Alignment issues

I have a stock 21 Toyota tundra SR5. Took it in for an alignment to have them set up the steering wheel. Could not complete a full alignment because they ran out of tow before they could set up the steering wheel. They suggest that maybe the rack and pinion jumped the tooth, but I find this hard to believe. The steering wheel is setting at about 11 o’clock. The passenger front tire rod has about an inch and a half of threads showing the driver side. Tyrod is maxed out and has no threads showing and that is the tire that they can’t get to tow in.

 

Did you hit something? Never heard of the rack jumping a tooth. If you hit something that you aren’t disclosing, you may have a bent tie rod.

 

I just purchase’s the truck. Car fax said that there was minimal damage to the rear of the truck. Which after seeing the truck thier appeared to be no damage. my best guess it was probably scratched paint. The undercarriage of the front end was clean as a whistle to the eye, but the passenger front right tire look like it had been curb checked. After Les Schwab had tried to do their alignment. They did not indicate that anything was bent.

 

May want to have a more competent shop look at the truck. The alignment was in pretty bad shape when you brought it in. There’s no reason the alignment should have been that bad unless somebody tried to cover up something on the front end. Car fax is worthless these days.

 

I took the truck back to the dealership. I’d purchased it from. They looked at the undercarriage and they are wondering why Les Schwab over corrected the toe on one tire and not the other. I had to tell the dealership that the reason why it’s because they were trying to straighten up the steering wheel. And doing so they were able to set camper tow and castor on the passenger front wheel. But when they went to the driver side tire, they were able to set everything but the tow because the tire rod was at its max. so now the dealership is going to dig further into the issue. I have read a lot about the tundras having issues with crooked steering wheels, and that you could pull the steering wheel and reset it. But this concerns me as my truck has lane assist, and some other kind of sensors

 

Steering wheel being straight is just a simple toe adjustment. It is the most basic and simple operation of the alignment procedure. Do not remove the steering wheel to fix what’s wrong under the truck. The fact that the front end is so out of whack and the steering wheel is crooked, that is all pointing towards there was some type of front end collision, and/or the truck was fixed and put back together. Probably why a 4 year old truck is as “clean as a whistle”. Because it’s all new parts. If a shop doesn’t understand this then you really need to stop going to franchise stores. Find an off road shop or an actual mechanic shop to look over everything.

 

I will do so. Thank you for you great feedback back.