4Runner Wheel Alignment 101

Wheel alignment, camber, caster, toe in, toe out, cam tabs.... What does it all mean?

We put together a 4 part article reviewing wheel alignment and how it all works. If you have a few minutes and curious to know how your 4Runner wheel alignment is done, take a look!​

Tacoma & 4Runner Wheel Alignment Article
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Great timing! At at a shop to hopefully increase caster and get rid of my body mount rub.

 

Sweet! Yea hopefully the UCA you chose will allow for that. Not all UCA will provide the specs needed to get the best wheel alignment.

 

Hi @AccuTune Offroad,

Thank you very much for the post.

Sometimes I don't really understand why some lifts with same heights do not give good alignment.
Not sure you have enough details to give a proper answer but just a try.

2019 4Runner Limited lift 1 -
(Front : Toytect 2.5in springs + Rear : Toytec 1.5in spacer with Bilstien 5100 shocks | Tires : 275/55/R20 | Stock UCA | No diff drop) - Good Alignment per the sheet (later changed to 285/70R17)


(Too bad I didn't have center of wheel to bottom of fender measurement during this lift)


2019 4Runner Limited lift 2 -
(Front : Ironman foamcell pro 2.5in (reduced to 2.25) Rear : Ironman foamcell pro with 1.5in spring | Tires : 285/70R17 | Stock UCA | No diff drop) - Does not seem to have good alignment.

Attempt / shop - 1

Attempt / shop - 2




Any idea why? / Things to check?

 

It’s an Old Man Emu, I “think” it does. Fingers crossed.

 

Did you look through the article? Both of your examples are using stock upper control arms. That is most definitely going to be the problem. Our new UCA will solve this issue and help clear those 285s without rubbing.

 

I was trying to find an answer why with same stock UCA lift1 has a good alignment vs lift2 does not. Both lifts 2.5 front 1.5rear.

No problem. cheers.

 

I see, unfortunately I wont have an answer for this specific example. In general, we treat every vehicle differently. Even if they are almost identical, they still may not have the exact same adjustments to get the same alignment specs (if that makes sense). If it were that simple, everyone would be doing their own alignments based on one set of adjustments provided.

 

Whelp, still got my rub. Here is mine:

 

If you'll notice, one shop calls +2.0 caster in spec (green) and the other calls +2.1 caster out of spec (red).

Nevertheless, your caster is hovering right around minimum spec because of your lift height and use of stock UCA's.

If you don't mind its driving manners, then leave it.

If it feels like it wanders and the the steering is too light, get aftermarket UCA's that allow you to get the caster in the upper 3's or lower 4's.

 

Where are you rubbing?

What wheel size?

What offset?

What tires?

 

Don’t shoot me, this is self inflicted

Where are you rubbing? Right smack dab on the tip of the body mount when at an incline backing up or making a tight turn(3 point) on flat ground. My brother said to deal with it, but the rub is annoying.

What wheel size?285 70 17

What offset? -25

What tires? Dick Cepek

 

Thank you @nimby
yeah I did put some miles on highway and local and did not feel anything bad.

 

It's your -25 offset (mainly) with that tire size.

 

Yeah, I was hoping I could nudge that caster juuuuuust enough.

 

Going to be tough with that much offset. Your caster would probably have to be in the low to mid 4's to avoid the BMC with a -25 offset......which means you'd need aftermarket UCA's.

So it's either aftermarket UCA's, BMC, or live with the rub.

 

Thank you

 

Switching these two cam animations would correct this illustration. As it is now, it is 180* wrong. Sorry.

 

It's a bit confusing, so I can revise the artwork to specify the viewpoint. In the article there is a sequence of graphics that lead to this one which should help explain.