I can't remember if this was happening before but after my alignment at the Lexus dealership, but when I apply brakes or even when I drive straight, the steering wheel is a tiny bit off center to the right while driving straight. I did take it back today and they confirmed that this was the case and tried to adjust the steering wheel towards the left but ultimately said that my 'tire rods were seized' and because of that, the adjustment can only be minimally done. Car drives straight but it's really noticeable when I apply brakes but on some roads, it'll be center so I'm not sure if it's specifically the road 'pattern' which is causing the wheel to go right. I am thinking about going to another shop but I don't want to waste more money for the same result.

 

If it is only under braking it may be a front brake issue. But if they say your tie rods are seized...

 

Yeah, mostly under braking. I had the car go through a car wash, steering wheel kept angling towards the right. I think for now I'll go with this alignment and look for some other 3rd party shops that deal with modified cars and have them do an alignment. When I asked him how much it would be to swap the tire rods, my advisor was saying the tire rods itself are around $300 and it would be 4-5 hours of labor and that it's not worth doing. Honestly, I was left really confused. If they couldn't get the alignment right because the tire rods were seized, shouldn't they have told me that in the first place before doing the service?

I have it dropped 1" on RSR springs and dealers love to blame stuff like this on why they can't do stuff right lol. I don't understand how there is a correlation with my steering wheel being angled to the right and the tire rod being seized?

 

But also check the brakes. If a caliper is seized it can cause a steering issue too

 

Yeah I will, funny enough, my rear caliper seized a few weeks back and had to replace it. What I did notice is, on a highway near my home, the steering wheel is dead straight. When I brake = straight as well. But on most other roads, it wants to lean towards the right. So I would say 65-70% of the time I'm having to slightly keep it straight but on that specific highway, it's dead center (and a few other roads too).

 

Don’t recall… do you have upgraded (e.g.FIGS or the other guys) LCA bushings?
My car wandered all over the place on heavy braking before installing FIGS LCA’s. Your pulling to the right is probably due to the crown in the road.

 

I have the RCF/GSF ones.

I also went and got a second opinion, they said my 'right tire rod is seized' and the 'left one is rusted out'. The second place refused to do an alignment saying that it wouldn't help. I didn't know about this part until today. Do these go bad at this time or is this an abnormal finding?

 

Tie rods usually seize because of rust, repalcing them would give you your adjustment back, I seriously doubt the second shop would be willing to decline alignment work unless there was a huge setback (I.E your tie rods being shot)

 

Second shop said to go buy tire rods and they'll replace my inner + outer for $200 and then an alignment after that.

They were saying they would've done the alignment if I didn't say anything about the tire rods. This is a weird predicament because they said that. Lexus dealership also did my alignment and said the tire rods were seized on one side. Why would they continue with an alignment instead of checking the tire rods first..? Shop also told me they charge $100 for just having a car on their lift for diagnosis without any work, so if I told them to just "check the tire rods" I would've paid $100 for that alone lol

Anyone have part numbers for front inner + outer tire rod left & right?