Question about my car pulling

[bigsean06]

I have a 96 v6 camry. I have problems that I am not sure are related or not.

1. the car pulls to the left
2. steering wheel wobbles. turns a little to the left and right. When i get up to higher speeds above 45mph it doesnt wobble that much
3. i can't turn the steering wheel completely to the left or right. A normal u turn for me turns into a 3 point turn.


I have recently had some work done on my car.
1. rack N pinion was changed
2. front and back rotors and pads were changed
3. front driver side caliper and hose was changed
4. master cylinder was changed as well
5. new wheel alignment

Any ideas on what is causing these problems. My mechanic told me that my front tires were different sizes relating to the width. So I went out and bought 2 new front tires and I am still getting the pulling and wobbling. Could this have been cause when the rack N pinion was installed. I am not sure why I can't cut the wheel completely to either side.

any help would be great.

thank you

[ekopel]

did you go to a toyota mechanic? I replaced my rack n pinion 2 years ago, and if its not perfect, you will get those symptoms.

Hate to say it, but it almost sounds as if you have the wrong rack and pinion in the car lol. I can imagine those would be the symptoms you would feel if there was an improper rack and pinion and/or not calibrated correctly. I feel like the brake work would not make it hard for you to turn. That could be a possible vibration cause though. Another thing could be that he might have had the wrong angles for your alignment, causing it to be off, and causing all kinds of weird symptoms. I have seen that happen before (worked at a dealership). Also, if your different sized tires were on the car when it was aligned, it will be aligned improperly (due to differences in suspension and weight load). That could be another thing.

Thats all i can come up with on the spot. Sorry for the all over the place post.

[CarDrivinHick]

It could be struts. I never noticed it on my car, but when I took it in for an alignment, the Toyota mechanic claimed I needed struts, I got that done, and Immediately I noticed a difference.

[bigsean06]

Thanks for the speedy reply. No I did not go to the dealer. The parts mark up and labor rate is way out of my budget. But it is funny that you say it could be the rack n pinion. When I initially had the problem I dropped my car off at the shop. the mechanic that works on my car told me that the rack n pinion could have been installed incorrectly. When I came back to pick the car up they did a wheel alignment instead of changing the rack. I was suspicious that the owner of the shop tried to cut costs and pulled rank on his worker. (since they were the shop who initially did the rack n pinion he may not have wanted to incur the cost of doing the same job over) I am going to revisit this issue with them on Saturday.

How can I tell if my struts need to be changed. Are there any other symptoms besides the ones that I stated?

thanks again, this forum has been awesome.

[cruisn76]

Originally Posted by bigsean06

y.

How can I tell if my struts need to be changed. Are there any other symptoms besides the ones that I stated?

thanks again, this forum has been awesome.

Do a bounce test. Push down on the left and right fenders and count how times the car bounces before it settles. Usually 1-2 times to settle is the norm, 3-4 is a bad strut.

[Jimnist]

Off the top of my head, some things that cause the above are:

Uneven tyre pressure, rack out of alignment, uneven tyre sizes are for the steering pulling. Brake pad rubbing against rotor can also make it pull. But you said you got new pads, so i'm pretty sure that the pads are no longer touching? Are you sure they did the alignment properly? Did you get the print out? With regard to what someone said, on most FWD cars, you can really only adjust the individual toe of each wheel during a wheel alignment, no camber or castor adjustment. So if the toe is correctly set, then it can't be the geometry of the steering unless you have fully adjustable coilovers (or you have had an accident and put off the castor and camber figures). I don't think worn struts would affect it, unless you blew the strut on the left.

Why did you get a new master cylinder and hose, i assume you mean the brake line hose?

In regards to turning, i'm not sure of the steering system, but in my Gen 2 Camry, there are universal joints on the steering shaft and steering shaft to pinion. They needed to be aligned correctly or else it would affect handling. The way someone told me to check this was to turn the wheel to full lock on one side, then to the other and the placement of the uni joint should look the same on each full lock. But even then, you still should be able to turn full lock to full lock going slow. Maybe you do have the wrong rack in?