sgking

thanks tony.

result: must have been quick and easy as was only 25 quid...

after refitting, and later that night i could hear a faint rattle from the other side! so off it came yesterday, same thing, top nut loose and rubber dohnut at a slant. tightened it up and refitted and now is a lovley quite, stiff, ride. 10am tomorrow i am booked in for my geo. happy days. thanks for help.

ok, fixed it (i think) previous owner had not fitted the dohnut rubber gasket (between the top mount and retaining nut) flat and that is what was causing the top mouint to not sit flat in the strut tower. upgraded my drop links to m12 bolt whilst i was there.

thanks for your replies. coil is correct way up, and yes they do have the rubber sleeves, I will check that that side is not missing. I must admit I didnt look to see if it was there, like. ye first thing I did was curse myself for 'forgetting to tighten the two top mounting bolts'.... but nope they are nice and tight as I checked and nipped them up a bit more. so.... the strut top mount frame is bolted to the car, the strut is bolted to the hub, this means the play can ONLY be coming from the actual top mount rubber doesn't it? they looked really nice though... im going to be taking it off again tomorrow and taking apart and rebuilding it myself to make sure, this should let me know what is up... PITA. Thansk

hi thanks for your replies, I appreciate it. no sadly not, on the saloon there is not even enough room to get the spax tightening knob in!, and sadly no room for a socket either- crap really. I suppose I could get the grinder out but would rather not bodge the rear shelf! Hi no, no gasket between top mount and car body on mondeo mk2's. I was comparing both sides last night and the threaded parts are both the same length, poking into the car. I have driven car to work today, its not horrendous on the trunk rd, but the b-roads are quite, quite bad, its more a severe rattle/knocking. what can cause this play then, I think im going to have it off on the weekend, be good to know what to look for. Thanks again.

if i sit in the boot loading area and jump up and down a bit, with my fingers in the hole of the strut tower, (inside the boot) i can feel a bit of play on the adjuster knob at the top, only a few mm but enough to cause all sorts of noises...

snapped my 2nd spring in about 6 weeks, so decided to fit my spax kit on all 4 corners. all good apart from passenger rear shock makes a hell of a noise. its all done up tightly, the noise come from the top mount area as i go over uneven road, proper horrible noises! i didnt check the top mount prior to fitting, i assumed it was good, it looked nice and fresh anyway, despite being second hand. any ideas what could be going wrong? thanks

ah I was hoping youd suggest them! was looking on tyrereviews last night and seemed a very good choice! Thanks very much, need some by Thursday so will be getting them tomorrow or wed.Thanks again both

thanks for your time guys. makes me feel better knowing that theres not much wrong with my car, its just shocking to have gone through a set of fronts so quickly! im so impressed by these sessantas but i cannot justify 2 or more sets a year...is there a more hard wearing tyre out there that performs well and has a goodlooking tread?

Ok heres a chronology, to make things clearer: 1. summer 2013 - many suspension components renewed and all new nuts and bolts, adjusters etc front and back 2. Nov 2013 full geo 3. Dec 2013 wheel bearing went on passenger side, so replacement (old) hub fitted - no adverse tyre wear thank god, so all good. 4. Jan 2015 2 x Sessantas fitted up front 5. April 2015 Snapped spring passenger side so replacement (old) spring fitted (exactly same part as old) 6. June 2015 - checked my front tyres and here they are after 5 months and 5000 miles: Drivers front no real unevern wear issues..just worn down to within 2mm of bald, slight wear on outside, as you can see Passenger front - basically gone really, especially on the outside Im mostly concerned with the wear rate, but you think I need geo done again? will i be able to do just the front geo or will it all ahve to be redone again? Thanks

the positive is they are proper good but christ ive never had such serious wear from a tyre? ill try photobucket then

ok i have been out to take pics but there doesnt seem to be an option to upload? anyway drivers is within a couple mm of dead! passebgers is basically dead on outside, with couple mm to go on inside. despite the uneven wear, its how quick the tyres have worn out that shocks me?? the rears have been on a while and are ok...

