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Loose Steering-Worse at +speeds

seems to have gotten worse.

it give the feeling that the front pass. tire is almost having trouble staying steady. not sure if thats just how i interpret the feeling or what..
I was driving on 'smooth' pavement today with just some tar lines and the wheel got real loose.
i think because of the severity of the pulling/loose feeling, i can rule out the alignment. at times i feel if i didnt conciously hold the steering wheel real tight, it would pull out of the lane or off the road.

I guess i'll be looking into the coupler, control arm bushings, and whatever else i can try to get at. the coupler seems like its over my head though , doh
 
rotate the wheels to see if it goes away. if you have a spare set of tires swap those on and see what happens. If you don't I have two sets I know are good that you can try.
 
i will do that this weekend, although the summer wheels have been on for a while w/o this problem.
ive got a set of e0's ill throw on after i try rotating. (i think its about time to rotate anyway)
 
Snipey said:
i will do that this weekend, although the summer wheels have been on for a while w/o this problem.
ive got a set of e0's ill throw on after i try rotating. (i think its about time to rotate anyway)
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well I tire could have gone bad, you never know. or you could have bend a rim that is causing the vibration. its easy enough to test out just to make sure.
 
What size tires? 41 psi and even filling more is way to high for this car. Remember mark on the tire is the max it will take not the normal pressure, axle load to tire size is the proper calculation for any vehicle. On our cars optimal would be 34 psi. Overfilled tire means less contact with the road, light steering and no traction. Drop these to 34 psi and see what happens.
 
over_30k said:
What size tires? 41 psi and even filling more is way to high for this car. Remember mark on the tire is the max it will take not the normal pressure, axle load to tire size is the proper calculation for any vehicle. On our cars optimal would be 34 psi. Overfilled tire means less contact with the road, light steering and no traction. Drop these to 34 psi and see what happens.
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I disagree with this statement nearly completely. 41 psi would be about an optimal pressure to run up front. Maybe 38 in the rear, but 41 is still fine. Most tires are 44 psi cold max pressure so 41 is not OVERFILLED. Also as the tire rack has proved, running tires at full pressure decreases rolling resistance and increases hydroplane resistance. Two very good reasons to run at or near full max cold psi. Steering response is increased with higher pressures. I'm unsure what light steering means exactly. I do agree that if you drop the psi that it will make your problem less noticeable, but not in a good way. I think that your lca bushings are worn and all the lower psi will do is soften the feel from the road to the steering wheel because the sidewalls will be softer and less sprung. Having said that, I would not lower tire pressure because it will give a false sense of the problem getting better and hurt with the troubleshooting process. Check those lca bushings! I had the same problem your having and new lca's cleared it right up.
 
today i rotated the front to back and noticed the previous front tire is worn down on the inside...a lot. i also dropped the tire pressure to 35-40. Between those two it seems to feel better but its definetly still there.

i took a good look at(and took pics) of the lca. what exactly am i looking for that would be sign of it being trash? the rubber bushings looked to be pretty beat, and the lca was pretty low on that end.
 
rotated the driver-side tires today too and the front drivers was worn down all the way to the wear line on the inside. i'm going to keep an eye on tires that were moved to the front (they have regular wear) if

would something other than the alignment cause this? because if the new front tires wear on the inside, either they failed on the alignment, or its some other issue...

also, i did the clock test and found no play. although the front wheel does turn a 1/4 turn with a light clicking(near the inner axle) while jacked
 
Snipey said:
225/45/ZR17 Michelin Pilot Sport's
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Snipey said:
...would something other than the alignment cause this? because if the new front tires wear on the inside, either they failed on the alignment, or its some other issue...
...
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If the alignment is "fine" and there is no mechanical issue (LCA, bearings, struts, springs, etc), then there is a chance you may have "big tire" issues.

I noticed that when I put 215/16 on the rims, the front insides wear very fast. Some on this site have observed the same issue. Since then, I have put 205/16 on the rims and they are wearing "normally." You may want to consider front aftermarket camber kits if you can't get the alignment correct.
 
that sounds possible, But.... this is the second summer ive had these wheels/tires on and they definetly were not worn un-evenly when i put them on in April.
from april to now they've gone from even wear, to the insides of the fronts being completely bald. (the drivers front is/was at the wear line on the inside)

just doesnt really seem right that after using them for 6 months, they get ruined from month 6-8. i did get the new suspension put on around may, and had it w/o alignment for ~2 weeks...

if it was a big tire issue, wouldnt the backs be suffering the same as the fronts?

as far as mechanical issues, in my first post i listed everything that was brand new. as far as i can tell, nothing else looks noticably trashed or bent. and the clock test was inconclusive.
 
My car is doing the exact same thing you are describing. I took off the wheel and checked the cv nut, the wheel bearing is fine - the links look ok and it ONLY does it on right hand turns. I think my CV is the problem - or the fact that I've dropped the suspension 3 times and pulled the motor once and have not got an allignement yet... Drives straght as an arrow with my torsen though....
 
i'm gunna see about going to the ford dealership tomorrow and get a price on new front lca's.. maybe all 4 while im at it. iirc the back one had a kink in it.
 
If any of the back suspension links are bent, your rear could be toed in or out as a cause of this. If its toed out, the car will seem untable. A different unstable than if the front lca bushings are worn out.
 
well i took off the 17"s today and put back on e0's. the fronts looked like they were getting ready to wear un-evenly like the backs, so im glad i took them off before another set of tires is ruined.

i went for a test drive around all the usual spots and from what i can tell the loose-ness is gone.
i Did notice the wheel(s) squealed a bit on cornering(not extreme cornering), could this be another side effect of my suspension woes?

i am still having the front lca's and a bent rear trailing arm replaced(tomorrow). hopefully this resolves everything

heres the worst of the wear:
IMG_1222.jpg
 
well how good are the tires on the E0's? it could be that they make alot of noise on cornering.

also if the steering problem went away I would suspect a bad tire ...

example: on my mystique when i got it there where a pair of goodyears and some knock off pair of tires. shop couldn't get the steering wheel straight with an alignment. took my wheels off and put my fathers set on and the steering wheel was perfectly straight .... had a bad or funny tire somewhere ...
 
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