Wife's 4runner

Alright, I love my 4runner. But since purchased with low miles, the steering has given me nothing but headaches. At first, it pulled to the right quite noticealby. I took it over to Les Schwab. When he was done, it steered mostly straight but the steering wheel was crooked. I took it back for a realignment. When he was finished, it drove straight but with a lot of slack.

Slack would be defined as, driving foward at a speed greater than 30 mph, moving steering wheel left and right greater than 1.5 inches and getting very little movement in vehicle. In comparison, when doing this in my old camry wagon, I end up all over the road as expected.

So I take it back to another les schwab in Lake Oswego with new tires on it. By this time, at every bump, the truck litterally loses steering ability. For example, when passing over train tracks, the steering wheel moves left to right 2 inches while the trucks move laterally left and right. It was so scary, that any speed about 65 on the freeway would clinch your cheeks.

The new guy at Les Schwab "made some adjustments" and then the truck actually could be taken over 70 mph with just s a bit of "drifting". By drifting I mean that the vehicle requires corrections while moving down the road. Corrections were often and obvious. It was impossible to drive with two hands-usually by the thumbs so you could make many adjustments-a lot of them.

For the record, I have dead stock size tires. Everyone has pronounced the tie rods and ball joints in good health. The shop tech at les schwab in Lake Oswego contends that the rack and pinion, from the factory, is weak. In fact, he contends that for this size vehicle and these size tires, it should have the typical drag link/steering box combo.

Ok, so after that trip I took the rig to Montana. I hit some gravel roads and did a tad bit of off roading. The steering wheel went from being crooked to being straight. Now, 6 weeks later we are back to spooky steering. I checked Tire pressure at 35-38. 35psi produces more vague steering, 38 produces a harsher ride but more precise steering. The truck takes a lot of forces to steer it. When steering it take a lot of movement. Like a old 57 chevy. Steering fluid is full.

I describe spooky as, when traveling greater than 40mph, the front end(while steering straight ahead) begins to move left or right requiring correction on even pavement.

One more bit of data to consider. Last weekend I rented the largest Uhaul trailer avialable - 6x12. It weighs somwhere in the vicinity of 1800lbs. I thought that after hooking it up, the rig would behave more eratically. Nope, behaved better. In fact, it almost steered like a normal vehicle.

Please, someone, shed some light on my issue. The alignment techs say "don't compare your 4runner to the camry wagon, they are totally different". Really? My camry wagon has the same principle of steering and it is OLDER.

When I talked to the dealer, he said perhaps the bal joints could be shot as some were up for recall (not mine of course). Do I start there? I am almost to the point of either selling it or not letting my wife drive it. I am litterally afraid it will just drive off the road.

MTL_4runner

Don't sell the truck for that, it's totally fixable!

Sounds like 2 things to me, bad bushings and it still needs a decent alignment (the Les Schwab guys don't seem to be cutting it lately). You can check the wheel bearings, ball joints and bushings yourself by just jacking up the front end and pivoting the tire about the steering axis both side to side and up n' down. It may have a bad ball joint, wheel bearing or even the steering rack could be shot internally but the most common issue is the rack bushings. Get the parts replaced that need to be and take it to the Toyota dealer for a wheel alignment (make sure to request a printout of before and after on the alignment machine!!!). Also verify you have good tire pressure in all 4 tires (32 psi min) since low tire pressure can also cause sloppy steering.

Here's how to replace the bushings if you need it:
http://www.keystonekrawlers.com/Mods...eeringBush.htm

frodin1

I've got nothing to say about Les Schwab Tire stores! Actually I do but it's not good so I'll keep my mouth shut.

Wife's 4runner

I am sort of dissapointed with Le slob. I am looking for an alignment shop that uses a hunter system here in town.

wjwerdna

the comments from the guys there make them sound lazy and predisposed towards crapping on Toyota in general....

"the steering rack is weak in every single 4runner and everyone has this problem" "since there was a ball-joint recall on series of ball-joints used for a run of production, every single toyota is going to have this problem forever" "sorry man, we are incompetent"

maybe they are only adjusting toe-in/out on the tie-rods... common sleazy alignment practice, since it often clears up the problem that tell people they need an alignment, without fixing whole issue (yes i copied that statement after reading it somewhere, if someone knows where please give them credit)

the bushings are available at wheeler's offroad, http://www.wheelersoffroad.com/4runnerrackbushkit.htm
its where I have found them most available anyway... it is on my list of stuff to do, and I know that NAPA can only order the bushings with a whole new rack assembly

Mason Dixon

also, check your stabilizer bar/swaybar, i took mine off recently, didn't torque it down good enuff and am wondering around the road like a drunk man

perhaps cheapest bet is to get a torque wrench and just torque down all the bolts(to spec) having to do with steering and then see whats up

MTL_4runner

That's another good point, make sure you don't have any broken or loose sway bar links. You'd probably notice that pretty quickly though because offramps would have you white-knuckling it every time you got on or off a highway.