Steering being manipulated by something else?
 

Hey everyone I’ve got a ‘13 frs that was hit on the driver front light when I bought it and I’ve repaired everything and have been driving it for 2 months now. After about 3 weeks I’ve run I to an issue where driving above 65 it’s like the car has a mind of it’s own. The steering starts to tug on it’s own whenever I offer any input. So a slight left turn will get tugged left more by something. So turning the wheel at all becomes a constant fight of turning and then correcting for the cars extra tug that it gives every time at speeds above 65mph. Same thing happens with slight right turns. It feels like when you’re driving on a crevice and it pulls your steering one way or the other. I have no idea what’s causing it, I tried new tires and nothing, new wheels and tires nothing, psi is good, alignment is fine.

Only thing I’ve been able to potentially find as a clue is when I first got the car there was a stored code C1231 but after I cleared it I never got it to return. Any help is appreciated because this thing is driving me nuts I’ve got no idea what’s intervening and affecting my steering.

Alignment.

Do you have pics of the original damage, as well as what was replaced?

Have you tried to align it more than once?

I have had an alignment done and it hasn’t helped. I can’t imagine the car misalignes slightly after ward to cause this. I’ve driven some cars with real bad alignment and they don’t react this way at all. I do have pics but I’m still figuring out how to upload them lemme try and see if I can get it. I replaced the fender, bumper, headlight, turn signal and wires for it and the front control arm. After that I got an alignment with used tires up front and three weeks later I started having this. Only thing I changed in that time are the lug nuts but I’ve since swapped em back and nothing changes.

It’s a bizarre effect, youde think I was jerking the car if you were my passenger. Slight turn starts and then it jerks further that way like I’m driving on a triangle too all the time. I’ve rotated the wheels and no difference.

I suggest you check this out.

https://www.autocodes.com/c1231_toyota.html

Have you tried doing the pedal dance to deactivate all stability control?
The code suggest you need to do some kind of steering re calibration. You may need to go to a dealer for that (or someone who has the techstream software)

I’ve thought about that but the steering wheel hasn’t been replaced neither has anything behind it. Also I don’t throw the abs and traction control lights like others do with this code. Thanks for the suggestion.

What does the printout for the alignment look like ? You had another alignment done after it started acting like this? If it is an ABS or TC issue the lights will come on and you won't have cruise control. Steering re-calibration won't cause this, that just means the TC module lost center. Something sounds loose or shifted.

I would go through the front end and check to make sure everything is torqued down correctly.

+1. i'm thinking that 'minor hit' jostled something in the front end that it shouldn't have. if it's affecting both steering directions and throwing a steering sensor code, i'd be breaking out the tape measure on the front main support points and measuring the x's to check for everything to be square or not. i expect you're going to find something off somewhere.

might even need to consider bringing it to a body shop for them to check on a frame machine. and alignment just checks that the wheels are square in reference to each other. it assumes that the vehicle chassis and all suspension mounting points are straight.

When you torqued the control arm was the suspension loaded or unloaded?
If the accident damaged the control arm, are you certain the strut, tie rod, and anti-roll bar/bar link are all okay?

lug nuts shouldn't cause this. loose lug nuts will make for a very floaty uncontrollable feeling, usually very quickly followed by grinding sounds as the brake calipers get machined by the insides of the wheels. been there ;)

looking at your pictures:
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1597364760

the metal brace leading up to the core support on top(where the washer fluid bottle mounts), as well as the brace directly in front of the wheel both show bending damage from the impact, along with the front metal bumper creasing on the edges, but you don't reference any repairs made to those components. i had a wreck like that once, the other driver was going 10-15mph. took way more than the components you listed to properly repair...

from those pictures, i'd definitely check the frame for squareness, and both go over the entire front-left suspension components, potentially even just outright replacing most of anything in the left-front just to make myself feel better--because if i can't trust the repair, i can't drive the car, and if i can't drive the car, there's no reason to keep it.

Thanks everyone for your responses and advice. I haven’t tried the pedal dance so I’ll give that a shot tomorrow and report back.

I don’t know where I put that sheet but I’ll try to find it and post it up. I’ve had a few people recommended a second alignment so I’ll take it in and see how it looks.

