Scary steering 2021 Cruiser

[redeye]

Hi all,
Had a rather stressful drive from NJ to MD today. This was the longest drive I've taken in the truck since I got it.

Problem: truck needs constant steering adjustment, which I'd be ok with if that was the only thing. It's a lifted 7,000lb truck after all. But when going to pass another vehicle and really getting on the throttle it feels like the front end doesn't know where to go. Almost like the sensation of if you were in a fast RWD car and mashed the gas - the front wheels almost feel like they're floating and you've got a good deal of play. Not exactly confidence inspiring. Had a real butt-pucker moment when trying to pass a big rig on a sweeping curve. Even at low speeds on local roads, mashing on the throttle produces a similar feeling.

I would've rather have done it myself, but due to lack of time I had my local Toyota dealer install the lift. They also aligned the truck. From memory, I believe everything felt fine. At some point the steering wheel was cocked to the left when driving straight. Took it back and they straightened it out. A few days ago I notice the steering wheel is cocked to the right. Strange.

2021 Cruiser, 10,900 miles. OME 2.5" lift, SPC UCA's and BFG All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires. Rhino4x4 front bumper.

!!! NOTE: I installed the Rhino4x4 bumper. It came with skid plates. One was incorrect. Before I figured out the skid plate for underneath the engine was wrong, I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to mount the thing. In my haste I removed a bolt for the steering rack and could not get it back in. It would not go back in; nothing to grab onto and thread into. Stupid me never looked into why this was the case......until just now. There's a washer and bolt that goes on the top of the rack. I bought a new washer and nut and will see if I can get the bolt reinstalled as soon as those little parts come in.

My questions:
1. Could a lack of 1 steering rack bolt cause this bad behavior? There are 3 that bolt it to the frame.
2. Could the alignment have gotten screwed up? I do not know why the steering wheel is cocked to the right now.

Assuming that I can reinstall the missing nut/bolt in the steering rack successfully, I will likely take it back to the dealer and have them look it over. I can have them reinstall that nut if I cannot.

Thanks all.

-Ed

 

[cboyd]

Just checking here, you removed a bolt from the steering rack and wonder why you’d have issues with the steering?? Toyota doesn’t put extra bolts in their designs, I can assure you!

on my 100 I *just have* worn bushings on the rack and the steering feels vague on the highway and the last alignment couldn’t be dialed in perfect, so I have to imagine on a lifted 200 the symptoms would be much worse with a missing bolt.

the other thing to consider is any KDSS rebalancing. When I did the lift on my 200, I initially has issues with the steering going off center when the KDSS got out of whack. do you have any body lean when parked level? Did the installer open the KDSS valves when they did the lift?

I would get that bolt back in as a start and work back from there.

more details on what lift you installed might be helpful to others responding here.

 

[GordJ]

Do you have something that seems like torque steer? Step on the gas and it goes right, off the gas and it goes left?

 

[TeCKis300]

I'd agree to resolve the steering rack issue before chasing other areas.

That said, what wheel and tire specs are you running? Specifically, what wheel offset?

 

[mcgaskins]

Problem: truck needs constant steering adjustment, …. In my haste I removed a bolt for the steering rack and could not get it back in.

I hate to state the obvious, but everyone is thinking it. You’re complaining about the steering yet admit removing one of the few bolts that connects the steering mechanism to the frame. You need to address that immediately and not drive it until you do. Get it towed to qualified shop if you are not able to fix it. This is more than an annoyance it’s a literal safety issue, so please for your sake and the sake of everyone on the road around you please get the obvious problem resolved!

 

[bloc]

Another potential issue is the SPC UCAs set up incorrectly and caster being too low.

But I agree it is completely illogical to be chasing other possible steering issues when you haven’t fixed the known one yet.

 

[Angelo1]

Hey guys, I have a similar issue as well . I notice my wheels wobble whenever I’m driving. This is pretty ridiculous! I should note that I removed 4 lug nuts from each wheel. Toyota really should fix this issue or I am going to Lemon Law this damn thing.

