Random pulls left AND right

[repo]

Sometimes it tracks perfectly straight, sometimes it pulls badly to the right, sometimes to the left. I can't tell what starts it pulling exactly but I think it might be going over bumps in the road.

I have recently replaced oem lbjs, oem inner/outer tie rods, poly rack bushings, moog end links. Aligned fine after.

This seemed to have started after I replaced the stabilizer bar bushings with new poly ones. The old front bushings were pretty worn, and the bar itself was lumpy with rust under the bushings. I smoothed it off with emory cloth but it wasn't perfect.

Would the pulling be caused by the stabilizer bushings? Everything I searched says stabilizer bars do not affect alignment or steering.

 

[jgue467]

"Everything I searched says stabilizer bars do not affect alignment or steering."

I agree, its something else. Tires themselves? Road surfaces? Looser rack than normal (manual says 1" play is normal).

 

[NHRunner]

I would double check that all those bushing are mounted correctly and torqued correctly too. Hopefully it's just something simple like that.

Otherwise, you could check your rack guide. Maybe try re-torquing it to factory specs. When my rack bushings had gone bad, I made up for some of the play in the rack mounts by going a little tighter in that rack guide. It does result in a stiffer steering wheel, but at least it mitigated some of the wandering I felt at higher speeds.

 

[gamefreakgc]

I had this problem before I replaced the ball joints and tie rods on mine. Once it was aligned it all went away. Plus I now have zero play in the steering wheel, you should not have any. If you do, then something wasn't done right or your steering rack is going bad.

Sounds like something has come loose or the steering rack bushings are bad. Have someone turn the tires right and left and see if the rack moves at all. If yes, new bushings are needed.

Basically what's happening is some part of the steering is loose, not allowing the steering to stay straight at higher speeds.

 

[repo]

Would a bad CV cause it?

 

[IBallEngineer]

Would a bad CV cause it?

Only if it were seizing up completely. So in other words, no. At what speed does the pull start? If it's low speed, swap the tires left to right. I doubt that is what you have but I'm covering what bases we can. If it is higher speed, than it is more likely an alignment angle changing. Since you say it is randomly left or right, I am inclined to look at the steering as opposed to bushings and ball joints. But.. and this is very important, you MUST confirm the alignment is unchanged from when it was aligned. And unless you can rig up some sort of level to check it, you should have someone do a quick check of camber and caster to confirm the readings are still good.

:blah:

 

[Road Bull]

"Everything I searched says stabilizer bars do not affect alignment or steering."

I agree, its something else. Tires themselves? Road surfaces? Looser rack than normal (manual says 1" play is normal).

I know for a fact that road surfaces can have a huge impact on handling. I-5 has some pretty bad sections where the roadway is almost rutted out and it becomes difficult to hold a line. Some tires handle this better than others, while some feel as though you are just along for the ride over some sections. This is very common on highways with a lot of heavy 18 wheeler traffic, but also happens on other roadways. I am not saying that it couldn't be something else, but uneven roadways can be a major contributor.

 

[technodrive]

idler arm
this happened on my old hilux

 

[Koch13351]

idler arm
this happened on my old hilux

3rd gen uses R&P.

On another note, somebody on here recently mentioned the control arm bushings being the culprit for his wandering issue. Mine does it a bit. Poly rack bushings helped a lot. I ordered poly control arm bushings so I'll definitely post up once I receive and install them if that fixes the issue.