Wandering front end

Hello all.

First i'd like to thank everyone on here who has given me a lot of suggestions.

Problems I've had:
- steeringwheel vibration, feels like holding an electric toothbrush. Pretty consistant at anything over 40mph.

- steering wheel wobble at 60mph

So because of the suggestions here, I have had the tires road force balanced. Played with different PSIs. That fixed the wobble.

Today I had an alignment done. Numbers are:
Caster: 4.1 front left, 3.9 front right
Toe and camber are pretty close to 0

I have noticed an improvement in steering, and also vibrations have gone down a lot.

Problem I am facing now, and I've seen many have based on searches, is that my front end constantly wanders at higher speeds.

I have to make constant corrections to keep the vehicle straight. On roads with the rain grooves, its even worse. It rides those groves like crazy.

Has anyone found a fix for this? Recommendations?

Next step may be getting new tires. Thinking Cooper AT3 4S.

Any recommendations would be helpful

 

lifted? If so, you need upper control arms to get additional caster

 

Sorry forgot to mention that, no fully stock.

 

Subbed.

 

More caster will add to high speed stability. Also, adding a little extra toe in will help as well. Stock tires are complete garbage as well.

 

I had my caster set to 4.1 front left, 3.8 front right. Still does it. It does feel better though, and its helped with the vibes. However when speeding up from a full stop, I feel very slight side to side movement on the front end after doing alignment. Of note, my caster was in the red (out of spec) on both sides from the factory.

 

All T4Rs “float” a little. It’s probab worse in the SR5 and non-KDSS Trail. I assume the TRD Fox is tighter as well. What are you moving from? I had a 1gen Honda truck and it always drive like it was on rails. That was one of the nicer features in that truck. The T4R has a good blend of on road and off road handling character but it’s definitely weaker in the in road. But you get used to the on road and it drives fine.

TL;DR, that’s how it drives, keep both hands on the wheel and don’t steer with your knees.

 

I am not so sure about that, i had 2002 sport with 2” lift Billies and 270/75/16 Wildpeak MTs and it tracked straight with no wandering ever. Even when it was stock. Now i have a 2017 SR-5 with 2” lift (Kings) 285/70/17 Wildpeak MTs and have never had a problem with wandering or shaking. Maybe i have just been lucky, or ? Found a place that can balance properly.

 

I think the most important question is “what was your last vehicle”. The T4R tracks straight, but it also floats and requires constant attention. It’s not like driving a German sedan, some of which won’t turn left or right without a search warrant.

For me, the first month was a relearning experience. Now that I’m 70k and nearly 3 years in, I don’t notice it at all.

 

Yeah, i see what your sayin. I was driving this Ram SRT-10 for 8 yrs.

 

Hopefully it is not wheel bearings causing vibration.

YEAHHHH BCM. All hail the extractor upgrade kit that lets you shoot steel reliably!!!!

 

Funny, I was just thinking that today. But could bearings really be bad on a new vehicle? I just hit 1K on it.

 

Nope. not with 1 k

might as well post who what why when where and how.

so we know it is new. you mentioned it is not stock. How?

can you list everything that was done to it since you first purchased it?

after that most can probably help give pointers

i have also reread your post about following grooves in the road (what tires?)

What model 4 runner do you have? sr5, sr5 premium, off road, pro.

its gonna be a guessing game back and fourth until we have all of the facts.

 

It's fully stock. Stock Bridgestone tires. 19 TRD OR

 

my 2016 runner new had a wandering effect. as the miles on it increased the wandering increased. so at 3K miles on runner I checked the toe and the toe was off.. wheels front did not point in pointed out slightly.. reason this happened is the springs sag/take a set.. so I set the wheels in slightly and problem solved. also I use 38psi on the tires .. rotate tires 7-10 K miles.. and the tires all look the same wear perfect wear .

on a road that creates vehicle bounce the toe will vary as it goes up/down and then a wandering .. vehicle down tires will point outward so you need some inward toe adjustment ..

 

Thanks. I am not really happy with my latest alignment, so I'm going to go to the dealership and have them do it.

Also, I should be getting new tires today. Getting the Cooper AT3 4S. Hopefully these help with the steering issues I have been having.

I am also going to have the dealership do a road force balance on the new tires since Discount Tire doesn't have the adapter needed for our rims.

 

do one work at a time.. if you do everything at the same time it can be very confusing.. do the alignment first then see how it goes. also get the printed document and tell the alignment tech to adjust the toe so it is pointing inward on the spec ...

vibration issues have created some with a long amount of work to solve this type problem.
one person had 3 tires were defective .. then the drive train another issue .. also tires must have the proper adapters to balance the wheels...

a new vehicle ,,, dealership should swap the wheels and do the testing .. if no change then drive train problem.

 

I swapped the stock front and rear sway bar bushings out for urethane bushings. Its delivered some flatter cornering, less wind shear, and less bump steer which is what you are fighting. It drives straight now with very little input at highway speeds. My suspension is not stock but for under $60 I think you may get some improvement.

 

Do ALL 4runners have sway bars?

(Does my 2018 SR5 have sway bars?)

 

Yes, all of them do.

 

Just curious on how the hell you got so much caster from stock.

I didn't even get that with UCAs

 

I have that much caster with a 1.6" lift up front and stock UCAs.