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Question on abnormal tire wear and front suspension 700 1988

posted by landon on Fri May 30 02:37 CST 2003
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last visit: Sun May 20 02:14 CST 2001

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Noticed something strange on my '88 744GLE this week and am looking for some validation of my diagnosis.

Historically, this car has had no problems with alignment or strange tire wear. The last set of Michelins I put on lasted exceptionally long. Now I am finding that just the front driver's side tire is wearing abnormally. It appears that it is scrubbing the outside edge which is now wearing very fast. The passenger side front tire appears to be wearing fine. I've not hit any hard bumps lately to adjust the alignment and the car tracks straight.

On the last oil change (~2 months ago) I rotated the tires and "upgraded" to polyurethane sway bar bushings and strut rod bushings. Since that time, the car has handled fine but the steering felt just a bit more "squirrelly" than before. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Now that, combined with the tire wear, is leading me to believe something was screwed up on the bushing replacement. The sway bar bushings are pretty standard and were installed correctly by putting load on prior to tightening. The strut rod bushings, likewise, were put in correctly.

The only thing I can think of is that the urethane strut rod bushings (purchased off of eBay and maker unidentified) are not the correct type/size for the car. It would seem to me that if they were somehow too small (in length) that it would allow the tire to sort of tilt out at the top and cause the outside edge to scrub. Does this make any sense at all?

Was planning on dropping by the dealer to pick up a new set of factory strut rod bushings to install this weekend. Would like to get a sense if this would be a waste of time. Thanks for any assistance/opinions.

Landon
'96 965
'94 855T
'88 744

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Question on abnormal tire wear and front suspension 700 1988

posted by rmagoo on Fri May 30 03:29 CST 2003
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i seriously doubt the urethane bushings are causing the wear. sometimes when you tighten up an old suspension, some of the other parts will fatigue and wear out quickly. take a close look at your ball joints or maybe the steering rods on the rack. did you do an alignment after the work was done?

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Question on abnormal tire wear and front suspension 700 1988

posted by landon on Fri May 30 03:44 CST 2003
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last visit: Sun May 20 02:14 CST 2001

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Thanks for the quick reply! Agreed when you tighten up an old suspension, it seems that something else tends to give. Ball joints were replaced ~5 months ago. Tire wear was not an issue, and the car drove fine in the time between the ball joints and bushing replacement. Tie rods are in good shape and the ends are tight. Granted, it has been years since they have been replaced. An alignment has not been done to the car since all of this work was done.

Not disputing your view, but out of curiosity, why discount the strut rod bushings? It would seem that if they are improperly sized, it would cause the other components to be out of line. Like I said, just curious. Thanks again!

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