I have owned my '95 Contour SE ATX (58k) since new. I have posted the trouble I have had with the car since new several times. When the car is driven on the highway at 65-80 mph, a shake or shimmy is felt in the steering wheel. The amount of shimmy varies and sometimes is not present at all!!! Please note, this is not under braking...just cruising. I have tried new tires, new rims (SVT) & tires, new brakes all around, balancing & re-balancing, alignments, etc. with no remedy.
I took the car to a local small shop mechanic who specializes in suspension this past weekend to have the suspension checked over and alignment done again. I was also to have the mechanic replace the right front bearing because I thought I felt some play in it. The mechanic checked over the suspension and could not find anything wrong. He did check the wheels for play in the bearings. He did comment that he felt minimal play in the right front bearing but said that it wasn't enough to cause a problem. He also test drove the car and did not hear any bad bearing noises. He tightened up the hub nut and that actually made a difference in the play felt in the right front wheel bearing. I had him balance all 4 wheels and rotate. All wheels were found to be off by 3/4 ounce! He then performed the alignemt and found that the front toe was out on both sides. He made the adjustments to correct the toe. At this point I was thinking to myself that maybe...just maybe...I would see a difference with the hub nut tightened, the wheels balanced, and the toe corrected. Well, after driving it on the highway I did find it to be "slightly" better...but not to the point where I am happy with it. The vibrations are still there. I just don't know what to do anymore...I threw the towel in a long time ago...but it just gets annoying when driving this car for an extended period of time on the highway...I would just like to find out what is wrong with the car and fix it...this problem is the only thing I hate about this car...thanks for reading such a long and run-on post...any feedback would be appreciated.
