Whats wrong with that tyre? Still tread in the middle. Lol

Whats wrong with that tyre? Still tread in the middle. Lol

I think it's quite obvious what is wrong with the tyre - inner scuffing due to misalignment.

I think it's quite obvious what is wrong with the tyre - inner scuffing due to misalignment.

I was joking!!

Lost for words . . . .

Another mile or two on that & it would be see through rubber & cord. . & not a lot else

I was joking!!

Ah... Sorry, tiredness must be getting to me!!

Another mile or two on that & it would be see through rubber & cord. . & not a lot else

Indeed. I now not only check the pressures every fortnight but also THOROUGHLY inspect the treads (not just judging by the outer edge).

Dont see what the problem can be with garages doing tracking, its not difficult.

The problems arise from poor workmanship and kit in need of calibration. The garage I now use for my tracking have theirs calibrated on a regular basis, and the guys are all well trained. The fact it's a fairly small independent place with a real family feel helps.

No tracking is perfect, but when your tracking is this bad, you are appreciative of even half decent alignment...

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That was the Focus' N/S/F tyre before having the alignment done. To quote the mechanic "it was miles out". I can believe that.

I had the same issue - both front tyres almost down to the cords on the inside, and nearly perfect on the outside lol

The camber was out 7mm on each side, toe out was about 3mm out, I think. It must have been even, the car didn't pull to either side lol

The problems arise from poor workmanship and kit in need of calibration. The garage I now use for my tracking have theirs calibrated on a regular basis, and the guys are all well trained. The fact it's a fairly small independent place with a real family feel helps.

I had the same issue - both front tyres almost down to the cords on the inside, and nearly perfect on the outside lol

The camber was out 7mm on each side, toe out was about 3mm out, I think. It must have been even, the car didn't pull to either side lol

Neither did the Focus. It just growled over 40MPH and juddered along the road.

Must be a Focus thing lol

Your not wrong about poor workmanship and equipmemt, biggest problem is bonus culture in the trade, especially the larger garages, cut corners, that will do attitude, as you said smaller family run garages far better at doing job right. There is jo excusebfor getting it right and steering wheel straight(esp important with steering angle sensors )

Believe it or not I was told the tracking was 'sort of done' on the GTi6 when they couldn't undo a seized track rod...they'd tried to compensate by moving the other one more... Said to come back another day and they'd try to sort the other one with heat but it'd barely be noticeable anyway... Funny enough I didn't take up their offer and went elsewhere!!

Part of the problem is people dropping the wheel hangars...I've seen the same with torque wrenches as well... But tbh I think the main issue is lack of training and time. It often takes fine tuning and a couple of attempts to get the tracking right and the steering wheel straight but they just can't be bothered. After the Focus had been road tested the tech even parked with the wheels on angle so I wouldn't notice it was off until I drove...

Been to two major chains and one indy and none have got it right yet. After 3 attempts I still have one front inner wearing and a wonky steering wheel. Not sure why tbh, but I'm not risking it again, will have it done properly with the Hunter machine when I can afford to.

Thing is, I've done it myself, albeit the latest was 5 years ago at college, but I really don't remember it being all that difficult, just a bit time consuming!

You don't deserve any help and we're NOT obliged to answer you, I hope someone knows what's wrong with your car and when you find the answer you are looking for be grateful for their response.

We're not paid to do this. We are a bunch of car owners - enthusiastic one's at that.

However, we're not experts. Therefore, rather than give duff advice we tend to leave posts alone...beats clogging threads up with loads of "Sorry, dunno" posts.

And in addition, might be worth avoiding getting arsey and having a go at members. A look through Jamie's posts will show you that he's a good bloke and willing to help!!

Now - despite your attitude...my thoughts on your problem:

Steering locks often do engage at an off-centre angle - my Dad's Hyundai doesn't engage until the wheel is as the 9 o'clock position (thereby pointing the wheels at the kerb and hopefully preventing the car being shunted into the road should it be hit from behind). In my opinion - this is completely normal and shouldn't be cause for concern.

If the car was tracked properly then I'm inclined to agree with Jamie - binding brake. Easiest way to tell is after a drive the binding brake will emit a hellova lot of heat. Hold your hand near each wheel in turn and you're sure to find it. You may also notice a build up of brake dust on the rim.

Not so sure on defective steering component - pretty sure that would have been noticed during the other repairs.

