Accelerating in 4x4 - pulls hard to right

Yes! You may suggest that. The shop I had it at did all 4.
Talked to Toyota a few mins ago - they checked the wheel bearings & axle & said they’re good. Everything looks good so far they said. It’s a mystery though they’re still working on it.

4hi. Dude -your “realize” quote is very original.

I haven’t. Toyota will today though. I now remember reading about that - thanks for the reminder.

 

Those bushings go quicker with 35’s so with 37’s I think I would look there. If they go out, that sucks

 

Why?

 

I’m no expert on 4wd systems, but this video explains the components. More specifically, around 15:15 he shows something in the front axle on the passenger side that engages when in 4wd. Maybe your system is stuck somewhere.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=47m7QAPrpsI

 

I have a bds 7inches lift and it does the same thing. But I never thought of trying to fix it since I’m rarley in 4x4

 

I’ll check out that video, thanks dude.

That’s very interesting. Follow the thread to see the outcome - it’s bugging me & I'm gonna get it resolved if I can.

Just got it back from the dealer. They’re at a loss. They said bearings are good. Axle is good. Steering rack and bushings are good. Alignment is good. They said everything is tight & they can’t find anything wrong with it. They had master techs looking at it.

I’m really liking this service manager though. He said he’s not giving up and he wants to be the one to find the problem since it’s been to so many places. Lol. How bout that!

I talked to him earlier today about the differential - saying that it might be the issue, but won’t know unless you tear it apart. Obviously that’s last resort, so we wanted everything else checked out thoroughly first.

Last phone call with him, after they looked at everything else, he said another master tech recently rebuilt a differential. He wants to talk to him about it - see what he thinks - & he’ll call me back on Monday.

If it’s differential, that’s covered by warranty. Glad & a little surprised I got a $0 bill when I picked it up. I figured there’d at least be a charge for trying to diagnose it. They had had the thing all day.

 

Dang yeah that’s awesome they didn’t charge you anything! Looks to me like you got a good dealer and a service manger! Yeah I’m excited to see the outcome !

 

Rotate your tire from left to right, see if it pull other way

 

Nice to find a service manager so determined.

 

You know, I was thinking today about tire rotation. When this all first started happening about a year ago, it coincided with my alignment being horribly out, which chewed up my front tires pretty badly - real bad inner wear. I was disgusted. It trashed two perfectly good tires that I should get another couple years out of at least.
I immediately swapped them to the back & will leave them there till I get all new ones.

I always “remembered” that I noticed the 4x4 pull before I rotated. But today I’m questioning that. It’s been almost a year & the memory is a little fuzzy...did the 4x4 pull start before or after the rotation?

I think I’ll start with just swapping the two fronts, like you suggested & see if that changes anything. If not I’ll do a temporary front-to-back rotation to see if that’s it.

 

All right side to left, all left to right. This will tell you if you tires are shot. If it still pull the same direction, that’s mean the drive tran. Turn the VSC and Traction off see if there’s a difference.

 

My Tacoma has always pulled toward the right in 4WD.
It did it when it was IFS and it does it now with the solid axle.

Ever heard of torque steer in a front wheel drive? It will pull towards the side with the longest axle. For our trucks the right side has the longer axle.

 

But stock trucks don’t do it. I have a 2” lift with 34s and mine doesn’t do it. Is it just more noticeable with bigger tires or is something else going on?

 

Yes it’s torque steer but it shouldn’t do it. It didn’t do it for the first two years I owned the truck. And didn’t do it for a year & a half after installing the lift.

 

Mine does it in 4lo when I punch it. I don’t do it for very long because that’s just for low speed and that’s just all torque. pulls to the right been doing it since I got it. I just don’t worry about it. And I use 4WD drive a lot.

 

I can't freaking believe this. I guess my tires are shot. I just swapped front-driver to front-passenger and .........it's straight as an arrow in 4WD now. I'm shocked. I cannot believe how tire tread can make a vehicle pull as hard as it was - and only in 4WD, while being straight in 2WD. Wow.

@Winning8 Dude, if you were in my area I'd hug you...if you were into that sort of thing. I'm not, but I'd make a one-time exception.

Straight as an arrow! And the tread doesn't look all that bad or different between the tires. There's more inner tire wear, but that's close to the very edge where it starts turning up towards the sidewall. Weird that it isn't pulling any other direction now though.

Good thing about it is I have a perfectly straight alignment out of this whole mess, and I found out my outer tie rods needed to be replaced. And...I learned a LOT.

Thank you everyone who helped out.

@anthonygan - check your tread!

 

Dang that’s crazy!!! That flipping the tires fixed it!! I’m getting new tires in the coming weeks, becuase right now all the tread is about gone! But I’m excited to test it! Thank you guys!

 

Just glad I could help.

 

My 89 4runner and 93 pickup pull.to the right

 

My tundra is having the exact same problem. I'm going to try rotating the tires this weekend and see if I get the same result. Fingers crossed.

 

Great thread!

Way to stick with the issue.

I'd even follow up with the dealer you were working with to let them know. Seems like a good dealer that would appreciate the follow up.

 

Yep, I had my first experience with radial pull early last year after getting new falken wildpeaks. Pulled to the right terribly, had 3 alignments done at different shops, last shop I took it to swapped the tires around after I told them the story, drove straight as an arrow afterwards! Didn't even charge me for it. That's when I learned about radial pull. Is there a fix for this other than swapping tires?