Rear Alignment Problem?

I purchased a Gold Certified 2021 4Runner sr5 Premium. I put new tires on immediately with an alignment.

The rear toe on the driver is .5 ... which seems very off to me. Attaching the alignment report. Should I be concerned about this and fight the dealer to correct that? All I can think of is a bent suspension component or bent axle. Just seems way off to me. Toyota spec I think is .1 - .2 max.

 

a half a degree is an awful small amount
no its not supposed to be there so yes i would start fishing for more info and data
check everything under the body, look for signs of repair, damage, body shop work, see if it appears to have been in a wreck, fixed, then traded in.

 

The vehicle is accident free on the carfax. At 30k a rear right axle was replaced. Current mileage at purchase was 55k. The driver side rims had pretty bad curb rash which the dealer did fix after I complained. This indicated to me that it did hit something hard enough to cause issues. I more concerned with pre-mature wear on new tires.

 

Aren't those numbers kind of normal for a used truck? What did the tire place say that did the alignment?

 

Vehicles can be accident free on CarFax and STILL have been in an accident. That just means it was not filed on insurance.
I bought a beautiful clean CarFax accident free car for my wife once and it was wearing out rear tires fast and pulled. The selling dealer put me a brand new set of tires on but they didnt last very long either. I took it to a body shop for them to get under it and look for signs of repair and he told me
"yep, looks like it was rear ended and its been fixed great on the outside but not great on the underside."
We didnt have it much longer, we traded it in directly there after.

 

It’s a non-adjustable spec that is actually out of spec, so it’s definitely not right.

Is there anywhere you can find out what they meant by “right rear axle”? The rear is one “solid axle” housing, that has the differential in the center, with a left and right drive axle shafts that run inside the axle housing. It would be weird that an accident would damage an axle shaft inside the axle housing without the entire solid axle housing to get damaged/bent. Although I doubt you could bend the axle housing without damaging everything connecting it to the frame, and maybe the frame itself.

In any case, if an accident was the reason for replacing the right axle driven shaft (or whatever they truly replaced), there are other things that may have been damaged/bent as well. One of the two drag links that connect the axle housing to the frame could be bent, or the mounting brackets that are part of the frame that hold the drag links could be bent. Or the bracket mounts on the axle housing. Or the bolts that hold it together are bent.

Do you have any pictures of the drag links and the brackets?

 

You know.... Something i was just thinking about. So the right rear axle would be the whole splined axle and hub assembly that slides in the axle tube. If the axle was replaced then yes it was most likely a hit, side impact, or hit something at speeds that bent things around. If it tweaked the axle hub, which would make the wheel run out, then they would have to replace the whole axle shaft to get a new flat face wheel hub.
IF this sort of impact also bent the axle tube that the axle shaft sits in then this could be the culprit.

I was thinking though if the alignment guy would rotate the rear wheel around 180 degrees and check again, you could see if the run-out is in the wheel, wheel hub, or if its permanent and in the axle tube.

 

I’ve always wondered about measurement error, just due to fact the angles being measures are so small. Good point about a good tech rotating the wheel to see if a bent wheel could explain it. But not sure that would happen at every shop, even if the tech is good (time is money).

I think I would definitely have alignment remeasured before going on any wild goose chases with a parts cannon. Especially if the OP doesn’t feel any symptoms in daily driving. I would go so far as to swap that wheel with the left side myself before taking it in, to see if the misalignment travels with the wheel.

 

Don't know what the dealer calls Gold Certified but that ain't gold anywhere.

 

Gold Certified is Toyota's highest pre-owned certification. According to Toyota Official it has to be "Like-New" in appearance and mechanical (frame, suspension, tires, etc..). Must meet all of Toyota's specifications. The dealer has agreed to bring it in for a look. I will keep you posted but we know how things go at a dealership and Toyota Corporate may have to get involved to correct this issue.

 

Half a degree is like a difference of 1/8" across the rim diameter. It's quite a lot.

 

Curb rash can be just an incompetent parking job. Considering the RH axle shaft was replaced and toe looks good, maybe it needs the LH axle shaft replaced too.

CPO means the dealer rubber stamps the vehicle and charges a higher price. The dealer has no incentive to do a thorough inspection because Toyota takes a hit on warranty claims, not the dealer.

 

That is good to know. ty, I will report back when I find out more.

 

Carfax system is gamed against you. Cars are just commodities to dealers, but they can say they’ve done due diligence by checking carfax and not asking other questions.

 

As suggested already, I as well would be curious to see if the rear axle drive flange has a + 0.5/- 0.5 degree wobble every 180 degrees.

 

This is the full alignment sheet. I picked the truck up and had to immediately bring it back because it was all over the place. The alignment I posted earlier was after I added two new rear tires a few weeks later. With the front alignment corrected now and 4 new tires. The rear toe is noticed and makes it pull to the right a little. Also feel a slight vibration in the wheel. But take a gander at how bad the front was when the dealer delivered it to me. Crazy work.

 

We have the same issue with a 1st Gen Tacoma we bought used. Dealership checked the alignment twice and said it probably needs new leaf spring(s) and differential third member. I get the leaf springs being tweaked but not the third member. Said it’s not bad enough to affect tire wear, so we will live with it rather than spending thousands of dollars. It’s part of the risk of buying used.

 

I bet it got hit on the rear tire

 

Alignment machines measure and compensate for that during setup.

 

For bent wheels?

 

Yes. Older machines you needed to mount the heads on each wheel, level and lock it and press the bottom for it to lean position 1, then rotate each wheel 120 degrees and do it again. Then 120 degrees and donut again. Then go back to where you started. The next generation you’d mount the heads and roll the car backwards a bit till it tells you to stop then forwards again. The newest machines you just set it up like a foot and half back from the correct location on the alignment rack and then roll it forward into position. It’s gotten faster and easier to physically perform but it compensates for variance in the sensor mounting and damaged wheels.

 

Are there any “true” alignment specialists in your area?
Like a frame shop that can really evaluate those readings.