Tracking...just because it's "within tolerance" doesn't mean it's perfect. Best tracking I've ever had done was by an old chap with an old setup in a local tyre fitters shop. I had taken it to a larger tyre & exhaust centre - with big fancy disco-looking lasers and lights everywhere. They claimed the car had a suspension fault, because despite being within limits it was still pulling to the left. (No charge). Old boy took one look at the car (which was my ex-girlfriends Fiesta) and asked which monkey had done it. With the car on the ramp you could see how badly it'd been set up even without taking any measurements

He set it up properly - didn't charge (she had big !Removed! and a cheeky smile). Car drove beautifully after that. He admitted he hates doing the Focus - apparently they're a PITA to do? Anyway, he recommended a friend at another local tyre centre - again, proper job done!

@fastlife, have you thought that the reason you're not getting help is because you are rude?

That attitude is not appreciated on our club and further occurrences will most likely end in you being generally ignored by other users.

Please and thank you are still customary and patience is a virtue.

We are all (amateur) enthusiasts here and you should remember that.

if you are that concerned about safety of your vehicle can I suggest you take it to another garage and get them to assess it?

BTW, in my experience it is often that garages do tracking alignment but do not re-centre the steering wheel which in itself is not dangerous but is lazy and annoying.

I would also say that it is likely that they may have aligned your tracking but to a boggo standard parameter rather than the correct factory values, some bias is applied to take road camber into consideration while driving but is different for each make of car.

wow no help within 15 mins from the forum at 10pm so decided to have a go because jmurry decided to delete his own post, then wonders why he gets no assistance what an attitude.well said Stoney & Sean.

Come on guys, where are our manners?

We should all be ready and fingers poised over your keyboards/screens to reply the minute a post from fastlife is seen.

Ok, ready........

Pfft.

On a serious note, be patient & adjust your attitude.

Why not ask your 'Mechanic friend' too?

My patience has exhausted with people today and this is the last straw for me, so most people will notice that this is not my standard forum tone...

Please for gods sake tell me you know what the steering lock is?!?!?!?!?

Steering wheels never lock central in my experience, you tend to pull the wheel to one side which activates the steering lock, which most of the time has a slight angle in the direction of the wheel movement. I am no expert, but that is probably what your issue is.

If the issue isnt the wheel locking, you may find it beneficial to ensure the language you use in your "help needed" thread is actually reflective of the issue you face.

Now,

On the other hand, I have been a member here for many years, and find more and more people willing to donate their time, to help me do stuff and fix my problems, with no expectations in advance. If I take the amount of time I have spent on the forums and add it up, I wouldnt be surprised if I have spent the equivalent of about 3-6 months non stop on this forum supporting members, like yourself who need it, and seeking help also. I know we all get anxious, I have dived on the forums after what seems like a complete failure of my car, clicking refresh every 30 seconds in the hope that someone has seen it and been able to offer their words of wisdom. I might even nudge it up the queue if I have seen activity on the forum elsewhere and my post has slipped, but I dont stand there and belittle the efforts of complete strangers, who do nothing more than try to understand your problem to try and give you a guiding hand to fixing the issue.

we are human, and whilst Jamie may have a picture of a fiesta as his picture, I just want to clarify that he is actually a real boy (oh look, a bit like me, I am not actually the backside end of a mondeo oddly enough!) He has tried to help you and he has misunderstood the point you made. So he has deleted his post as it made no sense to the issue. He then also apologised for his misunderstanding, and yet your rudeness will have put him off even wanting to bother.

For the record, he didn't delete your thread, he deleted the content of his reply to your thread, and did not remove your problem from the public domain, As you can tell by comments such as mine, and those above.

We welcome new members here from any area of the world, with any Ford car, or even non fords for that matter. Whilst we love to take people in, we dont like having people come in with bad attitudes and slandering the good nature of all our enthusiasts, who give nothing but their time to help others, to try and save you a bucket load of money going to a garage to get the same advice at a hefty price.

If you want to stick around, you may want to apologise, adjust your tone, and appreciate the points we have all made above. I know your car might be the world to you, but we have our own worlds and lives, and we are not on call for you personally 24 hours a day. We try to help each other and that is how we live our lives, going to work, looking after families, kids, education, crisis' and yet we still manage to pave a way to the computer, to login and help each other out.

You have misjudged our forum, and if you wish to take your misjudgement and deactivate your account, I will personally crack open a bottle. However, if you stick around and rectify your attitude, contribute and take things away as we all do, I will crack open two, and if I ever meet you, I will buy you two of your own to crack as well.

