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what is wrong???

C

CarpePoon

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jan 5, 2002
Messages
1,905
Location
Grand Blanc, MI
for the last year or so my car has had a slight pulling to the left.. I put new front tires on maybe 12-15k or so ago but havent had an alignment done for 40k or so. 2 weeks ago I decided it was time for some new rear tires so I bought 2 tires from tire rack, went to my local shop and had them put on and a 4-wheel alignment done.
They came back and told me the alignment is perfect now, but I have flat spots on my front tires. Sure enough, the inside 1/4 of both my front tires were almost completely bald, the outside looked barely used which is why I never noticed.
So I purchase 2 more new tires from tire rack and 1 week later had them put on the front. My car tracks perfectly straight and turns right normally. However when I turn left at above 25-30mph its like the car is not getting full grip and then all of the sudden with the slight body roll it hooks up and jerks me slightly harder to the left. I really dont know how else to describe it. The steering wheel feels fine through the entire turn and doesnt jerk or change its feel.
So I have 4 brand new tires and perfect alignment.. Anybody have any ideas what it could be? A guy at work said it sounds like something possibly with the rack/pinion.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
Do you have the alignment readings?

I suspect that you have excessive negative camber, a common problem on our cars. The negative camber can be on the wide end of specs and still cause the tire wear you are experiencing.

I had that kind of wear from new and it wasn't resolved until I installed camber kits and reduced the negative camber. Now I have very even wear.

I too had the alignment set many times with the claim that it was perfect but it wasn't.

Part of the problem there is that too many alignment techs don't know how to do anything more than "set the toe and let it go".
 
@#$@#, Alright I'll get the specs. Would the version of contour make a difference? i.e. base vs SVT on the alignment specs?
 
Alignment Details for our cars.
Alignment specs, Per printout from an alignment shop for a 1997-2000 Contour SE/SVT
Left Front <Adjustment> Right Front
-1.8 to 0.7 Camber -1.8 to 0.7
1.4 to 3.4 Caster 1.4 to 3.4
-0.17 to 0.00 Toe -0.17 yo 0.00
Cross Camber -0.7 to 0.7
Cross Caster -1.0 to 1.0
Total Toe -0.34 to 0.00
Left Rear <Adjustment> Right Rear
-1.5 to 0.5 Camber -1.5 to 0.5
0.04 to 0.24 Toe 0.04 to 0.24
*Without camber plates, there is little to no adjustment for camber on the front of our cars.
 
Sorry, by specs I meant what the readings are. But would this have any effect on how my steering is acting now? I dont care about the tire wear as long as it doesn't happen again. I'm worried about how the steering is acting up.
 
CarpePoon said:
.....
They came back and told me the alignment is perfect now, but I have flat spots on my front tires. ..........My car tracks perfectly straight and turns right normally. However when I turn left at above 25-30mph its like the car is not getting full grip and then all of the sudden with the slight body roll it hooks up and jerks me slightly harder to the left. ...
Click to expand...
What is the condition of your struts and springs?
 
I had this same issue nearly a month ago with lots of tire noise and the car tended to 'wander' badly when I drove along seams or ruts in the pavement. Turns out it was a front wheel bearing on the driver side. I swapped that out & my car is fine now. No noise, no wandering, no bad tire wear. One of the first things I did was the 12-6 and 9-3 tire movement test and got no indication of a bad bearing. The 3 shops I went to couldn't find anything wrong either.
 
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