Checked your wheel drag lately?
 

Hi,

I recently had to have a new rear wheel bearing installed (under warranty) and the new one had a slight alignment problem, that caused a rubbing noise when I turned the car. At first, I thought that it might be that one of the brake shoes was misaligned and was rubbing, but today I took off the wheel and had a look.

It was actually the drum hitting part of the backing plate -- both parts were nice and shiny, and the gap was wide in the front and rubbing in the back... Also the adjuster on the brake was a bit too tight. So I loosened the adjuster, and I "persuaded" the back plate to move about 1/32" away from the drum with a stout screw driver and a 22oz framing hammer.

Now my wheel spins freely and makes no noise -- oh yeah!

So, check your parking brakes to be sure they fully disengage, or if there is excessive brake warp, and that the bearings are not worn an well lubricated -- and when you have a corner jacked up, try spinning the wheel to see that they are doing their fundamental job as well as possible!

[Edit: I probably should have a 4-wheel alignment done, I think? If the one rear wheel is toed out a bit more than it was, then it might be worth checking and fixing?]

Minimal gain, but yes, you should still get your alignment checked.

Not sure about the Scion, but my 06 Corolla had alignment problems that were bad enough to eat the tires up in 18k miles. After the selling dealer gave me the run around about rotating and balancing, I took the car to an old friend who was service manager at another dealer.

Everything was off. The total front toe was too much although individually the wheels we barely in the maximum spec. That was what was eating the outside of my front tires up.

The rear was toed to the left, both wheels. He replaced the rear axle, which did not fix the problem. I had to bring the car back and they gave me a loaner. The car went to a frame shop where they shifted the mounting points for the rear axle to correct the problem.

Toyota gave me a new set of tires at 20 k miles due to the wear on the old ones.

The original dealer had also charged me for a 4 wheel balance. After driving the car for a couple of thousand miles, I was actually getting a callous on my left elbow where it sat on the armrest.

I took the car to my old shop and balanced the wheels myself. The Dealer had never balanced the rear wheels when they rotated them to the front. They still had the original Toyota weights on the fronts, but the rears had the new weights the Dealer had used when they did a two wheel balance and put the balanced wheels on the back of the car.

I bought the car with 6 miles on the odometer brand new, so there is no way it was anything but a factory defect.

My Corolla was built in Canada. There is a slim possibility it was damaged in shipping if they torqued down the tie downs on the truck or train too much.

No way you should have to mess with the backing plate to get things working right. Probably some moron using a pry bar to get the axle assembly out. I am pretty sure its a no serviceable stub axle assembly that comes off by removing the four nuts that hold the assembly to the strut or hub. The backing plate should not even be messed with in a replacement.

Now this is just my opinion about your problem, but I would contact Toyota to make sure the alignment was correct. If they messed up one thing, no reason to not think they messed up another thing.

If you get it aligned have them set the front toe to the minimum spec, which will help your mileage a little if the difference is significant. It will make your car slightly less self centering when you drive it, also depending on what the specs were before adjustment.

Toyota should do a courtesy alignment up to 20 k miles if you have any complaint, and the backing plate issues certainly justifies a complaint.

If you get an alignment you want a spec sheet for before and after settings. If you think they are screwing with you, get another shop to do the alignment, but Toyota will not pay for anyone but a dealer to do the job.

regards
Mech