Still having suspension issues, what to check next?

[FiestaSTdude]

I dig it, and hopefully getting it on the new mount should be easy? I saw one thread about someone having to bore it a little bigger to fit on the vt mount but I'm guessing the mallet should do the trick both ways?

When I was changing the rmm on my focus, I spent a surprising amount of time hitting it with a mallet. Same thing with the control arms, sometimes a hammer and brute force is your friend lol.
Seriously though, the Fiesta RMM is a pretty easy job and there are tons of YouTube videos on it.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

I dig it, and hopefully getting it on the new mount should be easy? I saw one thread about someone having to bore it a little bigger to fit on the vt mount but I'm guessing the mallet should do the trick both ways?

You want it press fit/ tight*. When you put it on the new mount and torque it down....it will pull it onto the new RMM.

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

 

[mosephuss]

When I was changing the rmm on my focus, I spent a surprising amount of time hitting it with a mallet. Same thing with the control arms, sometimes a hammer and brute force is your friend lol.
Seriously though, the Fiesta RMM is a pretty easy job and there are tons of YouTube videos on it.

Sounds good, that's how I got my control arms in place too. If I've learned anything from Jeremy Clarkson it's that a hammer (mallet here) is sometimes the best tool.
Luckily I've done the RMM before so I'm fairly familiar with the rest.

 

[unclefester]

Out of interest when you fitted the new arms / bushes / suspension did you tighten/torque things up with the car in the air or when it was on the ground with the suspension loaded?

 

[Sam4]

Out of interest when you fitted the new arms / bushes / suspension did you tighten/torque things up with the car in the air or when it was on the ground with the suspension loaded?

It's a great question, and an even better engineering strategy, but what choice do 90% of us have? I cant get my nose under my stock height car.....

 

[unclefester]

That's why you take it to a ramp shop or drop it onto big wooden planks. If you bolt it up without it under normal load then this skittish behaviour is exactly what you'll get. Never mind that you'll wear stuff out faster.

Not saying that's the case here and not all of us are blessed with an indoor inspection pit - I'm ever thankful for the use of ours.

 

[Sam4]

hmmm....'indoor inspection pit'...."it rubs the lotion over it's skin"....I'm skert!!

 

[TyphoonFiST]

hmmm....'indoor inspection pit'...."it rubs the lotion over it's skin"....I'm skert!!

Yeap...

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

 

[unclefester]

Yeah. My wife's late father was a car nut. The house we inherited has an oversize double garage. Sink with H&C water, toilet, inspection pit and proper roof joists for attaching pulley lifts.

The amount of garage/ workshop space is one of the reasons we've stayed put.

 

[Sam4]

Well, I ran into some not-proper accommodations, compounded by insufficient hammer blows. I was going to swap out the plastic top hat strut mount - convinced they're cracked like a baseball bat. Disassembly was ok, don't have what I needed to crack the top strut nut, back into the car, cant get the strut yoke and hub back together. 1 bolt only. Shit. Now I have a medical complication, wife is home alone with a phone...shit, tow truck called...*update - ass-ploded the inner CV Joint. Replacement on the (f^cking) way.

 

[mosephuss]

Out of interest when you fitted the new arms / bushes / suspension did you tighten/torque things up with the car in the air or when it was on the ground with the suspension loaded?

Yeah, I use a pole jack to load the suspension while it's in the air. I did that for every nut/bolt except for the top 3 strut nuts which I'm going to re-adjust tomorrow when I'm doing everything.

 

[Intuit]

What you've described sounds a lot like you're driving one of these...

broken tie rod end replaced

Why was this broken? Did someone hit a curb in it? Reason I ask is they're designed to generate a lot knocking/warning noises well before the point of catastrophic failure. It's not unusual that tie-rod end failures end up causing wrecks.

Experiences with a prior car...

Shattered aftermarket Moog brand ball joint - caused intermittent vague steering feel. It was particularly vulnerable to changes in the road, such as ruts, crowns. Even though it was shattered, jacking it up and push/pulling on the bottom of the tire/wheel did nothing. Couldn't verify that it was shattered until I unbolted it from the control arm... at which point the lower half of it plopped to the garage floor.

Control arm bushings - I had replaced stock silicon/rubber control arm bushings with polyurethane. Real nice ride. It was like getting a new suspension. Pressed in, but they didn't stay put. In addition to a knocking noise, there would be a sudden shift in steering that would require a little correctional input; not unlike the ball joint issue above.

Broken sway-bar end links - No real issues. Just a lot of body lean.

Alignment issue - Created a rough ride, bump-steer, steering/handling was a little different in one direction versus the other.

Some of the issues you described like torque steer (especially over uneven road) and tramlining are to a degree, normal. But I understand you're saying it's far worse than before the spinout.

It is definitely possible to have more than one issue, BUt if ball joints, control arms bushings, control arms have no impact, may want to have a reputable frame shop rule out chassis damage.

EDIT: BTW, both tie-rod end links should've been replaced. With some exception, you treat both sides the same on a car.

 

[mosephuss]

What you've described sounds a lot like you're driving one of these...
View attachment 49248



Why was this broken? Did someone hit a curb in it? Reason I ask is they're designed to generate a lot knocking/warning noises well before the point of catastrophic failure. It's not unusual that tie-rod end failures end up causing wrecks.

Experiences with a prior car...

Shattered aftermarket Moog brand ball joint - caused intermittent vague steering feel. It was particularly vulnerable to changes in the road, such as ruts, crowns. Even though it was shattered, jacking it up and push/pulling on the bottom of the tire/wheel did nothing. Couldn't verify that it was shattered until I unbolted it from the control arm... at which point the lower half of it plopped to the garage floor.