The front control arm was torqued down with the car in the air, I inspected the struts and other connecting point in the area and everything seemed fine compared to the passenger side. I do have a second set of struts with trd springs ive been lagging on throwing on. Might be worth it to see if it changes the steering pull.

That picture was a before picture after I had torn all the body panels off, those pieces you mentioned were definitely about an inch in and down compared to where they should have measured out at, they’re spot welded into the unibody and act like braces. I had them pulled to a square position plus or minus 2 mm. Afterward all the bolts for the headlight fender and fender support lined up good. I have not however measured the Xs underneath the car, I might go ahead and do that too so I can check make sure it’s square. I just gotta figure out what order I’m going to do these 3 things for efficiency sake.

What’s still strange is the steering pull only happens for short steering movements like corrections to straighten the car when going straight on the highway. If I’m making a turn that involves more steering movement that what youde do to switch a lane, it gives me the initial jerk in the turning direction and the rest of the turn I can make no issues, like a fwy on/off ramp until I bring the steering wheel back to center. The trigger point is at about the 58 minute mark in a clock for a left turn and the 3 minute mark for a right turn. It might make more sense it’s a mechanical issue if it was consistent throughout the turn radius, at least that’s my quick thought exercise on it. What do you guys think?

It could be a bushing bind/preload issue. Jack the car up. Loosen (not remove) the control arm bolts. Put concrete blocks, ramps, etc. under the tires. Lower car to place full weight on the tires/suspension. Torque control arm bolts to spec.

Bushings need to be torqued in loaded position, not free hanging.

You had a code for a steering angle sensor.
You have steering angle issues.
Not sure what the mystery is here.
Clearing the code does not make what caused it magically go away.

I’ll go back in and retorque the bushings with load on them then.

And about the code, the car had that code when I bought it, I cleared it before I ever drive it and it has yet to some back, so if it was a real issue it would have returned by now don’t you think? My logic was the impact that hit the rim a bit rattled the steering enough in that instance to trigger the code and has since not seen any re-emergence.

You can also try doing a quick and dirty string alignment to see if it is off. It is not perfect, but it is a quick way to check it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NMkh_U4xmg

I don't think you can arbitrarily rule it out though. Your symptoms are exactly those that can be caused by a sensor misreading.

I’ve tried string alignments before and have never been able to get it very good.

I’ve considered that the code could still play a factor, but what gets me is why would it not return as well as not trigger the abs and trac lights but still affect steering (if it is).

So I put the stock wheels back on and loosened the control arm bushing bolts to tighten them under load and my problem is like 80% reduced. Now to know if it was mostly suspension or wheels I’m gonna have to swap the wheels again and drive it to work tomorrow to see. After that I’ll get an alignment to square me up again since I messed with the suspension and report back. I can’t believe how sensitive this car is with suspension components that simply torquing parts down without putting load on the car will cause some weird handling issues.

i would lean towards needing a new steering rack, Toyota does not have a statement that mandates replacement if front suspension is damaged but a lot of companies are going that way. steering racks are filled with cheap plastic parts now and front end damage can cause internal damage, if you replaced all that a rack might be next.

Thanks for the suggestion mike I’ll add it to the list. Plastic in a steering rack sounds like a crummy way to design a steering system.

I went to pick up my car at the dealership they didn't put the oil pan and oil tube back because they found metal debree in the pan so they refused to repair the engine, and i came across this on the oil tube silicone on the oil tube so what should i do?? I left the car at the dealership because I cant move it , my batter was dead witch idk why its brand new. But what should i do ???? https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7f4131bbab.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c323f16bcf.jpg

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Ricardo, I think you’ve posted in the wrong thread. I’d suggest making a new thread or following up on the one you thought you were responding to.

Thank u I will im just going thru alot

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It's not just this car. Most any car with rubber or polyurethane bushings is going to require suspension components to be loaded before final torque.

Reasonably, I hope you get the dealer to handle your stuff. Stealerships are usually difficult but if you’re Karen enough they’ll bend.

Good to know, I don’t think doing that wrong would have such a huge affect on steering. Glad I learned about it but I’m not quite yet out of the water. An alignment tomorrow will help me better see if that’s all I needed.