Out of “toe” in rear? How?

2016 Tundra crew max limited 4x4 TRDOR. been noticing slight pull to right at highway speed. Took truck to Johnson City Toyota for balance and alignment. They reported left rear .3 tow out. How the heck? They said they could only suspect slightly bent axle. Again, how the heck? Said they didn’t have a means by which to accurately measure. I’m suspicious…

 

Toe*


As for how, I got nothing. Even if you let somebody else drive it and they hit curbs, that is usually the front end getting beat up. Not sure how it'd be bent out rear without some kind of serious event involving that tire. I'd get a second opinion on the alignment.

 

Sliding sideways on ice and hitting a curb can bend an axle housing quite easily.

 

Rotate left rear wheel 180° and recheck.

 

Sure, but if that happened in would any of us be surprised when we were told about it being off? I'm taking OP's "how the heck" comment to mean that there's been no known event that would bend it. Perhaps that's an unwise assumption on my part.

 

Just guessing here, but I would suspect poorly mounted wheel first, especially if they did a rebalance and rotation prior to the alignment.

Remove wheel, check hub and wheel surfaces, remount, and get a 2nd opinion.

 

I was thinking maybe a different driver may have failed to inform the owner. Who knows, I just know it's a possibilty that it suffered a side impact at some point.

 

Always a possibility, and that is why I don't let people drive my truck. LOL

 

When you wrote "tow" instead of "toe" I was really mislead as to what this thread was about..

I agree with others, however - check simple solutions first. Tires are mounted properly? Sounds silly, but is tire pressure consistent across your rear tires? Are rear tires underinflated at all?

You may also find some datum that should be equidistant from the rear axle to the front of the vehicle and measure to check that the rear axle is properly aligned.

 

My last alignment showed almost identical rear toe as yours. I wonder if it simply an artifact of how the machine measures and references the rear axle, or if it’s even as silly as the rear leaf springs creeping forward on one side due to torque over time applied to to the tires.

 

Yeah y’all there’s been nothing. No curbs, no big hits, heck no off road. Nothing.

 

lol. Yeah I meant toe. I swear im not illiterate.

 

I know - just giving you a hard time.

 

I’d question the calibration of the alignment machine heads for the rear toe unless you’re having uneven tire wear on the rear.

The pull to the right would be due to having more positive caster on the front left than the front right, plus road crown. The front right should have more positive caster than the left, usually by around .5 degree.

 

What ^^ landphil ^ ^ said. More caster on RF helps fight crown. Also, minor correction., .30 is a positive number. Hence toe in. Not out. If it was affecting anything it would want to drive the car to a left pull. This by pushing the rear to the left arc. Like how the rear wheels on a forklift steer it. But the RR being slightly positive negates the LR slightly as a pull source.

 

There is no rear alignment spec on the Tundra. That's why they're greyed out.