Help me diagnose my suspension issues

Morbius · 29 Apr 2012 at 17:11

Hi all,

I have a 2005 Ford Focus Mk 2 that's done about 65,000 miles. I've been having some suspension issues recently that I'd like to find the cause of. I'm not an expert mechanic but I like to do whatever I can.

The problem started when I hit a pothole that caused a slow puncture. I got the tyre replaced at ATS, but afterwards there was a bit of a vibration through the steering wheel. It was near its service so when I dropped it off at the garage I asked them to have a look at it for me. They told me that a wheel was slightly out of balance and they'd balanced it. I thought that would be the end of it, but the vibration was still there.

During the recent rain, I hit a pothole that was disguising itself as a puddle. Immediately afterwards it felt as though things had changed. The vibration is more noticeable and the steering feels a bit wallowy when turning left. It also feels a little bit vague.

Near where I live there is a billiard-table smooth piece of road that was recently resurfaced and the vibration goes away when driving over that, so I think the problem is more likely to be in the suspension than a wheel.

I thought it might be a track rod end so I jacked the car up and tried to shake the left front wheel but it felt as though there wasn't much play in it. I took the wheel off to have a look at the suspension and I couldn't see anything obviously faulty. This leads me to wonder - is it the shock absorber itself which is on the way out? Any ideas that you might have would be appreciated as I'm very much self-taught and I might have missed something.

sovietspybob · 29 Apr 2012 at 17:52

To me that sounds more like a buckled wheel?

[Darkend]Viper · 29 Apr 2012 at 17:57

Could be a buckled wheel, or some bent suspension component. It could have knocked the alignment out.

My first port of call would be to have the tracking done. And see if it's out, mine was and it caused vibration at anything from 30mph upwards.

Fuzz · 29 Apr 2012 at 18:02

if it's gone wallowey either the damper has died or you've broken a spring or even a drop link.
If the steering is skew whiff now, then you have without doubt bent a component, might not be dangerous, or easy to spot, so as said, wheel alignment is the first port of call with a note to say check over components on that side of the car..

Vibration is probably still the wheel out of balance because it's bent.
You can either get it straightened or get a new wheel and get that balanced.
It could still be just balancing despite having it looked at a couple of times.
I've had cars in where the customer is adamant it isn't balancing as he's "been to three different garages to have it balanced..
I balanced them on our decent machine (spins faster than most new kit these days) Problem vanished.

Also check the tyre more carefully, if you've mushed the sidewall in the pothole this can cause a bulge on the tyre and put it out of round, not only will it cause the vibration, it'll also be pretty dangerous to drive if the sidewall plies have broken.

Morbius · 29 Apr 2012 at 20:03

Fuzz said:
if it's gone wallowey either the damper has died or you've broken a spring or even a drop link.
If the steering is skew whiff now, then you have without doubt bent a component, might not be dangerous, or easy to spot, so as said, wheel alignment is the first port of call with a note to say check over components on that side of the car..

The steering isn't skew-whiff, so I don't think anything is bent. I had a look on that side of the car and I couldn't see anything obviously wrong. The spring looked intact, as did the drop link which makes me think that the shock might be the issue.

The vibration might well be the wheel - I'll have another look at it.

Brookert · 29 Apr 2012 at 22:34

A shock absorber on the way out makes the car bounce under load on that particular shock.

I suspect buckled wheel. Got a spare you can chuck on to test?

Morbius · 30 Apr 2012 at 09:30

Brookert said:
A shock absorber on the way out makes the car bounce under load on that particular shock.

I suspect buckled wheel. Got a spare you can chuck on to test?

Unfortunately the spare is one of those space saver wheels.

The wheel might be the cause of the vibration, but I think I might actually have two separate problems. The steering is a little bit wallowy on left hand turns and there's more body roll than normal. I don't see how a dented wheel could cause that.

Morbius · 30 Apr 2012 at 15:14

The more I'm reading, the more I'm convinced that there is something up with the strut. I think shocks and springs on both front corners followed by alignment and wheel balancing might be the way to go.

Morbius · 19 May 2012 at 21:43

Right, I'll quickly sum up how I fixed things in case someone ends up here with a similar problem.

I bought two new KYB Excel-G struts for the front along with two new KYB coil springs. I removed the struts only to find that the nearside strut mount had seen better days and really ought to be replaced. Unfortunately I didn't have a replacement and needed the use of the car so I reassembled it as best as I could and fitted it with the replacement strut. The wallowy steering was now fixed but there was now a clunking noise that would occur over certain bumps. I think the act of disturbing the mount during the fitting of the new strut just exacerbated its problems.

One internet order later and I was in the possession of two new strut mounts and replacements for all the plastic bits. I fitted everything today and the situation is much improved. The clunk has gone and the vibration through the steering wheel has also disappeared. I'm really pleased as I thought the vibration might have been a separate issue.

The moral of the story is this - if you're doing work on a bit of the car that is difficult to access and there are parts that you can replace then replace them or they'll probably come back to bite you in the backside.