2003 instability at highway speeds | Ford Thunderbird club group 1955-2005 T-Bird models

2003 instability at highway speeds

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743pm

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Thunderbird Year
2003
Hello, i’m having a problem that i hope someone can help with: after upper control arms, tierod ends, rear struts, rear lower control arms, & steering rack, my bird is a little squirrely on the highway. Whats really odd is that is mostly on deceleration. When i take my foot off the gas the car veers right, and is fine when i get back on the throttle.
Has anyone experienced this?
Thx!

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tie rod ends? what psi are you running your tires? mine does that a little if there is too much air in the tires, the car (2004) calls for 30 psi, that's fine for normal driving and ride, but I run 33, because it's more reactive over 100
 
743pm said:
Hello, i’m having a problem that i hope someone can help with: after upper control arms, tierod ends, rear struts, rear lower control arms, & steering rack, my bird is a little squirrely on the highway. Whats really odd is that is mostly on deceleration. When i take my foot off the gas the car veers right, and is fine when i get back on the throttle.
Has anyone experienced this?
Thx!
Click to expand...
Get the wheel alignment checked again. I had an Alfa Romeo get an alignment done, got all squirrelly at the back, especially if hitting bumps. The tire wear was showing weird pattern too. I checked the rear wheel toe in myself, with a tape measure and there was about 5 mm toe in, way too much do adjusted it out to 1mm toe in and all good now.
 
743pm said:
after upper control arms, tierod ends, rear struts, rear lower control arms, & steering rack, my bird is a little squirrely on the highway.
Click to expand...
What does this mean? After what?
 
I’ll take a look, but its been in for alignment 4x at 3 different shops. All 3 would have to have missed it.
Since it happens in relation to the gas pedal operation, it feels like its electronic, FEM or something?
 
I like the dragging brake caliper idea that @gregl32 had. You probably wouldn't feel it under power, but when decelerating you'd notice. Second guess would be an under-inflated tire, especially if you had two tires with low pressure on the same side.

PS, My T-bird is getting new tires today! 🙂
 
Thanks for all the replies. Seems like it was a loose toe-in rod on the driver’s side rear. I jacked up the rear end & checked for any play, & the wheel was loose. Followed it to the toe-in bar (end link?) Not sure how 3 different shops all missed it. Super weird how it felt connected to the throttle. I could control it depending how much i was the gas.
 
743pm said:
Thanks for all the replies. Seems like it was a loose toe-in rod on the driver’s side rear. I jacked up the rear end & checked for any play, & the wheel was loose. Followed it to the toe-in bar (end link?) Not sure how 3 different shops all missed it. Super weird how it felt connected to the throttle. I could control it depending how much i was the gas.
Click to expand...
Maybe they each took a lunch break just as they got to that toe-in link and then forgot to finish after lunch!!
 
Great news that you found the problem! The reason for the pulling to one side is that the torque at the rear wheel on acceleration causes that rear wheel to take up the "play" causing a rear wheel steering situation. There are many automotive repair shops that do wheel alignments however very few have the capability to do REAR WHEEL or FOUR WHEEL alignment. Very few cars require that. They more than likely never looked at or even jacked up the rear wheels to find the situation.
Make sure to now bring it to a alignment specialist shop to correctly set the alignment on the rear wheels. Your tires and fuel milage will thank you.
 
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