4th Gen T4R Walking/swaying at high speeds?

[T-Bruff]

I have an 2007 SR5 with 95,000 miles, I put on a Daystar 2.5/1.5 leveling kit on it about a year ago. I had it aligned after I installed it.

Ever since I had that installed I noticed the steering wheel was a lot less responsive, basically it seemed to be loser is how my wife describes it. That I am not too worried about as I figure it is because of the added clearance from the lift.

The other thing I noticed was at high speeds around 65-80mph it can tend to walk/sway on me, it is more prevalent on rough/uneven roads. It happens randomly and usually will correct itself if I keep the wheel from moving. When my wife is driving she will try to correct it and it can cause it to walk more after being corrected.

I am wondering what ideas you might have as to a remedy I am looking to put some FJ TRD rims w/ Ko2's on it soon. I am not sure if this will help give is some stability or not. A buddy of mine who used to be a mechanic said I may need new shocks. I thought I would gather some more opinions. I appreciate any insight if you have it.

Thanks for your time!

 

[bauch68]

I have that same problem even with no lift. I'm planning on swapping to fj coils I got from CHawks_12. I got an alignment about 4k mikes ago and I know it's aligned.
What causes this? I cannot figure this out.

 

[WI_4Runner]

I can't be of any assistance as I too am noticing that my 4R doesn't feel as planted and responsive as it used to. Believe our 4th Gen's are hitting high mileage points & suspension/steering parts are becoming worn, noticeably so at that. There is a thread currently going on about sway bar bushing upgrades, which I need to really look through.

 

[morphious]

[MENTION=115975]T-Bruff[/MENTION] Because you said since you installed your lift, it may be that you are low on Caster. Lower caster settings will cause the darting feeling at higher speeds.

 

[exo_toy.]

[MENTION=115975]T-Bruff[/MENTION] Because you said since you installed your lift, it may be that you are low on Caster. Lower caster settings will cause the darting feeling at higher speeds.

^this^
Post up your alignment spec sheet

 

[CruzadoBlanco]

i can pretty much guarantee you the issue is from your caster angle being to low. you need to have it between 3-4 degrees (i prefer 3.5-4). Hopefully the tech was just lazy and didnt adjust it. The other option to correct it if there is no adjustment left in the LCA is to get a set of aftermarket UCAs.

 

[T-Bruff]

i can pretty much guarantee you the issue is from your caster angle being to low. you need to have it between 3-4 degrees (i prefer 3.5-4). Hopefully the tech was just lazy and didnt adjust it. The other option to correct it if there is no adjustment left in the LCA is to get a set of aftermarket UCAs.

Here is what was done alignment wise after the lift. What changes do I need to make?
[MENTION=131701]exo_toy.[/MENTION]
[MENTION=93193]morphious[/MENTION]

 

[morphious]

Here is what was done alignment wise after the lift. What changes do I need to make?
[MENTION=131701]exo_toy.[/MENTION]
[MENTION=93193]morphious[/MENTION]

Your Caster is WAY LOW. Mine weren't even that low with a 4" coil lift with stock UCAs.

Here are my numbers: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/2310990-post4.html

 

[Mike07SE]

Every truck differs when lifted. Even when I "only" had the Daystar lift I had wandering/skittish steering feel; others never would need it. You'll need to eventually get yourself some UCA's to add more caster to the geometry to make it feel more stable at highway speeds.

 

[T-Bruff]

Your Caster is WAY LOW. Mine weren't even that low with a 4" coil lift with stock UCAs.

Here are my numbers: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/2310990-post4.html

So should I have it realligned and see if I can get the caster up? Will I be able to get close to 3.5-4 with stock UCA?

 

[T-Bruff]

Every truck differs when lifted. Even when I "only" had the Daystar lift I had wandering/skittish steering feel; others never would need it. You'll need to eventually get yourself some UCA's to add more caster to the geometry to make it feel more stable at highway speeds.

any suggestions UCA wise? I havent ever looked into that at all.

