Front wheel alignment shop needed

[Sarki]

Solid advice on replacing LCA bushings and steering rack mounts/bushings, especially after 190K miles.
I’ll mess around with it a bit later this afternoon and let Dealership do alignment tomorrow to hopefully bring things into focus a bit more.
Thanks for taking time out to explain things, much appreciated.

 

[phattyduck]

Lots of things can make the L/R tie rod adjustment not match that are not accident related:

- The steering wheel splines can be off (or just the wheel is turned)
- (in some cases) the steering shaft splines can be off
- The camber/caster adjustments can be off

If they are two tie rod adjustments are far off, the amount of steering left vs. right will be off. Like 1.4 turns to the left and 1.6 to the right, which tells you something 'above' the steering rack is off. Get that right, then trust the rest 'below' the rack (tie rods, camber/caster) will fix it from there.

-Charlie

 

[Sarki]

Just back from dealer after wheel alignment.
Print out below

 

[Malcolm99]

Looks ok, they didn't attempt to adjust caster or camber as the numbers look good, and the toe on one side is at the limit of the acceptable range but ok. Curious how well they balanced out the tie-rods but you should be good to go.

 

[Sarki]

I’ll have it up in the air for a look and will grab some quick measurements later this afternoon.
Based on those numbers I suspect not many threads left on the left side.
I spoke with the tech about the Caster & Camber. He said no need to make any changes other than Toe as others were good which seems to be indicated in the print out.
He said adjusting cams looked to be in good shape as well as LCA bushings.

 

[Malcolm99]

He is correct, no need to adjust LCA cams if camber/caster is correct and tie-rod thread is balanced as per FSM. He cannot tell you the adjusters condition buy looking at it, you would have to loosen them to see if they are free which he didn't, but he should have done a full front end inspection before performing the alignment which should flag bad LCA bushings if present although difficult to inspect without loosening cams, so he is correct and you're aligned and good to go so no worries until you notice tire wear, LCA play, torn LCA bushings and or pulling L/R while braking or clucking noises, if you decide to lift it making adjustments to the LCA can is critical for alignment, but that's not a concern for you, glad it worked out as the numbers look good except toe on one side is at the outter limit of acceptable, but ok.

 

[phattyduck]

Those results look good. If you are going to +1 your tire size, you might need to increase caster - but with stock size tires that should drive good. The slightly higher camber and caster on the passenger side will correct for road crown a bit but not increase tire wear.

-Charlie

 

[Sarki]

Here’s the end results regarding toe adjustment as per tie rods.
Right side is at 8 1/2 mm of remaining thread and left side 5 1/2 mm thread remaining.
Looks like FSM states both sides should be within 1 1/2 mm of each other.
Does this become an issue or good to go since toe setting is where it’s supposed to be.
I would post pics but for some reason they fail to upload which is new problem been having.

 

[Malcolm99]

Pretty hard to get even the dealers to go by the FSM, they are not Toyota just a shop with rights to Toyota sales and service, I went back to my dealer 3 times paying for the alignment twice, asking for them to dial it in better with a completely rebuilt front suspension. This is where inspection of components and your LCA Cam adjustments come in making the job easier, it's not an easy job to balance it out and takes lots of time and adjusting of all components, that's why you ignore the steering wheel, ball park toe to spec, then adjust camber&caster and revisit toe last, if the steering splines haven't been messed with from factory it should all work out in a perfect world on a straight vehicle in perfect working order. Is your alignment fine, yes, it's just not done according to the Toyota FSM. I don't know which side is out, but would correcting the toe to 0.05" on the one side bring you closer to spec?

 

[Sarki]

It’s funny, I printed out the 4 pages of the FSM that you attached in previous link and handed it to the tech.
As I walked into waiting area I thought to myself no way he’s even looking at that but at least I tried!
It does seem to track straight and handle well so I’m ok for now. We’ll see how the tires wear as that will be the real test.

 

[Malcolm99]

I did the same, they find that insulting it seems and a bit to much to ask when getting an alignment even at a "Toyota" dealer, it also seems an alignment means they only adjust toe unless you beg them to do a proper alignment or they are forced to adjust LCA cams because of a suspension height/geometry change, they let mine roll out the door with camber and caster in the red, I had to go back and politely ask wtf, do it again, the FSM I provided obviously went in the bin, and this will be 75% of everyone's experience going for an alignment although they may not know it, they adjust toe only, I think it has to do with peice work in shops, especially dealerships, they get paid the same whether it takes them 15min or 1hour, if it comes back it might be on the techs dime/time and the tech won't be happy nor will you, but different shops operate different, and the rules are not the same in all countries.

 

[Sarki]

Yep, Dealers operate same here, tech on flat rate so sooner he’s done better for his pocket.
Naturally they don’t allow you in the work area so I asked to speak with the tech after they handed me the printout.
Out walks a kid that looked like he was still finishing up his last year of high school.
As someone in a prior alignment thread said.....”toe and go”!
Bottom line for me is I have printout that shows things are fairly in order so I feel like my hard earned greenback gave me some peace of mind.
I also learned some of the basics on alignments which is a plus.

 

[Bad Luck]

Here’s the end results regarding toe adjustment as per tie rods.
Right side is at 8 1/2 mm of remaining thread and left side 5 1/2 mm thread remaining.
Looks like FSM states both sides should be within 1 1/2 mm of each other.
Does this become an issue or good to go since toe setting is where it’s supposed to be.
I would post pics but for some reason they fail to upload which is new problem been having.

That's not going to affect anything. You will hit the hard steering stops before running out of clock spring turns or maxing out your power steering rack. The only way you can correct that WITHOUT MESSING UP YOUR CAMBER AND/OR CASTER is by adjusting both tie rods at the same time and then removing the steering wheel and rotating the steering wheel to level before reinstalling the steering wheel. No one is going to go through the extra effort of doing that unless the rack is off by a lot more than 3 mm's.