Mondeo Steering Tracking

Take it to a garage. It's typically =A330 and they'll tell you if it's OK= =20 to begin with in case something else is causing the wear.=20

Also remember it's most likely the trackrod ends are seized and need=20 some heat on them to free them.

--=20 Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

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In message , Scott Bowers writes

Most tyre places will check the tracking for free. They will obviously charge for adjusting.

One of the most common causes of tyre wear on the Mondeo is a mis-aligned subframe. This is disturbed during a clutch change and needs the proper alignment tool which a lot of non Ford garages don't have.

My Mondeo (not the OP) has started to wear the outside inch on the nearside front tyre. They've been fine for about 5,000 miles, wearing evenly.

Any ideas? They're all inflated to 30psi, as it says here for a '96 2.0GLX:

Gunsons Trakrite (or some other such dodgy spelling) is a "drive-over" DIY tracking gauge. I bought one a few weeks ago as I had 2 cars that needed the tracking setting.

The gauge was £65 from tools-by-post and works suprisingly well, but when I checked the Locost, it turned out that the tracking was perfect, I'd set it a couple of weeks before using a lash-up of wood and string :) So, it's possible to set the tracking without a gauge, just a bit more fiddly.

Exactly the same symptoms as me, my Mondeo has started to scrub the outer inch of the N/S tyre, wh

Does it also track front to rear?

--=20 Conor

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Does it also track front to rear?

Sorry Conor, you'll have to explain :) Basically, you drive over the gauge and it tells you how far off zero degrees tracking it is, it doesn't tell you the angle in degrees.

Think he means can it measure the angle of the front wheels in relation to the rear ones.

MattF

No, you just drive over the gauge with the steering in the straight ahead position

but it does enable you to centre your steering wheel :) Whenever I get my car's tracking done by a garage, the steering wheel seems to be even more off centre, not when I do it though :)

Roundabouts, and lots of them?

I've *heard* outer shoulder wear on Mk 2 Mondeo is normal.

Mine certainly did it the entire time I had the car.

Pete.

No more than usual, and I tend to straighten them out a lot anyway ;-)

I suppose the fact I've been doing 750 miles a week for the last month instead of 150 has made the wear patterns show up much more quickly

I guess fairly wide tyres (195) plus power steering plus FWD can have that effect too.

My Supra was much worse. Power steering, 225/50s and RWD (plus a more joyful attitude to driving) tended to make the front tyres scrub the edges quite quickly.

So it does 2 wheel tracking. Only downside with that is that you can=20 sometimes end up with a car that crabs down the road. Still, OK as a=20 tool for checking and minor adjustment.

--=20 Conor

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Does it also track front to rear?

It's surprising at how accurately you can check tracking from front to rear by use of a length of cord. A plank can also be used if you have one, but IME a cord is almost as good. It'll certainly show up any error worthy of concern. The same method can also be used to check front tracking and toe- in for excessive errors, but it's questionable if it's quite accurate enough to set the toe-in to the makers figures. Mike.

I have had that before and i drive it straight back in and get them to do it properly - not paying £20+ to have to drive down the road with the SW 30-40 degrees off centre!!

MattF

I think he means does it compare all tyre angles, including thrust angle, rear toe etc.

If youre driving an average and unadjustable motor i dont see a problem with just setting the fronts but some cars have adjustable rears too. When i threw mine on a 4 wheel laser alignment setup (=A32?+VAT) they found the fronts WAY out and one of the rears fairly fair out too, as well as rear camber a bit odd. I expected this having just done a complete suspension strip and rebuild but it was nice to know *all* angles were correct and it transformed the driving experience even compared to before i did the stripdown.