Toyota Repair: 1999 Toyota Sienna, toyota engineers, torque steer

Question
We just purchased a 1999 Toyota Sienna LE with approximately 85,000 miles on it.  It pulls to the right, especially when accelerating.  We've had the alignment and the motor mounts checked.  The repair shop said that the alignment is fine, but the motor mounts are a little loose, but "not too bad".  Their only suggestion is to start replacing motor mounts, starting with the rear one for $350.  Then, depending on if that fixes it, to continue replacing them, with no guarantee that this is actually the problem.  
They sound like they wouldn't do it if it were their car, since they say it really isn't a problem and the pull won't hurt anything, but it pulls hard enough so I get pretty tired of it after just a couple hours of errands.  
They don't have any idea why this is happening and were going to call a hotline, but haven't been able to get ahold of anyone and aren't sure they'll get an answer.
I hope you can help.  Thanks.
Marilea  

Answer
Hello Marilea, welcome to my export page.
The motor mount replacement procedure sounds a little iffy at best, it would be very unusual for them to be bad at this mileage, the pulling to the side while accelerating is definetely not normal, Toyota engineers spend lots of time eliminating what is called torque-steer by suspension and steering design.
There is a red flag that popped up when you said that you just bought the van, it sounds to me that this vehicle may have been involved in an accident and there may be some frame damage or subframe misalignment, the alignment machine may show that the basic alignment is ok but the only way to make sure there is no problem with the frame is to have a frame check done, I highly suggest that you have this done at a body shop or another shop that can do this, some toyota dealers can also perform this.