Hi Again.

My X-type has noticeable camber in the rear wheels. Ive had it 4 wheel aligned and they said their is nothing they can about it becouse the car has "settled".

Question is how do i fix this settling problem? Will new shocks or springs fix this or will it be something else


Thanks

Eric

 

Eric, with our cars, you will probably find that the bushings in the upper track arm are worn, leading to some play there. This will cause the wheels to lean in. Granted, you may also find that with saggy springs, the wheels will lean in slightly too. New shocks will not help this situation at all. I am doing a bit of looking around and I may be on to something. Just need to get my hands on a 2000-2005 Ford Focus to get a few measurements.

 

keep me posted on the focus. not sure if your saying the parts may be interchangeable or not. In the mean time ill look into pricing the bushings and springs

Thanks

eric

 

ok looking at the blow up at jaguarparts. i dont see the bushings but i do see a couple parts that may be what you are talking about.

one is the upper control arm, and the other is the lateral arm. would either of these descriptions match the upper track arm?

 

is there a lot of camber or not because most cars will have neg rear camber that is a bit noticible

 

Yes quite a bit looking at it. i think the allignment sheet showed -4 on both sides. ill see if i could take a look today at the sheet and see.

ive never seen camber like this in any car..... well maybe the 1983 chevy corsica with the 110ac air conditioner strapped in the side window and gas generator bolted to the trunk...lol



Just another thought, if it were the bushings, would they have found them bad during their inspection at the alignment?

 

akrainey, as for the alignment shop not finding the bad bushings, one would think, but it wouldn't be the first shop that looks at a car like ours and just doesn't want to deal with it, so, they send you on your merry way just saying that it needs something done to fix the bad rear camber.

As for the part in question, you are after the upper control arm.

 

Thermo, Thanks for the clarification of the part.

ill probably just order new springs and the uca's to install at once just to be done with it.

Thanks

Eric

 

Food for thought: Apologetically, The Ford Focus is nowhere near what you are looking for. The Mazda6 and the Ford Contour both share more cross-referenced parts for the x-type. The Mazda6 is so similar I was even able to utilize an ECU re-map from one for my 1st X-type I owned. The Mercury Mystique is a Ford Contour, and so is a 1999+ Mercury Cougar. Hope that is helpful information.

 

J Bond, thanks for the info. I was looking into the Focus since I know that they sell an adjustable rear upper control arm for it. I was figuring that if I could make that work, it might be a good option for the rest of us. I will have to look into the cars you mentioned and see what adjustable stuff I can find there.

 

Thermo, as always keep me updated on that project you're working on.