94 Camry Steering/Alignment

Quoted From EricTheCarGuy:

If the vehicle is not aligned properly it could cause the ‘pull’ you describe, if there is an issue when doing the alignment that will not allow the vehicle to be properly aligned it will show up during the alignment inspection process as the first step after checking the tire pressure is to check for loose or broken suspension components, you can not properly align something that has loose or broken suspension parts. In short what I’m saying is that if there is some sort of mechanical issue then the vehicle can not be properly aligned until the issue is corrected.

Here’s the latest, I jacked the car up and checked everything for movement which all I could find was the cv axles had a little play. (they’re brand new, hopefully they weren’t damaged by whatever is causing the steering issue) I took off the drivers side shock and mount and inspected the mount, the inside-bottom of it appeared to be deteriorated pretty badly and there was absolutely no rotation in the bearing whatsoever. I ordered some new ones (not too expensive, plus the car has over 130k and still original ones) and will put them on tomorrow and have it aligned (at another place with a good rep) I’m also going to ask them if they see anything that would hinder the car’s ability to hold an alignment (especially if it’s still not fixed with new strut mounts) Hopefully that will take care of it. Either way, the control arms, cv joints, and shock mounts are new so it will at least hold the alignment better and my new tires will last longer. I’ll keep everyone updated. Thanks

sorry about the delay of update, but I have since replaced the passenger front control arm (both are new now) and put new shock mounts (old ones were rusted and I had to put new bump-stops on the shocks also) then I had it aligned at a different place. I bought the nationwide lifetime alignment and will have it checked next time I rotate my tires. The person who aligned it was really helpful and acknowledged the subframe damage and how it would prevent a perfect alignment. It pulls slightly, but the tires appear to be wearing MUCH better (already almost 6k mi and cross-tread mold marks are still there) also the steering pull-to-lock problem is almost entirely gone, it’s still there, but barely. for a $700 car i’m considering it good enough.
My final diagnosis/consensus/guess of the problem: the alignment wouldn’t stay because of the bad control arms, and when I got the new ones on, it was out of alignment causing it to pull-to-lock (in association with the frame damage), but now that it’s aligned better and holding, the steering geometry is less prone to pull-to-lock.
Either way, it seems to be good for now so we’ll see when it comes time to rotate and check alignment