjust, that they didn't feel like removing?

Honestly, to me your truck underside looks quite nice for a 2009... that most likely was never rust prevent treated??


ETA: the "truck" so there's no mistakes here

 

Get new cam bolts for the lower control arms.

Have fun getting the old ones out without damaging anything... pB blaster them every day for like a week before you try.

 

Don't think the stealership wants to work on it is all..