Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Contour gremlins and sound from front end on right hand only turns

First of all, this sight is amazing. I recently bought a used SE (end of October)with 115,000 miles and since then, the waterpump went out on a Sunday, the next day after replacing the WP, the O/D off light started flashing after 2 hrs at 80 mph. I shut it off, letting the transaxle cool, made it home ok after that and got the fluid changed to Mobil 1. (Just took a long trip and no repeat of the problem, also seems to shift smoother). Coincidentally, my clock light stopped illuminating last week. LOL! Easy fix there it seems. It's nice to be able to come to this forum and see a header for each of these common ailments. One other 'problem' I'm noticing is a strange sqeauking on right hand only turns. The mechanic said the CV joints were fine. Could this be a steering linkage problem. It sounds like it's making contact with something or possibly a strut compressing. Any ideas? Oh yeah, I love this car. It's a tempting car to drive fast. ;-) Hello speeding tix!

Mine was a Ball joint and on several other ocasions was the bearings! Gotta love those wheel bearings!

I think I described the sound wrong. It doesn't have the howl of a bearing or squeak of a balljoint. It is more of a rubbing sound that only emits itself on right turns under slight to moderate suspension compression. I'm definately going to get it checked out again.

If it sounds like a howl/rub it might/could be the steering rack. I have it on Right returns. It turns out it is just a resonance in the lines. There is a TSB on it, they put in a different return line on it, and it minimizes it a bit. I found it helped also to put Mobil 1 ATF in the rack. Drips a bit by the seals, but well worth it.

Any sign of rubbing on the tire or front sway bar? If there is a clean spot on the sway bar, then it is shifing during turns and rubbing on the tire.

My 96 GL did this.

TB

by any chance, did you get the front spring plate recall done! Lots of rubbing after that stupid recall!

I'm going to check out the swaybar this weekend to see if there is any apparent contact. Thanks for the heads up.

I've been having the rubbing for about 3 weeks or so. I thought I had a worped rotor, but after replacing them I still get the noise. Right turns only and my parking garage at work makes me do right turns about 8 times. Drives me nuts. My car will have a doctors (quack) or (ford) appointment soon because I'm approaching the 60,000 mark. Hopefully all will be well after that. not likely.

Whenever I hear about a grinding noise comming from the wheel area, I always gotta chime in about the CV joints. I realize your mechanic checked it out, and if you trust him good enough, then just ignore the rest of my post. The CV joints were the problem on my car, and after checking everything I was told to check on here, a friend of mine mentioned to check the CV boot. Sure enough, there was ahuge tear in it and all the lube was gone. Check the CV boots real good and look for any tears or lube on the outside of the boot. -Nick

i had a similar problem, it might be the stablizer, rubbing against the frame of the car. here is what u do, if it is the stabiler.

get a hose clamp
take off the wheel your having problems with.
inspect the frame of the car. if u notice like a chrome color type of mark, and c the stabiler is close to or touching the frame, pull the stabilizer a lilttle bit it sould be like 1.5 - 2 inchs away from the frame. then put the hose clamp on the stabilizer right by the place it comes out by the frame.

tighten it as much as possible.


that might be the problem.
not sure tho.

Another cause could be the thing that holds the stablizer might be to dry, thats a problem i currently have. im gonna greese the thing up. as soon as it gets a bit warmer outside.

hope this helps.


if it isnt any of these 2 then u might need a new strut.