 

[linuxgod]

Hey guys, I have a similar issue as well . I notice my wheels wobble whenever I’m driving. This is pretty ridiculous! I should note that I removed 4 lug nuts from each wheel. Toyota really should fix this issue or I am going to Lemon Law this damn thing.

I've seen this before. Take the 5th one off too and the problem will quickly resolve itself

 

[redeye]

It does seem rather ridiculous looking at my post. The mild flaming is totally warranted LOL. All good. I'll be brutally honest here - I swear my decision making during this pandemic has been adversely affected. I'll chalk it up to stress. When I mistakenly removed that bolt I didn't even blink. Just threw it on the workbench. In the past I'd NEVER consider doing that. I've rebuilt the knuckles on my 80 and rebuilt suspension completely on an 87 4Runner. Leaving a bolt off is ridiculous.

My plan was to replace the bolt/nut combo and then take it to a shop to have the alignment checked again. I will do that and report back on this thread. I'm driving about 8 hours north for a snowboarding trip in March so it's gotta get resolved before then.

To answer a question about, yes it feels like torque steer. Pulls to right or left, even when the cruise control downshifts to speed up. Running stock BBS wheels with BFG All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires.

 

[mcgaskins]

It does seem rather ridiculous looking at my post. The mild flaming is totally warranted LOL. All good. I'll be brutally honest here - I swear my decision making during this pandemic has been adversely affected. I'll chalk it up to stress. When I mistakenly removed that bolt I didn't even blink. Just threw it on the workbench. In the past I'd NEVER consider doing that. I've rebuilt the knuckles on my 80 and rebuilt suspension completely on an 87 4Runner. Leaving a bolt off is ridiculous.

My plan was to replace the bolt/nut combo and then take it to a shop to have the alignment checked again. I will do that and report back on this thread. I'm driving about 8 hours north for a snowboarding trip in March so it's gotta get resolved before then.

To answer a question about, yes it feels like torque steer. Pulls to right or left, even when the cruise control downshifts to speed up. Running stock BBS wheels with BFG All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires.

I completely understand where you’re coming from, and it’s all good! We just care about your safety and want to help resolve the issue. Hopefully adding the bolt back resolves it, but if it doesn’t fully cure it at least we’ll have a better idea of next steps. My guess would be alignment is a good place to look - I had some really weird steering coming off the trail last year from the UCA getting knocked loose a couple days after getting an alignment. I believe the UCA wasn’t torqued down properly, and you could visually see how out of spec the driver tire was in this pic:

 

[bloc]

I can appreciate your humility.

With regard to the bolts one out of three is potentially a big deal. Think of those three making a plane but with only two left the forces involved can push that plane all over the place, especially considering the rack will most likely be mounted to the frame with vibration isolating bushings of some kind. One bolt missing out of four wouldn’t have nearly the same potential for the rack to move.

Any wheel spacers?

 

[linuxgod]

Get that bolt replaced and then report back. There are certainly other things that could be an issue. New lifts often result in poor alignments (so if you have your printout post it). The shop might not have properly tightened something when doing the alignment. Something could be under-torqued and slipping. I've done decades in IT and troubleshoot stuff regularly. Nobody wants to spend tons of time trying to troubleshoot a problem until you rule out the obvious candidates first. Be methodical and rule out the most obvious issue here and then if that doesn't fix it you're pretty much guaranteed to get the right help here.

 

[highfructose]

Another potential issue is the SPC UCAs set up incorrectly and caster being too low.

But I agree it is completely illogical to be chasing other possible steering issues when you haven’t fixed the known one yet.

This is what came to mind for me: caster being wrong.

 

[AnyMal]

Hey guys, I have a similar issue as well . I notice my wheels wobble whenever I’m driving. This is pretty ridiculous! I should note that I removed 4 lug nuts from each wheel. Toyota really should fix this issue or I am going to Lemon Law this damn thing.

