• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Rear suspension ?

S

STLSVT98

CEG'er
Joined
Oct 8, 2007
Messages
40
Location
Troy,MO
I have a 98 svtc, my right rear control arm is bent pretty good. It was like that when i bought the car, the previous owner said it hit a rock???:shrug: . Anyways, the car drives and tracks straight with it bent but there is a humming vibration in the rear of the car when driving. It varys up and down with speed but is always present exept when the road sweeps to the right which unloads this tire and then returns as the road straightens out.
I assume this is what is causing this humming/vibration in the car.
My main question is " are the rear control arms svt specific?" or can this be replaced with one off of an se. Is there somewhere that supplies these new or would a junkyard part be sufficient. I vcan't seem to find this specific part online anywhere , however I'm not sure the exact name of the part to search for. I call it the control arm (the arm that runs to the center of the vehicle from the bottom of the shock and rear hub).
Any input would be appreciated
 
98TredSVT said:
not sure, i would compare them, super easy to replace though
Click to expand...
Yeah, looks like just two bolts right?
AliasJerk thanks for the link, just ordered a new one . Hopefully it will fix the vibration, if not at least another broken part will be fixed.
 
Thanks for the info "The Five-Oh" I'll check it when I swap out the control arm. I've been reading that these things are bad about the wheel bearings. Perhaps the bent control arm made the bearing wear out:shrug:
 
The Five-Oh! said:
it's possible, but i'd guess that the problem was more likely to be cause by whatever the driver hit to bend the arm in the first place.
Click to expand...
From the look of the bend it almost looks like someone tried to use the arm for a jacking point:shrug: . Not sure how long it has been bent though. Lowered contours have few jacking points in the rear, and the ones that are there are hard to get to. IMO
 
I didn't look at the pic of the control arm but our cars have 3 suspension arms per side. I assume you're referring to the rearmost control arm which is commonly called the toe control arm. If it was bent, you can expect your toe setting to be off and they w/b feathering or other uneven wear of the tire tread.

If you bought 1 of those from Ford, they're basically disposable junk and you can expect to replace them on a regular basis. They fail via 1 of 2 methods: the bushings dry up, crack and break away from the inner or outer metal sleeve OR they bend when you've done some hard cornering, hit a curb or some technician/tow trucker driver used them as a jacking/pulling point.

Don't forget to get a rear toe setting after the install.
 
Bradness said:
I didn't look at the pic of the control arm but our cars have 3 suspension arms per side. I assume you're referring to the rearmost control arm which is commonly called the toe control arm. If it was bent, you can expect your toe setting to be off and they w/b feathering or other uneven wear of the tire tread.

If you bought 1 of those from Ford, they're basically disposable junk and you can expect to replace them on a regular basis. They fail via 1 of 2 methods: the bushings dry up, crack and break away from the inner or outer metal sleeve OR they bend when you've done some hard cornering, hit a curb or some technician/tow trucker driver used them as a jacking/pulling point.

Don't forget to get a rear toe setting after the install.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, swapped out the "toe control arm" this weekend the humming/ vibration has gone away. Wheel bearings seem to be in good shape. Car is tracking good but I definately am gonna get this thing in for alighnment ASAP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top