Tires or rack?

[hoptroll]

I have a 2000 tacoma sr5, v6, 4wd with 228,000. It has BFG All Terrains on it with about 35,000 miles on them. I had my tires rotated about 3 weeks ago and suddenly developed an intermittent steering wheel shake at about 65mph. Mechanic that I work with diagnosed it as a bad tie rod end. Scheduled an appt with my suspension/steering/alignment guy (very trusted) said the tie rod ends are fine, that it might be more of a tire balance issue, but that my steering rack has a lot of play in it and is probably needing replacement some time in the near future (he was shocked that with the amount of play it had that there was no fluid leaking). He said the tires were wearing evenly as he would expect them to. The tire place said they are wearing "unevenly," referring to more wear on the outer tread than the middle of the tread pattern. So I am having the tire balanced to try to diagnose further what is going on. Is the tire place just trying to pass me along? Any thoughts? Should I cut my losses and sell the truck? Replace the rack?


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[Box Rocket]

You'd consider selling the truck over something pretty trivial like this? You're clearly getting mixed messages, I suspect the tire place is trying to get you to consider getting new tires which means more cash in their pocket. If it were me I'd get the tires rebalanced and make sure that is a non-issue. If there is actually play in the steering rack, figure out if its slop with the internals or if you just need to replace the bushings. I would start by just replacing the rack bushings. I think you'll find that things tighten up quite a bit and that's pretty inexpensive. Then if you still have slop you can consider replacing the rack which isn't that hard of a job either.

 

[92dlx]

I've had steering wheel wobble resolve after just adding pressure to low tires. I'd check the tire pressure and if that isn't the problem then go ahead and put the truck up for sale.

 

[hoptroll]

You'd consider selling the truck over something pretty trivial like this? You're clearly getting mixed messages, I suspect the tire place is trying to get you to consider getting new tires which means more cash in their pocket. If it were me I'd get the tires rebalanced and make sure that is a non-issue. If there is actually play in the steering rack, figure out if its slop with the internals or if you just need to replace the bushings. I would start by just replacing the rack bushings. I think you'll find that things tighten up quite a bit and that's pretty inexpensive. Then if you still have slop you can consider replacing the rack which isn't that hard of a job either.

I wouldn't sell just because of the rack, I've replaced a steering rack on another vehicle and it wasn't too bad. I would sell the truck because of the fact that it is starting to accumulate a lot of miles. I don't want to get to the point where I am dumping loads of money into repairs to keep it going and still not have a very reliable vehicle if that makes sense. I use this truck as a DD and commute about 75 miles round trip to work (all freeway miles). I still want a truck for camping and going on trips, but I should probably be driving something that is a little more economical. Do I keep the truck, but a commuter and hope that the truck holds together for when I go on trips? Or do I sell the truck, but a newer truck that gets marginally better mileage and is more reliable? I guess I will have to weigh some options. I did get the tire balanced and it seems to have helped some. I agree that the tire shop wants my money on new tires. The alignment guy that I like and trust let me look at the rack with him when it was on the lift. Everything looked fine except the rack. The bushings do need replacing and I have a set that I could install, but there is so much slop in the internals that he advised against replacing the bushings until a new one was installed. The rack not only had a lot of side to side slop but a lot of up and down slop as well.

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[Quill]

Check your drive shaft u joints. You can take it to another place and have them check the tire balance or put the tires back where they were.

 

[surlydiesel]

If that is your original rack, I would say you got your money out of it. If everything else on the truck is in good shape and you've been religious about your upkeep, throw a rack on it and go. The rack on my 99 was done at like 140,000 but I used to jump the truck regularly. I was young and not very easy on equipment. I'm at 127,000 now on the 01 and it's completely tight. Hasn't left the ground yet...

My gut tells me you are prob tired of the truck and ready to move on to something newer and different. Nothing wrong with that at all, you'll still get good money for your truck.

Cheers,
Jorge

 

[juicebox]

Sounds pretty serious... You better just sell it.

I'll do you a favor and buy it for next to nothing.