Tires rubbing

[lilwheezy75]

I been experiencing tire rubbing i think from my front tires.. i dont know what is causing it because i put new tires on there but i got the same size that were on there before.. i got new michelline 15/215/70r or sumthin i dno if thats the righ torder.. but those are the numbers. n when i revers and turn the tires rub and i think it was rubbing tonight because i heard a noise like something was on the tire rubbing everytime it spun... could it be because of the tire sizE? or could somthing else be causign this? I dont know if something in the suspension is bad maybe its not raising so its rubbing??

and how serious is this problem?

 

[Conti94]

Is the car seem lower in the front? could be the air ride startin to give.

 

[lilwheezy75]

yea thats what i thought it was.. and it seems realy low in the back... and its rubbing on sumthin thats connected the shock i think its a metal thing.. and it makes alot of noise when it rides now.. alot of bumping noises. Any idea how much it cost to get the coil over conversion installed?? or how easy is it to do by yourself?

 

[Conti94]

Wait the sound, the bumping noise is it a loud bang or what? please specify. Because it could just be tie rod ends, or ball joints and not the bags themselves. Usually a loud banging from the rear is tie rod ends/sway bar links.

 

[lilwheezy75]

its not loud and you can hear in when your in the car.. it sounds like im hittin a speed bump or maybe theres somehin in the trunk.. but theres not

 

[MichiganTeddyBear]

swaybar links, ball joints, tie rod ends... what I would check out for the bumping sound.

if its swaybar links, they are not a safety item in most cases if they break. others are of course.

a couple years ago my cougar made noises when I hit bumps... it had new ball joints (upper and lowers), but I suspected swaybar links. Took it to the place that did my ball joints (incase they were problem, and possible warranty issue), asked for free estimate. They told me the swaybar links were bad, it they wanted an extraordinary amount to changed em out. I took car home (they couldn't legally keep it because failure wouldn't cause an accident), bought new links on way home, and did job myself. About 50 bucks and a couple hours and beers later, no more noise.

 

[lilwheezy75]

Will many places check that for free?? And how much to fix it.. im 17 and not very educated with how to do the work to the lincoln?

 

[Conti94]

Well it's simple to chack the sway bar links. If you look under the back of the car It should have a long bar kinda shaped like a Bow tie. That is the sway bar. The ends of it have metal links. Usually cylinder in shape they stand vertically between the sway bar and the axle. If you do not see these they are missing and they may have corroded over time and fallen off. (happened to mine) But they could just be corroded. If they have bad rust on them they probably need to be replaced. Only cost about $90 to buy and have replaced. The links themselves are only $20. If you want to you can replace them on your own.

The front wheel wells rubbing may be ball joints. Those I would have checked out. I do not know what the ball joints would cost. Depends where ya go.

 

[MichiganTeddyBear]

if I recall right... the place I got my estimate from wanted 70+ each for the links (I paid like 20 or so each). they also wanted over 100 for labor to do both sides. This is for front swaybar links, the expected labor price might be different for the rear bar.

many autorepair shops will do estimates, some may charge a small fee for them. The place I got mine from was a chain local to the Metro Detroit area when I lived there. They worked quickly and at a reasonable price for the other work I had done there on the Cougar, as well as on one of my others.