[Amazingly Smooth]

I finally decided to hang on to my 2000 Solara so I take it to a shop to have them check out why it is pulling to the left. Of course, they check out the alignment and it is off. So the "re-align" it and afterward it pulls harder to the left and now the steering wheel is tilted when driving straight. Being determined to "fix" it, I take it back. After a day of driving my car around the shop tells me they think it is a weak rack and pinion steering "system". WTF? This car has less than 30k miles and is just over 4 years old. Is this possible? What can go wrong with these things? The steering doesn't feel loose or weak at all. So he's quoted me $830 for parts (aftermarket), fluids, and labor plus he has to order the part so it will be a week or more before he can do it. He says that Toyota wants to charge him $800+ for the parts so he looked into aftermarket--maybe the parts guy at Toyota I spoke with looked up the wrong thing, but Toyota told me $369 for the parts. Regardless, $800+ is getting close to the delta I could make on selling the car outright vs. trading it in. Since there is no real guarantee that this will fix it, I may just trade this lemon in.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 

[steve97]

My 97 Camry tended towards the left. I took it to Goodyear for an alignment check. They found it out of alignment a little bit, not much. It didn't drive any better, or worse.

Then I suspected a bad tire. Switched the front driver and passenger tires.

Now it is steady straight.

Worth a try, before you look into the changing of the rack.$$

 

[SolaraTRD]

Had the SAME exact problem over past summer.

I rotated my wheels, and out the blue, the car drifted to the left like nuts.

Took it to SEARS to do an alignment check, off little by maybe .02 degrees.

Fix that, that made it worse.

They said the tires are trying to "OFFSET" each other ( I recently bought new tires as well) Did another realignment that same day. No extra charge. So, SEARS says it could be a bad belt in the tires.

Next day, tires STILL on warranty, they exchanged TWO new ones for the front. I paid only $35. Its better, but at times, it kinda feels it pulls somewhere. Or its just in my head... But its a bit better now... Fudge that, $800 plus?!?!?


My car, 2000 Solara AUTO with (Today) 31,5xx miles~