Knew this was coming and still chuckled.

Sorry OP just a bit of harmless fun. Everyone gets to wear the dunce hat around here. Specially angelo hehe and me

 

[redeye]

I looked underneath the truck and realized that if I had only moved my head slightly and took 15 seconds to look after I had removed the bolt in the first place I would've seen how easy it was to replace the nut. So the good news is that when I do get the new nut and washer I ordered the longest part of the reinstall will be removing the 3 skids plates.

To answer another question, yes I have SpiderTrax 1.5" spacers. Forgot to include that in the list.

 

[montegofd3s]

Maybe they didn't know how to adjust the UCAs properly and you have some positive camber issues?

 

[redeye]

Maybe they didn't know how to adjust the UCAs properly and you have some positive camber issues?

This is a distinct possibility. When I took it to the Toyota dealer I gave them the SPC instructions. They had a heck of a time getting it within spec . I told them to look at the instructions again because it's very specific. After that they aligned it, though I did not receive a report.

Anyway, I'm not concerned about that at this stage. As others pointed out above I was an idiot for removing that bolt and forgetting about. Scratch that, I just discovered I am not an idiot but someone who needs to have all their tools confiscated permanently. I figured I'd go take a gander again. Had my wife start the truck and move the steering wheel slightly side to side as I see what appears to be a leaking driver's side tie rod end. I tell myself to go look at the passenger side for comparison and to my horror (but sadly not to my amazement at this point) I see the steering rack twisting upward at a rate of approx. 1". Holy crap. I drove this thing for probably 2,000 miles or more like this. My wife drove this. My oldest son drove it 2 hours north to go hiking with a truckload of his friends.

Needless to say the truck will not be moving from it's location in my driveway until I get the missing parts.

 

[GordJ]

I had a small lift done with the same results as yours and the solution that I found was to remove the lift and go back to original. I was tempted to try an adjustable pan hard but decided to cut my losses.

 

[bloc]

This is a distinct possibility. When I took it to the Toyota dealer I gave them the SPC instructions. They had a heck of a time getting it within spec . I told them to look at the instructions again because it's very specific. After that they aligned it, though I did not receive a report.

Anyway, I'm not concerned about that at this stage. As others pointed out above I was an idiot for removing that bolt and forgetting about. Scratch that, I just discovered I am not an idiot but someone who needs to have all their tools confiscated permanently. I figured I'd go take a gander again. Had my wife start the truck and move the steering wheel slightly side to side as I see what appears to be a leaking driver's side tie rod end. I tell myself to go look at the passenger side for comparison and to my horror (but sadly not to my amazement at this point) I see the steering rack twisting upward at a rate of approx. 1". Holy crap. I drove this thing for probably 2,000 miles or more like this. My wife drove this. My oldest son drove it 2 hours north to go hiking with a truckload of his friends.

Needless to say the truck will not be moving from it's location in my driveway until I get the missing parts.

Just tossing this out there as an admittedly overkill strategy. Maybe consider replacing the other two bolts.

If things moved that much it is conceivable they were stressed in ways they weren’t designed to be. My gut is saying it is an extremely small chance that anything was damaged, but replacing the bolts and torquing to spec eliminates any risk for the long life the vehicle has ahead of it. And shouldn’t cost too much money. And if you do them one at a time it shouldn’t even impact your alignment.

 

[redeye]

@bloc I did buy 1 new bolt. There are 2 long ones and 1 short. I bought the short one, so the missing long bolt + the new short bolt will be installed. I also just ordered a new drivers side tie rod end and a couple more nuts for those steering rack bolts. I remember it driving SO much better than stock after the lift was installed. It wasn't until after I put the front bumper on (when I removed that bolt) that things started to feel strange. So I strongly suspect the truck will feel leaps and bounds better once all necessary hardware is reinstalled.