- Joined
- May 15, 2015
- Messages
- 1
- Points
- 1,501
- Vehicle Year
- 2005
- Transmission
- Manual
Aloha!
I have a '05 Ford Ranger FX4-1, about 55K miles. I noticed a knocking sound in my front suspension, and the steering response was crappy. Figured out it was my sway bar link bushings.
That was fixed, but in doing so I noticed that I am having accelerated wear on the inside tread of both of my front tires. Just the inside third of the width of the tire.
My mechanic said he did not think the bad sway bar link bushings would do that to the tires. He said maybe it needs an alignment, or it's just the geometry of the (somewhat taller than stock, almost 31's BFG T/A KO iirc) tire or possibly worn ball-joints.
Also, my torsion bar was improperly adjusted, with my front passenger side sitting a little lower than the other side - again he said that probably wouldn't cause the tire wear. Don't know who messed with the torsion bar. It's never been in for suspension work.
The shocks probably need to be replaced as well, 10 years old. The mechanic said they were replacements already, but I bought the truck less than a year old and have never changed them. I think the FX4 model comes with upgraded shocks (though I would expect they are still OEM models).
It's no farm truck, but it gets used. I go off-road (rocky trails) with hundreds of pounds of equipment in the bed. I live on a curvy road. When there is no equipment, I might be known to take corners a bit fast... I can't say I'm great about watching tire pressure but I tend to keep them filled a bit higher than my manual calls for, about 36 instead of 30psi. I have about a mile of rocky road that I drive each day.
So, alignment? Check for bad ball joints? Not sure where I should start.
In the mean time I'll get them rotated/aligned/new shocks but I don't really like the idea of chewing through $250 tires.
Any favorite shock manufacturers? Nothing too fancy. I assume I should I get them changed at the same time as/before rotation and alignment?
Mahalo for any ideas!
I have a '05 Ford Ranger FX4-1, about 55K miles. I noticed a knocking sound in my front suspension, and the steering response was crappy. Figured out it was my sway bar link bushings.
That was fixed, but in doing so I noticed that I am having accelerated wear on the inside tread of both of my front tires. Just the inside third of the width of the tire.
My mechanic said he did not think the bad sway bar link bushings would do that to the tires. He said maybe it needs an alignment, or it's just the geometry of the (somewhat taller than stock, almost 31's BFG T/A KO iirc) tire or possibly worn ball-joints.
Also, my torsion bar was improperly adjusted, with my front passenger side sitting a little lower than the other side - again he said that probably wouldn't cause the tire wear. Don't know who messed with the torsion bar. It's never been in for suspension work.
The shocks probably need to be replaced as well, 10 years old. The mechanic said they were replacements already, but I bought the truck less than a year old and have never changed them. I think the FX4 model comes with upgraded shocks (though I would expect they are still OEM models).
It's no farm truck, but it gets used. I go off-road (rocky trails) with hundreds of pounds of equipment in the bed. I live on a curvy road. When there is no equipment, I might be known to take corners a bit fast... I can't say I'm great about watching tire pressure but I tend to keep them filled a bit higher than my manual calls for, about 36 instead of 30psi. I have about a mile of rocky road that I drive each day.
So, alignment? Check for bad ball joints? Not sure where I should start.
In the mean time I'll get them rotated/aligned/new shocks but I don't really like the idea of chewing through $250 tires.
Any favorite shock manufacturers? Nothing too fancy. I assume I should I get them changed at the same time as/before rotation and alignment?
Mahalo for any ideas!