Ok scrap what i said above re my current good tyre wear, I think i have to revise. As said, full geo done nov 2013. changed hub on driver side shortly after due to wheel bearing, and changed spring on passenger side couple weeks ago. I have vredstein sessanta's all round and rears are fine, however i have just checked the fronts which were new in late January, and they have worn terribly after covering only 5000 miles! are these tyres made out of plasticine or what?! I do use 3rd gear in the corners but im no maniac... Ill have to get some pics up... i guess i need the geo done again!? Thanks

Meyle or Lemforder eh, Ive just searched them, sounds like these are the brands I have been looking for tbh. Its always delphi and first line that i have chosen as i thought they were the best, but seems the audi and bmw world uses these. thanks for that. I will probably buy them tbh, as its a lot of work if a cheapo bearing fails for example. The spax vsx struts/springs kit i have is hardly used and the seller didnt tell me how low they go. the codes on the springs are : SPAX SO11045 which appears to be -35mm according to these: http://www.dcperformance.co.uk/cheap/303474/ford/spax-lowering-springs/s011045.html so after you lowered yours, did you do the geo and still end up with wear? I have only done the geo once in nov 2013 (Hunter) and its the first time i have had good tyre wear, id hate to sacrifice it!!

ok i have i have a full set of spax vsx shocks spring combos to go on. i cant fit them right now as i currently live on a farm and the drive is terrible, but i live in hope for oneday being able to fit them! anyway apart from that, they have the eibach camber adjusters fitted. Now i have been on meg/talkford for 10 years+ and have read about these snapping the piston bolt etc, so i dont really want to fit them. so i have 2 q's. 1.To remove them do i just buy new strut top mounts? any brand favourable? 2. Without the camber adjusters will these spax shocks/springs give me dodgy tyre wear (i will defo be getting geo done immediatley after fitting). Thanks

thats such a good point. I will always enquire beforehand now that I know that. Thanks Tony.

thanks. sadly i dont think i can go back to ford, as the guy wasnt impressed when i was asking for the triangulation readings and he didnt know what they were. The conversation escalated quite quickly. I will try the independant tyre place that also has hunters machine, but it depends when is the next time i go to that town as its quite far away. Just hope my tyre doesnt wear too much and then i can buy 2 new whilst i am there aswell.

ok thanks. yes apart from the bearing grumbling and grinding like mad, there wasnt much destruction in it, it wasnt falling apart at all when tbh and i thought it would be. there was definitly resistance when trying to spin the bit that connects the wheel though. Ok well i will go get another reading of that corner then and see what they say. Hopefully theuy do it for £20 odd. Thanks vey much

Hi sorry for big delay. I did check the hub and strut for any signs of bending etc and couodnt find any. I used a ruler to check for straighness. Anyway the plot thickens, my wheel bearing (surprise, surprise) died on that corner straight away and so I have fitted a new hub just this weekend and its alot nicer! I hope it was simply the wheel bearing that will have thrown out the camber as some people have told me that. Anyway, so now my question is - will I have knocked out the geo further again by replacing the hub? I removed shock/hub and separated on bench and reinstalled? and can a geo shop do just the one corner for say £20??i dont fancy paying £70 to have it all done when no need. Thanks

ok weell the garage rung back. Mechanic confirms all reading taken have been supplied. said he had hell of a job doing my car because all my new parts had knocked it out 8mm on the rear and 20mm on the front, and he had to keep re-adjusting before he could get it on the hunter. He does not know why the drivers front is out of alignment. So, not much help sadly.

ok will do and will report back. Thanks

Oh right i see. ok so i will ask for the geometary report, is that not what i have posted in post No1? that has a box for SAI but they have not put the results in? Will they still have the SAI results on their systems do you think?Or will I get an excuse over the phone do you think? Ok i will check the hub and strut asap - one eve this week. i actually was loking at it yesterday and i couldnt see any cracks or stress areas. I will look again though. took her for a spin today and it drives great, straight, tight, no clunks now - only if i blip throttle when going slow i get some little clunks - they feel more engine/transmission though. - i have solid PU transmission roll restrictors fitted too. its annoying me now haha

ok well all nuts bolts are torqued correctly, nothing looked out of place, bent, loose - all nice and tight. The disc wasnt sitting perfectly on the hub, so i took the disc and caliper off to check the hub bearing for play but i could not find any. I looked at the back of the brake disc, at the mating surface to the hub, and it had big flakes of rust forming and flaking which i think could very well be the reason for brake judder, and the clunking noises ive been hearing as the disc was not mated to the hub perfectly. yet to take it for a spin but seems much tighter. would i be right in assuming this would prevent accurate tracking to be done? those flakes of rust were 2mm at worst, and one could have been trapped.

ford garage had my car for 3.5 hours too! the other 4 wheel alignment place, (that i didnt attend because they couldnt fit me in at short notice), said because id fitted new bolts and track rods etc, they could set my car up in half hour on their hunter machine.