Overly Sensitive Steering
 

My 3rd gen has 129k miles and is the second one I have ever owned. This one is my daily driver and most of my driving is at about 70mph on the interstate. I have replaced all shocks and coils and steering bushings. I have had it aligned but it still feels overly sensitive when driving particularly at the higher speeds. I don't see any movement at the tie rod ends and haven't replaced them. To look at the front end everything seems tight but it seems I am constantly correcting the steering when driving. Even much worse with wind.

What am I overlooking? I don't think the ball joints are bad and would think that if there was excessive play in them that the alignment would have caught that. My first 3rd gen was mostly low speed driving and a little slack was not a problem, but this one is working on me with my one hour commute in the morning and afternoon. Everything seems tight, just too easy to steer.

Thanks

At 129k mi I wouldn't think your control arm bushings are causing your problem.
Have you checked for play between steering wheel and rack, some steering columns get slop quicker than others.
You mentioned alignment, did they do it right ? Camber Caster and Toe combined can cause your symptoms if each is out a bit still in spec, look at before n after sheet of alignment.

Is your 4Runner lifted any?

Mine had very sensitive steering after lifting, even with a "pro" alignment done. The alignment machine was spec'ing it out perfectly in the green.

It turns out that the alignment specs in these machines are for a stock, unmodified 4runner. You may need more caster added if your truck is lifted (you may have to tell them to max your caster if you're lifted).


If you're not lifted, this still sounds like an alignment issue! Find an old school alignment shop with no laser alignment machines etc. They'll probably be able to get it right.

Don't overlook anything just because the mileage is 'only' 129k.

Its nearly 2021. Time wears things down if miles doesn't.

What's the other vehicle you drive? If the steering is different there it could make your hydraulic 4R steering seem like it is off.

Why not tighten up the steering rack guide, mark it where it is, back off the jam nut, and tighten it 1/12th of a turn at a time until you notice the wheel not returning to centre, and back it off, she'll be stiff now, you might have to play with it to get it right, and in 99 they updated the steering rack guide. Can we see the alignment specs, as green on the alignment reading can be a range that they ball park for, lifted or not you go by the same specs but need to be very accurate when lifted not just within the range. A side note I had toyota do my alignment after I lifted it, asked for the printout and I was in the red except toe, and they let it roll out the door, I told them to do the job again and do toe last.

I had an issue with what felt like very sensitive steering. I had an alignment and new tires mounted and the problem went away. I can't say which thing helped the most as they happened at the same time. My gut feeling is it was mostly tires. Mine looked fine but they were about 10 years old. How old/what shape are your tires in? My alignment shop said the camber was pretty off. Make sure your shop checked camber and not just toe.

I had similar problem once with new tires. Got a new set of nokian all terrains Which are popular here. They were great in snow and low speed. At high speeds over about 50 mph they were wandery and unstable. Particularly bad in strong wind conditions. Very hard work driving.

I switched them out for another brand of ATs and my runner is like it’s old self again.

Yep, steering column seems good. I know about the slop your speaking of as my first one had that. Usually caused by the slip connection built into it getting loose. The part that is supposed to collapse during a collision. As to the alignment, not sure if it was done correctly but it was done at a tire shop.

I've had several cars over the last couple of years. I know some of them were drive by wire (I think). My wife has a Mazda CX5, I have a 2011 Dodge Ram 2500, I have also had a 17 BMW 5 series as well as a 2013 BMW i3 Electric. I don't expect it to drive like any of those but just cant believe it was built to be so loosie goosie..

Yes it is a 2wd, but I wanted a little lift over stock and went with 4wd coils.

This happens all the time everywhere, off the record the Tech's will say is what it is leave it to customer to come back for a redo.

More/higher caster helps that with that wandering feel.

Tires have about 10k on them..

From under the vehicle, if you follow the steering shaft there is one 10 mm bolt about midway to the rack. If you loosen that bolt and push the proximal portion of shaft towards the rack and tighten the bolt, the steering gets more responsive. If you pull the shaft away from the rack and tighten the bolt, the steering gets less responsive and more difficult to turn the wheel. I had to fiddle with this after my 1” body lift. I didn’t loosen this bolt prior to the lift and as a result it felt like I lost power steering. It was that difficult to steer. Toytec needs to include this step in their body lift instructions. Anyways, give it a try and report back.