I have a 2004 Toyota Camry that the steering wheel veers to the left while driving (not all the time) I have triedan alignment and a tire rotation and still have the problem.
View 12 RepliesSo I had a flat a couple weeks ago, finally got around to patching it (professionally) and decided to get a wheel alignment and tire rotation at the same time. No prior problems whatsoever (drove straight as an arrow) but roads in Hawaii suck so I decided to have it done while my car was in. Got my Camry back and it pulled to the right, with the steering wheel a little crooked to the right too. Talk about leaving something well enough alone, which is what I should have done!
Tried to take it back the next day, but they were super busy so I went to another location (same chain) and they said they suspect it could be my tires, but if not, they'll realign. They ended up doing the alignment again. My car pulls less but the steering wheel is crooked to the LEFT instead of right now when driving straight.
Question: Do you think it could be the patched tire? The nail was 1-.1.5" from the sidewall. This tire is on the right rear. Looks fine, and was fine up until I got a nail in it. Right front tire looks fine too.
I asked my mechanic, along with my cousin who worked with cars and did alignments himself in a past life, and they both told me they don't think it's my tire(s). They both told me to take it back and have the alignment redone.
Is it possible to just have two bad alignments at two different locations with two different techs?? The chain I'm going to is locally owned and has been around forever, and my last alignment was from them so I don't know what's going on this time.
* I have Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S tires all around, with about 20K miles on them.
So I have a Toyota Corolla 2004, and 117000 miles. Just this Saturday (2 days past) I got an oil change and a tire rotation (at a Valvoline drive through service station). This morning, once I was going 50-60 miles an hour on the highway, the steering wheel began to shake (left and right, fast). The vibrations come in waves, where maintaining a constant speed, it will shake, then the shaking will smooth out, and then it will start to shake again, in ~30 second cycles.
I'm assuming that this problem has something to do with my tire rotation, since it's the first one I did in recent memory, (Thought they do this as part of where I got my care inspected?) .. What should I do?
After purchasing 2 new tires I went to a shop to get alignment done. The steering on my high mileage V4 1993 Toyota Camry was perfect when I took it to the alignment place. An hour later, the alignment having been done, as I was pulling out of the shop onto the road the steering was very hard but I thought something was tightened and would loosen up although I had never experienced that problem any other time an alignment was done. After driving it for several days, the problem wasn't improving. I left on a trip for several weeks. While gone my daughter drove the care for a few days and asked me what was wrong with the steering. When I returned I took the car back to the alignment shop and told them the problem. The manager or head mechanic checked the alignment and said the numbers were fine.
However, he said the rack and pinion needed replacing. I asked him what might have happened to result in the bad steering in the course of one hour while the alignment was done. He said that he didn't know. I took it to my usual mechanic who said that someone might have over tightened something. He's an older guy and does not want to work on racks and pinions. He suggested that I take it to Les Schwab and have them inspect it to see what's wrong and maybe tell them the whole story. I haven't done that yet.
After researching a bit about alignments, racks and pinions etc. I think that it is highly likely that some inexperienced person at the alignment place screwed up something. It's too much of a coincidence that exactly the hour that the alignment was done, the steering went bad. I am thinking that I might go back to the alignment place and ask them to do whatever they need to do to return the steering of my car to the way it was functioning when I brought it to them. They will likely refuse, of course.
I got my tires rotated about 2 months ago on my 2003 Toyota Corolla. It had about 88k miles on it at that time. Since the moment I drove out of the shop, there has been a noise from my driver's side front tire. There is no vibration in the steering wheel or on the floor and the noise only happens when the car is in motion. The timing and sound of the noise made me think it was caused by uneven wear pattern on the tires. But it's been awhile since the rotation and the noise has not changed (neither increased nor decreased). The noise is most noticeable when I'm driving on certain road surfaces, like very smooth roads. Since the rotation, I'd be surprised if I've driven more than 500 miles max. What this could be?
View 6 RepliesTook delivery of car and alignment is way off. Steering wheel is turned left when car is straight. The dealership is trying to charger me for a alignment. Car has 2500 miles on it and came from factory this way.
