novice

Sorry I couldn't get the Car-o-liner report from the dealer. But I finally solved the mystery and my car is back on road and it drives better than ever. There were two problems. The first one, some moron installed both trailing arms in reverse direction in spite of clear marking on the arm indicating the direction of fitment. The end that should be bolted to the Chassis was actually bolted to the Wheel Knuckle. The second one and the root cause of all the suspension problems, a missing bump stop ring on the stabilizer bar. The stabilizer bar has a ring on either end of the bar to prevent it from moving through the bush mounting. The ring on the right side was missing and this allowed the bar to move through the bushes to its right side restricting the left suspension assembly from moving up and down freely. It looks like Ford sold me a defective Stabilizer bar when I replaced it two years back. I plan to take it up with Ford and demand compensation for all the troubles I faced. Thanks for all the suggestions. Your suggestions helped me to correct the problem with trailing arms and put an to Cam wear outs.

Thanks. Ford dealer outsourced the job to the local distributor of Car-O-Liner. An expert from the distributor throughly inspected the car and took all sorts of measurements only to declare that there is nothing wrong with chassis. I asked the dealer to swap all lower arms from one side to the other and installed new cam bolts and washers. As usual the left side cam worn out with in 200Kms. It is now clear that there is no chassis damage and all lower arms are fine too. What else should I check/replace? When I drive the car after installing new cam kit, the left wheel area makes lot of noise while going over rough patches. It sounds as if the damper is not working. The cam wears out with in 100 Kms after this noise starts. Could it be because of a damaged Wheel Knuckle/Hub? Also as I mentioned in my previous post OEM top mount nuts are replaced with custom made nuts and welded to the body. Could few mm offset from the OEM readings at the top cause this? Any suggestions? I am at wit's end. Please help!!

Thanks for the suggestion. You mean the trailing arm that run parallel to the body of the car? If yes, could it be because the arm is damaged somehow? However, I haven't noticed any visible damages on it so far. I remember once the mechanic struggled a bit to connect the rear end of the arm to the wheel knuckle. Thanks once again.

Hello Everyone, This is my first post here. Hoping someone would put an end to my misery. Sorry for the lengthy post. I have to give the complete history for anyone to understand the problem better. I bought a 2002 Mondeo Ghia Duratec MK3 two years back with 30K miles on it. After I bought the car got suspension overhauled completely. The following parts were replaced - Struts, Springs, ARB, ARB Bushes, ARB Links, Lower Arms at both front and rear. The car felt good to drive but I always had a feeling that there was some extra body movement at the rear left wheel area while going over rough roads. I continued to drive the car some time. Soon the mild shakes developed into full fledged knocks and the car handled very poorly. I began visiting the local Ford dealers on a regular basis but they couldn't solve the problem. In the meantime, the rear left strut had to be replaced for every 1000 miles due to excessive wear. This cycle went on for some time and one fine day a Ford technician told me that the top mount nuts of both rear mounts have worn out. These nuts are welded to the Chassis and can not be accessed. So I cut open the metal plates that cover the top of the mounts and weld out the OE nuts and replaced them with custom made nuts on both sides. The top mount wear happened due to the goof up done by the dealer. They added a plastic bush between the two halves of top mount and the strut shaft has to pass through the bush. The bush held the strut shaft tight and it had just enough clearance for the shaft to move up and down. But the OE design allows the strut to move sideways to some extent. Since bush was not allowing the strut to move sideways, it put lot of stress on the top mount bolts and stripped off threads inside the nuts. But the suspension problem remained and I soon realized that the suspension behaved well for few hundred miles after performing a wheel alignment. It didn't take long to identify the root cause of this mess - worn out cam bolt and washer. I got them replaced and was hoping that this would put an end to all my suspension woes. But the problems continued and my car ate up few more struts. I then got the entire suspension stripped out and inspected every part for any visible damages. On a closer inspection I found that the groves on the rear subframe that hold the cam in place were worn out. So I got the rear subframe replaced. When I test drove the car, the rear of the car behaved much worse than before. The rear end wobbled and it felt as if someone stood behind the car and shook it from left to right and vice versa. The Cam bolt worn out quickly once again and as a result the subframe groove also got knocked out. I then came to know that the dealer had replaced only the bolts and used old washers which were already worn out. So I once again got a new sub frame and made sure they replaced both cam bolt and washer on either side. The test drive after the work was heart breaking as the symptoms persisted and both cam bolt and washer at the rear left side have already worn out. I don't know what else to do now. I really don't want to sell the car as I have spent lot of money on it and the overall condition of the car except the rear left suspension is excellent. Even if I want to sell the car no one would buy it due to the problem. It looks like, for some unknown reason, the rear left wheel does not want to stay at the Ford specified alignment setting and tries to move to some other orientation. This puts lot of stress on the on Cam and causes it to wear out. I suspect the wheel tries to move out since the wear on the bolt is always on the left side i.e. on the outer edge. The only element that is not replaced is the wheel hub and the rear right never caused any problem and it is fine. As far as I know, there is no history of body damage or rear ending. The car is currently with the Ford dealer and they promised to put it on a Chassis aligner to check for any damages. Could someone please tell me what is wrong with my car and how to solve this mystery problem? I would be very grateful for any help offered. Please help me to save my Mondeo.