Pulling to right after alignment

[BlackWorksInc]

Ah alright. Now if I leave it as is am I likely to see significantly more wear on the outside of my front tires? If so I want to nip it in the but immediately as these are brand new tires.

Based on the measurements? It should wear normally. How significant is the drift?

 

[Combatman]

The drift is just at highway speeds, and seems to depend on the crown of the road now that they switched the tires around. I'm not to concerned with the drift as much as I am about pre mature tire wear. After about 1200 miles the little string rubber stubs that come on tires brand new are gone on the outside and still partially there in the inside, is that normal?

 

[gm350reratliff]

Worked at Toyota a couple years and honestly 4runners are stupid hard to align. As I said earlier, that shop adjusted Toe and sent you on. That's the absolute wrong way to do a 4Runner alignment.

When I was doing them it was in the following order: Caster, Camber, Caster, Camber, Toe, Caster, Camber, Toe. And then if things still weren't good to go, repeat the last three until getting it as close as possible. Most 4runners are about a 1.5-2hr job on the alignment rack if they've had any lifting done or front end damage.

Good, I thought it was just me. Besides the added adjustability factor of the LR UCA's on mine, I thought I was spending way to much time on the rack tweaking the settings.

While our 4runners may not be the quickest to align, they sure beat aligning the TTB Ford trucks, especially a Ford that was just lifted. These 4runners are a breeze compared to those. I have found most Fords are a pain though. Why do they slot the hole but provide no cams?!

Rant over.

The drift is just at highway speeds, and seems to depend on the crown of the road now that they switched the tires around. I'm not to concerned with the drift as much as I am about pre mature tire wear. After about 1200 miles the little string rubber stubs that come on tires brand new are gone on the outside and still partially there in the inside, is that normal?

All the rubber nubs will wear off at some point. Normal or not depends on how fast they are wearing from side to side of the tire. Typically, the camber is a little positive which leans the tire out plus a little toe in which points the tires toward the center just a little. Those two things will, over time, wear the outside faster than the inside which is why tire rotations are important for helping your tread last longer and more even. IMHO, that .6° in camber is too high and will contribute to faster wear on the outside of the tire.

I realize you have had a hard time dealing with that shop so going back and arguing that point may not be worth it. Unless you feel like dealing with a different shop, you may just want to record the tire wear every thousand miles for both front tires, inside and outside tread. If you notice a big difference after a thousand miles or so you can find another shop and explain what is going on and how you would like it done.

The other thing to think about is, they swapped front tires and now it drives good. What happens when the tires get rotated?

 

[Sungod]

There seems to be a lot of incorrect information on this thread. I can promise you there is nothing worse than someone coming into a shop demanding something because they got bad advice from the internet. You look silly and you lose all credibility with the shop.

It sounds like you are describing a wander to the right. This is common when caster is too low. Roads are crowned to the right (in most cases) and low caster will allow you to go the way the road crowns.

The first step in the process if you had tires put on at the time of the alignment is to cross rotate. This is to eliminate tire conicity. Read all about it here - conicity

If you still get the pull then you have to look back at caster. Caster can cause pull with 1 degree difference left to right or it can cause wander when it is too low. In your case, you are at the bottom end of the spec. This is where most dealers and bad shops will get you. Their response is that it is in spec, so sorry. The reality is the specs are very broad and not necessarily tuned toward your needs. It is kind of a one size fits all approach.

In your case, you most likely need higher caster. In alignments everything is a compromise. You give up something to get something. To get better tracking with higher caster, you give up lighter steering and you increase steering parts wear (ball joints, tie rods, rack, etc.).

As for camber. Don't worry about it. Camber won't cause pull unless it is severely, and I mean severely out.

Toe is what causes tire wear. Nothing else and nothing more. The idea behind toe being slightly positive on a rwd car is that when you are driving, it will open up and should go to zero.

Since toe is what causes tire wear, that is what most mechanics will focus on. That is the most common adjustment because people can't feel the changes and the only obvious indicator of an alignment problem is tire wear. That is why Blackworks is right when he says that he does mostly toe sets. It isn't that he can't adjust these parts, he is following the company policy. They don't want to get involved with shims or after market ball joints, etc. Dealerships have evolved into parts replacers and not mechanics. I am sure there are a lot of techs that would like to fix instead of replace, but it is a business.

It looks like you adjusted camber on your own. That is a mistake. You can't eyball adjustments. You need to take it back and put it on a rack to get it checked out. When you change camber, you change toe. Everything is connected. That is what makes real alignments tedious and time consuming.

 

[19-MGM-TRD-ORP]

Thanks for the detailed explanation Sungod. I have nearly 1degree of cross caster (3.7 drivers side // 4.6 passenger side) on my 5th Gen 4Runner (SPC UCAs) but still experience pulling to right. Going to cross tires and see if its due to conicity.