'99 Windstar gaining negative camber on drivers side only

Hi,

I have a 99 Windstar with about 93 K miles. When it had around 45 K miles I picked up some of the 2002 designed Ford front struts and replaced them, it got rid of the "floaty" feeling the car had. I did upper strut mounts, and the strut bearings, at the same time, using newer design FoMoCo parts when avialable.

In doing this, I carefully checked the camber of both wheels before and after the strut replacement. Both sides remained between -0.9 and -1.0. Note that I check camber using a digital level (Craftsman or Maclenburg, from Sears) and a peice of window brickmold cut to the right length to pick up the rim edge on top and bottom. This acts as a spacer so the level does not hit the body.

Fast forward to today. The car has had gradually louder clunking from the front suspension, and some inner tire wear that I originally attributed to a pulled belt. Was looking at it and the drivers side front tire seemed to have too much camber. Sure enough, it is around -1.9, while the passenger side is at -1.0. I do recall carefully stage torquing the strut to spindle mounting bolts.

I jacked up each side of the car tonight to do the "shake test", was able to pick up some play in the inner/outer tie rods (despite Ford replacing both outers under warranty at 40 K miles). Twisting the tie rods on both sides indicate that I'll likely do both inners and outers. Hopefully this will dimish the whine the power steering has when turning left at an intersection.

The passenger wheel felt solid on the "push/pull" top/bottom of tire shake test. The drivers die had an almost impreceptable creak when I did the same. Very hard to tell if this is nothing, a wheel bearing (turned smoothly) or maybe a lower ball joint.

Any advice or experience appreciated as I just bought new tires, and its getting time to mount the fronts.


Wiswind and others, thanks for THE PLACE to find Windstar tech, have read these forums the past few years.

LTDzak

Assuming no impact on the wheel that would have bent the strut assembly ... (this happens) ... I would fault the hub bearings. But lower joints are also a possibility ... probably best to do 'em both.

12ounce, thanks much for the reply. We did hit a couple of monster potholes during a trip to Philly last April.

How would I check for a bent strut? I tried bouncing the car on both front corners, it seemed as though the drivers side (problem camber side) was ever so slightly stiffer.

Can I put a straightedge on the lower strut tube (w/wheel off, supported on jackstand, etc.)

Anyone know?

LTDzak

There are members here who are very experienced mechanics.
Others, like me, are just the DIY type.
In my case, I would be heading to a shop with good front end alignment equipment, and the tech's that know how to use it.

The only thing that I can speak to on your problem is the "clunk" you are hearing. Many members here have discussed and experienced something like this that involves the tensioner strut having a failure where it connects to the front subframe. I am not sure if it applies to your year. My 95 make something suspicious like this, a boink/clunk, but as it is intermittent, and I hope it's not in need of fixing, I will wait to investigate. Try searching for front clunk at the top of this page on the bar of choices.