[Bigvincent]

Just installed the eibach pro springs struts and dampners. Got it aligned and now I have the worse handling ever experienced. It feels like the car is on stilts and almost feels like it has no sway bars. Put new bushings on the sway bar still same thing happening. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bigvincent]

Could it have been I didn't mark the upper strut mount when putting it onto the new strut? Pulling my hair out on this, never experienced a car handle like this.

 

[drunkyoda]

did they re connect your front sway bar endlinks?

 

[QR25DE_SpecV]

They need to settle. Give them a few hundred miles.

 

[Bigvincent]

sway bars are all connected. I really don't think its a settling thing. I am almost afraid to take this thing over 50mph, it really feels like it has a mind of its own.

 

[QR25DE_SpecV]

Interesting. Jack up each wheel separately and check for play at 12&6 and 9&3.

 

[drunkyoda]

yea do what he said and one again make sure everything is tight while it is up.

 

[PumkinSvt]

is it pulling when you give it gas?

 

[Bigvincent]

no pulling at all. The best way I can explain it is it feels like you catch a lip or crack in the road and the car follows it, if that makes sense. I'll check again for play in the wheel, I checked this morning when I had it back on the lift.

 

[Bigvincent]

Interesting. Jack up each wheel separately and check for play at 12&6 and 9&3.

Thanks but everything was tight, with no play.

 

[Peregrine]

So is the car dogwalking on you? I would go in and get an alignment done, which is a normal operation once you start tinkering with suspension components and such.

Suggestion, I would make sure that you don't have a seized caliper or a pinched brake line from pulling all that stuff apart.

 

[wrc_fan]

What are you alignment results? Your description is not very helpful. First you say its like it acts like it is without sway bars?

Now you're saying the car will track to cracks and imperfections in the road? A car that darts or pulls with road features is often one with toe that is out of spec. Could also be lower control arms, tie rod ends, or steering rack itself.

 

[Bigvincent]

I have a very hard time putting into words how the car is reacting. It feels like both. It's not pulling the steering at all, but when you hit road imperfections it feels like it is swaying back and forth. Almost feels like it is starting from the rear of the car.

The alignment showed all green, I don't have the actual numbers we actually did it twice to be sure. Only the front passenger wheel had a bad toe alignment but we fixed that. I just can't figure out what would be wrong if the alignment shows good.

 

[Peregrine]

Have someone ride with you and video record what it's doing, or simply take some pics and post them up of the new setup. Someone might be able to spot anything unordinary if it exists.

Just to clarify, didn't some of the sedans NOT come with swaybars in the rear?

 

[wrc_fan]

Recently I had a case where when I would hit a bump on the right side of the car, it felt like the rear end would jump out a little bit. I finally tracked it down to the right side lower mount of the damper being loose. The bolt just wasn't torqued down correctly. Remember, the rear suspension links on the focus should be tightened when the suspension is at ride height.

With the install did you have any issues with rust and siezed bushings?

 

[Bigvincent]

Hmm I'll try doing that again with the dampners. Should I have tightened the sway bar when it was on the ground?

Rust wasn't too bad but definitely noticeable. Thanks for the suggestions I'm starting to Run out of ideas.

Could it be tires by chance? I mean they look fine, but who knows.

 

[Bigvincent]

Well I loosened the dampeners in the rear and put the car on the ground and re-tightened them. Still the same problem exists, I put the go-pro under the car and drove it but you can't tell when the swaying/rocking begins.

When I installed the rear springs I only disconnected the upper control arm (pretty sure that's what its called) and then compressed the spring to put it in. Nothing is noticeably bent.

On a side note when i have a passenger it does't seem to do it as much.

 

[bringler26]

as previously stated what are the specs on the print out from your alignment. If you have too much toe out in the rear it'll feel like your car is wiggling all over the place. My focus feels like this but that is because I put coil overs on and never had an alignment done.

 

[svtfiend]

i just put the saleen racecraft/pro kit on my st and am not having issues. i aligned it to zero toe in front and -.15 rear toe. everything else was not just in the green but within .02 degrees of the opposite side. this is very important. the super broad specs given for the focus allow all of your specs to be "green" but off far enough from each other to cause problems. get your printout and post the specs.

are you confident all of the washers and other mount pieces are where they are supposed to be? everything is torqued down right? tire pressure. do the rear springs have the tighter progressive coils towards the top?

 

[Bigvincent]

Thanks everyone for all the help so far. Tomorrow I am heading back to the alignment machine to actually look at the numbers instead of just going by "green." Is there any recommendations for what I should set it at afterwards? I was just going to set it up like svtfiend mentioned but wasn't sure if there would be a better combination. I made a print out of the alignment specs but they too also seem pretty vague.