View 8 RepliesI bought 2015 Prius two 2 month ago and the mileage is almost reaching 2000 mile. I am satisfied with my Prius so far. However about 2 weeks ago I found that the steering wheel is little off centered to the right and the car is leaning to the left. I didn't drive on the potholes so I guess the issue has been there from the first day I bought the car. I was just too excited to see the issue at the time I think. Anyway I brought the car to the Toyota dealership where is close to my work. I explained the issue and the technician drove the car and said it seems ok. I said it's not my first car and I have driven several cars so I am certain that the steering wheel is off centered. I researched this forum so I knew the first wheel alignment is covered by the warranty. They seemed reluctant to provide the service but I insisted.
After about an hour they had done the wheel alignment and showed me the result and the result said everything is ok and all the numbers are in the range. It was strange so I asked what if the car is still pulled off to the left and he said there is nothing he can do further so if the issue is still there, the service manager should be involved. I hoped the issue would be resolved but when I drove the car back to home I could still see that the steering wheel was still off centered just like before the wheel alignment. I called them and made another appointment on this coming Monday. I read all the steering wheel alignment related threads and found that it's pretty common issue for the new cars. But I found few people that the issue was completely gone. I think it's a quite easy job to fix by adjust something to make the steering wheel rotated little to the left(3~5 degree). I showed to my wife today to see if I'm too sensitive and she also agreed that the car is pulled to the left.
I have a 2000 Corolla CE with 48k miles. When braking hard, the pedal vibrates and the brake performance was not that good. So I had the mechanic replace the front calipers (L&R), both brake pads on front, and rear drums.
After that, when braking, the pedal vibrates...but not that much. So I had the mechanic replace the front rotors (L&R). Now, when braking, the performance is good and it does not vibrate.
However, if I brake really hard...there is a little bit of pedal vibration AND shaking steering wheel. My car also needs an alignment since it pulls to the left (will get one on Friday).
Do you think the shaking steering wheel and the slight pedal vibration is due to the alignment or maybe the rear rotors need to be replaced? When traveling at 70mpg, sometimes the steering wheel slightly (very slightly) shakes....my guess this the tires need to be balance/alignment.
After some off-roading and hit some pretty big bumps at speed, and now my steering wheel is about 15 degrees off, but the car is not pulling.
I am in another country where I don't speak the language well, so what should be done to fix this. I took it into the shop, and they pulled the car onto some electronic sensors and said the alignment was fine. They did a very visual inspection (glance?) under the car as well, and were ready to send me on my way.
I showed them that the steering wheel was off, and their solution was to just take off the wheel and put it back on straight. Is this what should be done to fix this problem? I do believe the alignment of the cars is okay because it's driving fine, but I'm still not sure if there is something else going on that caused the steering wheel to be knocked out of line. I've been doing some online searching and I'm not so sure that they are doing the right thing.
My 04 Explorer 4WD sways left and ten to the right over and over when driving 60-70 mph and steering slightly to the left. Feels like something might be loose. It veers to the left then suddenly back to the right until I drive straight. Seems better at slower speeds and driving straight ahead.
View 7 RepliesMy car is a 2000 corolla with 51k miles that I bought a couple of months ago.
It had the following problems:
Creaking noise from front drivers side when going over bumps
Steering wheel vibration when braking
Steering wheel vibration (slightly) at certain speeds
Very out of alignment
In august, I replaced the rotors, did a tire balance and alignment. The shop used a Hunter RoadForce balancer. They said that the front tires were bad so they put them in the rear.
After that, the steering wheel still vibrated slightly at certain speeds. Also, the front end would vibrate when the steering wheel vibrated. Also, when braking hard...the steering wheel would vibrate even though the rotors and pads were replaced.
Yesterday, I replaced the front struts/spring/mount...yet the drivers front still creaked over bumps. The strut change also caused the alignment to pull slightly to the left (only very slightly).
Today, I replaced the rear struts/spring/mount, both front ball joints, both front sway bar links.
This fixed ALL of the problems. The steering wheel is now perfect (even when braking), the creaking noise is completely gone. And best of all, the alignment seems to be correct as it no longer pulls from yesterday's front strut change.
Do I really need to replace the tires or even get an alignment? The alignment might be slightly out of spec but it does not pull to any side.