Control arm bushings - I had replaced stock silicon/rubber control arm bushings with polyurethane. Real nice ride. It was like getting a new suspension. Pressed in, but they didn't stay put. In addition to a knocking noise, there would be a sudden shift in steering that would require a little correctional input; not unlike the ball joint issue above.

Broken sway-bar end links - No real issues. Just a lot of body lean.

Alignment issue - Created a rough ride, bump-steer, steering/handling was a little different in one direction versus the other.

Some of the issues you described like torque steer (especially over uneven road) and tramlining are to a degree, normal. But I understand you're saying it's far worse than before the spinout.

It is definitely possible to have more than one issue, BUt if ball joints, control arms bushings, control arms have no impact, may want to have a reputable frame shop rule out chassis damage.

EDIT: BTW, both tie-rod end links should've been replaced. With some exception, you treat both sides the same on a car.

Yeah they've both been replaced, just at different times. One was done at Les Schwab, who I'll never be returning to again, the other was at the Ford dealership. Maybe broken isn't the correct term, but very badly worn, after a spinout when weather rapidly changed on the freeway.
Also, might have to check out a frame shop, it'd really suck if there's any chassis damage but that might be the cause. Luckily I didn't hit anything besides dig in some dirt, hopefully my car isn't that fragile.

 

[mosephuss]

Alrighty so I've gone and done the work I said I was gonna do here's what I did:

- Replaced strut/knuckle bolts and nuts since I didn't replace them the first time around, loosened top hats and tightened those after car was settled. The top hat nuts were slightly misaligned since installing the struts and now sit where the OEM struts nuts were. For the record when I first did the install I loaded the suspension for all the bolts/nuts except stupidly not the top nuts.

-Reoriented right rear spring. When installing my springs and dampers I also used powerflex spring pads and as it turns out I put them on wrong, the little locator tab on the top of the spring pad should go in the hole on the inside, I had it on the outside.

-Replaced AWR RMM with Vibratechnics RMM, I probably didn't need to replace this, AWR bushings didn't seem super worn, but polyurethane will break down eventually and the rubber bushing of vibratechnics will last longer, and it compliments the other motor mounts now. One thing I'll say is I didn't like the install of the vibratechnics mount, I wish it'd come with a bracket attached like the cp-e mount and my AWR mount did. I was worried about shearing the bolt when tightening it down to get the bracket flush with the mount, other than that the RMM is a simple 10 minute job once the car is in the air, just nitpicking.

-Rotated tires front to rear, still need to change air pressures though.

The after effects are less drastic than I thought they'd be, but the way my car drives is definitely better. I don't feel like I have to give the steering wheel a death grip when driving anymore, torque steer is still there, but reduced especially when accelerating over uneven surfaces, this was the worst because I'd hit a bump when accelerating and feel like I'm losing control. Bump steer is also still present but also reduced slightly. I think the only real negative is that there's still the feeling of slight vibrations, which honestly might just be a result of the b8 dampers and mountune springs, but I bought these with the thought that I was getting a smoother ride. Might go back to stock or b6 dampers with stock springs, but I'm just gonna keep driving it for now as it is.

I didn't have a chance to take any super hard corners, and don't wanna until I change air pressure tomorrow morning, but going around a roundabout near me it felt planted and still doesn't roll.

I do still get this wobbly thing (I'll push the car from the side right by the b pillar and it wobbles side to side a bit, but I honestly just might be overthinking that) give your cars a nudge if they do the same.

Gonna change tire pressures to their correct setting tomorrow morning and see how it behaves on the freeway, that'll be the real test if any positive change has occurred.

One last question, would you think I'd need to get it aligned again since the strut is in a slightly different spot.

 

[unclefester]

If its nervous on the freeway, what's your camber set to ... that and left / right toe. Hub nuts checked? No failed CV / driveshaft boots?

And out of interest have you checked the steering rack bolts / alignment?

If it was me I'd take it for one more full geo check just to make sure it's all pointing in the right direction.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Find another Local Fiesta ST owner in your area and let them drive your FiST. It might be all in your head*

Again * let me reiterate

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Intuit]

Again * let me reiterate

Addendum to the above: Not at all meant as an insult. Just an outside-the-box alternative thought/possibility to consider.

BTW, the rear can slide easily if the tires are over-pressure. It can be kind of fun if you enjoy that sort of thing. I rotated my front to rear and hadn't yet adjusted pressures. Fish-tail city... 😋

 

[Intuit]

I do still get this wobbly thing (I'll push the car from the side right by the b pillar and it wobbles side to side a bit, but I honestly just might be overthinking that) give your cars a nudge if they do the same.

I haven't done it, but I'm 99% certain it won't wobble. My sidewalls are a *little* larger but I'm otherwise stock and between 50/60k. I'm also 150 lbs with my boots and winter clothing on. So it's not like I'm exerting a lot of force...

 

[D1JL]

Maybe I missed it in your diagnoses, but is it possible that subframe mounting bolt got broken when you spun the car?
Also, you should check the braces.



You also said that you were going to check the steering rack mounting bolts however, I did not see that it was done.

 

[D1JL]

There is another issue that can be caused by a spin and hitting a bump or berm.
I see that you have had your car aligned more than once however, most shops do not perform a 4-wheel alignment because of the non-adjustable nature of this car.

A 4-Wheele alignment is VERY important because it can diagnose improper tracking.
You should also check the twist beam mounting bolts and bushings.