Thanks for the feed back BTW

 

[Mike07SE]

any suggestions UCA wise? I havent ever looked into that at all.

Thanks for the feed back BTW

Everyone will give you a different opinion. I have the SPC / Light Racing UCA's and haven't been very satisfied with them. Quite a few alignment shops will also get funky about them as well with all the extra adjust-ability they add in to the system. If I had to do it over again I'd go the uniball route that Camburg or Total Chaos offer; if the very least I'd do the Camburg's with the Moog ball joints.

 

[morphious]

So should I have it realligned and see if I can get the caster up? Will I be able to get close to 3.5-4 with stock UCA?

From the looks of your sheet your other numbers look good so I don't think there is much room for them to try and gain Caster without throwing off your Camber. Do you only have a spacer in the front or did you change coils as well. There are a few us us, myself included running uniball UCAs purchased from eBay with good success.

 

[T-Bruff]

From the looks of your sheet your other numbers look good so I don't think there is much room for them to try and gain Caster without throwing off your Camber. Do you only have a spacer in the front or did you change coils as well. There are a few us us, myself included running uniball UCAs purchased from eBay with good success.

I did 1.5 in front and 2.5 rear.

 

[cajone5]

From the looks of your sheet your other numbers look good so I don't think there is much room for them to try and gain Caster without throwing off your Camber. Do you only have a spacer in the front or did you change coils as well. There are a few us us, myself included running uniball UCAs purchased from eBay with good success.

Did you need to do any modification of the eBay arms? I thought I heard there was some fitment issues.

 

[CruzadoBlanco]

Did you need to do any modification of the eBay arms? I thought I heard there was some fitment issues.

pretty much just put different sleeves from like allpro or camburg or shortened SPC ones.

 

[morphious]

I did 1.5 in front and 2.5 rear.

Re-looking at your sheet, I would suggest taking it to a different shop to get an alignment. Try to find one in your area with good reviews, not a "toe and go" type place. The reason I say taking it to a different shop is because I do not trust why they show your Caster in the Green and your spec range to only be between 0.3 and 1.8. The standard ranger for Caster on a 2wd 4Runner should be between 2.6 and 4.1 and 4wd varies slightly from those numbers but not much. The Camber and Toe number ranges on your sheet are within Factory spec, but again they changed the Caster spec numbers to show you green without telling you they were not within spec.

 

[CruzadoBlanco]

any suggestions UCA wise? I havent ever looked into that at all.

Thanks for the feed back BTW

if you're not gonna wheel it hard and want the most adjustment possible go with the SPC light racing UCAs. if youre planning to wheel it with any regularity and difficulty the go with either the camburg balljoint arms or any reputable builders of uniball arms (allpro, total chaos, camburg, rockman, icon) or you could try the Ebay uniballs that many of us are running, they do require you to replace the bushing sleeve to get proper fitment. however its pretty easy to do and only cost ~50 bucks to get the new ones from anyone pretty much

 

[morphious]

Did you need to do any modification of the eBay arms? I thought I heard there was some fitment issues.

Here is the easy fix:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/2305518-post629.html

 

[NinjaOne]

I did 1.5 in front and 2.5 rear.

Numbers backwards? Most do a larger lift in the front. A larger lift in the back will decrease caster.

I'm running 2.5" front, 1.5" rear and still have stock arms. My caster is ~1.8° on both sides. It doesn't feel loose/darty at highway speeds, but increasing the caster on mine would likely improve steering slightly. I feel like I could increase my caster with stock arms if I could find a good alignment tech. [Somebody know a good shop in the Seattle area that knows how to align a lifted ride?]

If you did mistype your lift numbers, you can get a better alignment with your stock arms. Prob. not 3-4° but still enough to stabilize it at freeway speeds.

Common UCA brands: Total Chaos, Camburg, Icon (~$600-800)