Rear tire crooked ? -> '94 Mercury Cougar Q

callaway · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:30 pm

We have a '94 Mercury Cougar that's plagued with problems.
Anyway, today I was driving behind it and noticed the rear left wheel was crooked - the top of the tire was tilted towards the body maybe 1* - 2* ( it was enough to be noticed ). Jacked the car up and did a quick check in the rain, but everything looks ok... Why could the wheel be crooked ?

ihatemybike · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:18 pm

Independent rear suspension. Camber adjustment, sagged/cracked/broken spring, rusted/bent tower.

callaway · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:28 pm

ihatemybike wrote:

Independent rear suspension. Camber adjustment, sagged/cracked/broken spring, rusted/bent tower.

I didn't think cars could get rear alignments... interesting

Is something having the wheel at an angle safe to drive on ?

ihatemybike · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:15 pm

Never heard of a full four wheel alignment?

IRS is more adjustable than SRA or SRBA set up. Currently the car has too much negative camber. It should have a little to help with cornering, but not enough to really be visibly noticeable.

How safe it is to drive on depends on several things. Has the condition caused the inside edge to wear dangerously? Is there any rattling/banging coming from that corner? How much driving needs to be done before it can really be looked at? Err with caution.

callaway · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:15 pm

yellocoyote wrote:

callaway wrote:

I didn't think cars could get rear alignments... interesting

Hmmm... maybe you were right after all!

It just seemed strange to think about going for an alignment for the rear wheels - will look into this further come Thursday

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:21 pm

callaway wrote:

yellocoyote wrote:

callaway wrote:

I didn't think cars could get rear alignments... interesting

Hmmm... maybe you were right after all!

It just seemed strange to think about going for an alignment for the rear wheels - will look into this further come Thursday

All alignments are based off of how the rear wheels sit(for toe adjustments),just some vehicles have rear adjustments and some don't.Almost all solid rear axle vehicles(like the KJ) have no rear adjustments.Most newer cars and IFS/IRS vehicles do have rear adjustments.Some vehicles,even newer ones,have only one adjustment and that is front toe only.It basically depends on how the engineers designed the suspensions.

callaway · **Posted:** Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:29 pm

The car does have an independent rear suspension... thanks for the info guys

I just noticed it today so I'm not sure how long it's been like this. The car drives fine - no shimmys of shaking. I became really worried about this as I saw the issue while on the highway and didn't want the wheel to fall off

TAHOE · **Posted:** Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:28 am

Even some Rear drive cars can have some rear alignment. After I lifted my 95 astro, the guy said my rear axle was shifted....guess even the alignment center pins on the leaf springs can give enough to shift it out slightly, he said I wouldn't notice it driving, but the van would actually be "dog walking" slightly. Went home, loosened ubolt a little, couple good smacks with a sledge to the one side.... worked just fine.
I also remember being behind a lot of the older caravans/voyager and seeing how tilted the rear tires were, they were horrible.

Rear tire crooked ? -> '94 Mercury Cougar Q

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