Premature tire wear and faulty wheel alignment issues on 2004 Touareg V8 with 10,000 miles. My dealer informed me that my original tires, Continental 4X4 Contact 255/55R18s were about to need replacement and that there were known issues with the tire compound and alignment specifications. I have had the vehicle about 14 months. He said it was over twelve months but he would bring it up with the district representative. I told him that I thought this came under concealed defects and I expected VW to replace the tires and align all four wheels to whatever the current spec. Are there VW bulletins covering this I can obtain copies of?
View 1 RepliesHad my tires rotated yesterday and now the car is pulling noticeably left. On a flat road, if I let go of the wheel I change lanes in about 3 to 4 seconds depending on speed. Also, the faster I am going, the worse the pull feels. Before the rotation, the car would pull very slightly to the right sometimes but only enough for me to wonder if it was pulling or if it was my imagination.
One other detail, the tire that is now on the left front is newer than the others due to a pothole eating the last one. It is the same hankook tire in type and size. Just with less miles on it. It was previously on the front right. I've seen the threads on the pulling issue and the 18 step TSB and all of that but nothing about rotation or the pulling following a specific wheel or tire. Could the rolling resistance of a newer tire really cause that much of a pull?
My issue is I am getting ready to leave for a road trip and can't get in for an alignment or for someone to go through the whole TSB. I think I might switch the 2 front wheels.
04 Camry XLE, 63k miles. Since we bought this car, it has pulled to the left. I've taken it to two shops I trust and they showed me the report showing that the alignment is correct. This leads me to believe there is a worn joint somewhere that allows the front wheels to aim a bit left when driving. Where would be a good place to start troubleshooting?
Background: So far, I've called Toyota to verify that our car is up to speed on all TSB's and it is.
I've put my hand over the intermediate steering shaft upper joint while my wife moves the wheel side to side. There is some play there, but not much. I'm not sure how much there should be.
I found this thread in the Corolla forums and was curious as to what pattern people use here since I will be rotating the tires on my '07 Camry myself for the first time. The manual says to use Pattern D for non-directional tires, but my Civic manual and a few other cars I have looked up suggest using Pattern C, which make more sense to me as it would seem to provide more even wear on both sides of the tire by crossing them to opposite sides of the car.
View 5 Replies2004 Ford Taurus - transmission was going out last Aug - had it rebuilt (new seals and torque converter) got it back steering wheel was slightly off (1/2 inch) of being the center when driving straight. Took a while to get it back to the shop - life happens - took back today - said they did everything they could and really needs an alignment which they do not do - drove it home after hanging out at the shop for 5 hours. The steering wheel is now off 2 inches from center and the car is pulling noticeably to the right. Going back tomorrow - but they are saying that it was not them and that I need to pay for an alignment.
View 3 RepliesI had my 20,000 mile tire rotation and 2nd oil change done at 23,500 miles. Service tech suggested I still return around 25,000 for my last free rotation.
Does it make sense to do that, since I'd only have 1500 miles on the current rotation?
Starting about 100 miles ago I began getting a knocking sound from my left front wheel, which was not very noticeable at first, but now is. There is one knock with each rotation of the wheel that can be felt a little bit through the steering wheel. I suspect either the wheel bearings or a CV joint. But one thing confuses me--when under heavy acceleration or while braking, the sound & feeling almost completely disappear. I would not have guessed to get that behaviour from either of the 2 problems I suspect. Do one of these problems usually exhibit this kind of behaviour?
View 12 RepliesI have a 2005 Toyota Avalon. When you turn the wheel it will make about 1 1/2 turns to the right and then locks, but when you turn left it will turn almost 2 1/2 full turns, if you move you will hear what I believe is the tire rubbing, haven't done it since I first noticed this problem. What could be causing this?
The alignment and everything seems fine on the car and there is no other issues with the steering. Just that the wheel turns too far to the left.
I am hearing a weird knocking with every rotation of the left front wheel and I know it is not the cv joints. I replaced the wheel bearings on the car a week ago . I think it maybe the brakes have got loose and hitting the rotor or the wheel might be loose but I'm not really sure and it knocks faster with acceleration.
View 7 RepliesI had my right front tire replaced due to a road nail. Now when I went for my 10,000 mile service they told me that I need a wheel alignment. My friend told me that whenever you replace a tire you always have to do a wheel alignment. Is t true?
View 11 Replies