So I finally figured out what's the matter with my car. Here's the basic story of what happened.
About a month or two ago, it suddenly came to my attention that the inside of both front tires was horribly worn, right down to the steel cords. I hadn't noticed this before because the rest of the tire was wearing fairly normally. So, since I didn't want to have to buy new tires, I had a full set of Blizzak snow tires on different rims already, and winter is nearly here, I just put those on. We attributed the horrible wear on my previous set of tires to low tire pressure - I had been keeping it at 28-30 psi, though the spec said 32 psi, because even at 28 psi they appeared to be wearing slightly more in the center than the edge - and of course, at that time I had only looked at the outside edge.
Now, I figured after putting the snow tires on that they were out of alignment, but I really couldn't afford to get them aligned, and I figured that they were only minimally out of alignment and I could wait for two weeks until Thanksgiving break, when I would have the time and money to go get them aligned. So today it was noticed that the back tires were wearing terribly. The right rear tire had worn nearly down to the steel cords. Now, the tires I put on the rear wheels were already fairly worn, but they still had enough tread to last through one more winter when they were put on. So we went to Sears to get an alignment and new tires. It turned out that the problem was more serious than just that, though. After my car was put on the lift, the mechanic noticed that my rear lateral arm on the rear right tire (the one that was wearing so much) was bent pretty badly, causing the wheel to turn outwards.
And it only got worse. They also determined that the bushings on the front lower control arms were bad. So now I need several replacement parts, two new snow tires, and two new low-profile tires for my normal rims. Plus a full alignment after we put on the new parts. And I'm already very short on cash. It's a shame that I went through 2 sets of tires before realizing what the real problem was.
Worst of all, I had planned to go visit my girlfriend this weekend and I was her ride back home from college for break. Now that's not going to happen, and instead I'm stuck at home trying to figure out how I'm going to afford all this. What a fall break!
There's no differene in the lateral arms of a SVT versus the other Contour models, is there? I'm thinking there's not, since the major difference that I can remember is the sway bar, and if not I may be able to find the rear lateral arm I need from a junkyard and save some money.