Now, I shall retire to a darkened room, where I will meditate, consume copious amounts of alcohol and wait for my stress levels to subside to a more humanly interactive level.

Mine's a large gunpowder proof Pusser's James . . . Cheers ! :)

Aaanndd breathe.... :D

Breathing is a wasted resource, by not breathing I have more time to down alcohol and get more blurry eyed...

Just watch out for my car playing ping pong on the fair roads of your neighborhood Clive :P I shall be using the excuse "Im not drunk officer, just avoiding many, many potholes"

What is this Pusser's rum, that you and Sean seem to mention a lot, and like?

And well said, James :)

SORRY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THERE HAS BEEN A HUGE MISUNDERSTANDING ! !

I couldn't understand to begin with why I was getting all this hate but now I realize why and I see it has all been a BIG misunderstanding.

I created the thread and days later still no reply and I was desperate for an answer, then THE first reply came and it read ''DELETED''. THIS IS WHERE MISUNDERSTANDING OCCURRED.

I therefore assumed that this first poster was an onsite MODERATOR, he wrote deleted and I assumed he was referring too that he had deleted my thread, then I ask him why he deleted it and he said because he ''was tired''If

it was more clear and I realized it was his own post he had deleted then I would not have really been bothered but it was just a big misunderstanding I ha

SORRY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THERE HAS BEEN A HUGE MISUNDERSTANDING ! !

I couldn't understand to begin with why I was getting all this hate but now I realize why and I see it has all been a BIG misunderstanding.

I created the thread and days later still no reply and I was desperate for an answer, then THE FIRST and it read ''DELETED''. THIS IS WHERE MISUNDERSTANDING OCCURRED.

So you believed the post had been deleted?

If the moderation team decides it's necessary to delete a post, then we move it to a part of the forum not accessible to members .it will just vanish. If the topic is in appropriate, we may message you. This way if it needs to be returned to its original place we can do so without issues. So if for whatever reason you make a topic and it disappears, please message one of the moderators and we'll talk to you about things. Please don't take it out on other members.

When "deleted" is posted it generally means somebody has commented and then decided to delete it. So they edit the post to say "deleted"

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Ah... Sorry, tiredness must be getting to me!!

Hi

I've been receiving much hate here on this forum over the last week or 2, apparently because people thought I was being rude and ungrateful, to you !

I couldn't understand why on earth this was but I have read through the start of this thread and now I see why, and ity has all been a big misunderstanding

I created this thread and really needed an answer, then I got my first response after waiting a while and it was from you, it read ''deleted''.

Now, I saw this and thought you must be a forum moderator and you were saying you had deleted my thread and to me you saying deleted and me having no response from everybody I thought you'd deleted my thread. , when I asked why you deleted it you just said because you ''were tired''

If I'd known that you were referring to deleting your own post and not deleting my thread I would have not been fussed but hopefully you understanding how things got mixed up e.t.c.

I am glad you can see why members felt how they did, and I'm glad it was a misunderstanding. Hopefully we won't have any more. :-)

Back to your problem, are you sure your not referring to the steering lock?

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I would say the problem is with the garage that did the tracking did not lock the steering wheel to the central position before adjusting the tracking which would cause the steering wheel to be of center.

I would say the problem is with the garage that did the tracking did not lock the steering wheel to the central position before adjusting the tracking which would cause the steering wheel to be of center.

That's what happened to me

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The only thing that gets me is the op says when he gets out the car and it locks to the left he hasn't mentioned a skew wheel while driving straight

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....

For responses you would be better off posting in the relevant sections for your model of vehicle.

I definitely agree with that, those sections e.g. Fiesta Club, Focus Club are much more active than this general section of the forum and I always find that questions are answered quickly and by lots of people (unless it's a very unusual problem).

I've also had problems with tracking in the past, on my first Fiesta which was a 54 reg. Had to take it back to the garage that did the tracking because they hadn't got the steering wheel straight, they then fixed it after giving me some excuse about their equipment.

I think with a 2nd hand car you don't know how it was driven before, and the tracking problems could have been caused by the previous owner. It's good having a new car because I know that I've never driven up a kerb and avoided turning the wheels when stationary - I've heard both of these can cause problems with tracking, and wear and tear on the steering components. Of course this seems to be what most people do on a daily basis, so I'm not surprised there are a lot of cars with tracking problems.