Sunset 14

Kenny, thanks for your input. As I mentioned in a post a few months ago, I replaced the tires on this car, and it completely transformed the car. It now rides and handles the way it ought to, and I'm very pleased with it. I've read that wide tires can cause a car to "hunt" over irregularities in the road, but resisted the thought that Ford had "baked in" this fault on such a mainstream car as the Fusion by putting wide tires on it. I never would have guessed that tires could cause such a pronounced effect (especially since they were all Michelins, evenly worn, and still had at least 1/3 of the tread left), but I guess I learned something. On a related note, since I solved this mystery, I am really quite happy with this car. It has the 1.5 Ecoboost, which makes plenty of power (especially in Sport mode!), and I like the way the transmission shifts, everything still works perfectly (after 6 years and 82k miles), and it looks good. This past weekend, on a trip home to Ann Arbor from Fort Wayne, IN, I reset the trip meter after I got on the highway, and it showed 40.8 mpg when I got home after 150 miles - and that was driving between 72 and 75 mph with the cruise control set and the A/C running. I was impressed!

He set it within spec, and gave me a printout of the final settings, that shows the upper and lower limits of the acceptable range. I haven't studied the printout closely enough to see how close he got to the middle of the range, but all of the "final" numbers were green - which means they were within the range. I won't experiment with anything outside the range unless I'm pretty sure there is a reason to. As for Ford messing up, if there is a problem with the steering rack, I don't blame them. The car has enough miles on it (all of them in Michigan) that things start to go wrong with any car. As far as I can tell, Ford got this car right.

Webhito (and everyone else who's been wondering.....), I think I've finally resolved the issue. I finally was able to get the alignment checked yesterday, and the only setting that was out was the toe on the rear end (which they corrected). Then today, I had new tires put on (YokohamaYK740 GTXs), and together, those two things seem to have fixed the problem. There is still an annoying "squonk" sound when I change from backing up to moving forward again after having turned the steering wheel (as in when backing out of a parking spot), and someone on another forum suggested it could be a loose steering rack (seems unlikely, but not impossible). We'll see..... Scott

Sorry Webhito...... I took it in yesterday (Thursday) morning, and they couldn't do the alignment because the roads were covered with snow. Turns out that snowy roads aren't very good for judging the effectiveness of an alignment. Who knew!? I actually thought about that possibility as I was walking through the front door of the place that was supposed to do it, and the guy behind the counter confirmed my suspicions. So anyway........ I'm going to try again tomorrow if it doesn't snow again overnight.

Webhito: I have Michelin Primacy MXM4's. Don't buy any new tires and wheels yet; I have an appointment this Thursday at a local shop that is going to do a little tweaking for me. I did a little research this morning about the effects of toe settings on handling, and found this on the Tirerack.com website: "Excessive toe settings often bring with them drivability problems, especially during heavy rain. This is because the daily pounding of tractor trailers on many highways leave ruts that fill with water. Since excessive toe means that each tire is pointed in a direction other than straight ahead, when the vehicle encounters a puddle that causes only one tire to lose some of its grip, the other tire's toe setting will push (excessive toe-in) or pull (excessive toe-out) the vehicle to the side. This may make the vehicle feel unsettled and very "nervous." That exactly describes what my car does. But it also seems overly sensitive to the "crown" in the middle of the lane that you find sometimes. Whenever my car encounters any irregularity (including potholes) in the road, the reaction isn't straight up and down; there is always a lateral element - kind of a "pitching" or "waddling" effect. Anyway, I'll report back here what I learn this Thursday. If you want to read the entire article, here's a link to it: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=4

Webhito..... does your car have the 18" wheels and tires? Before I bought this car, I drove a few SE's with the 17" tires and slightly taller sidewalls, and I don't recall them handling this way. It's been a year and a half since I started this thread, and my car still does it. And the tires are still quite evenly worn - but with less tread now. Argh!

Hi Jake977. Yes, please do let us know what you find out, and if possible, post actual alignment numbers. The thing that keeps going through my head is that if this really IS normal, some engineer thought it was good and signed off on it, and every gen2 Fusion with 18" wheels handles this way - which I find hard to believe. My car at times feels downright unsafe! Referring to the "aggressive toe settings" statement, I think that is entirely possible. My car - even on dry pavement, but especially on wet pavement - literally "lurches" sideways and rocks the car side-to-side a little bit whenever I have the wheel turned sharply in low-speed maneuvers. And as I'm turning the steering wheel, as I get close to full lock, I can feel the resistance "give way" - as though something has gone over-center or something. This is all especially frustrating because the 2010 Fusion SEL that I traded in on this car was superb in the ride and handling department (the sucky 3.0 V6 engine and transmission is why I traded it in).

Jake977...... I don't know how you'd come up with a custom alignment spec for your car; that would be very time-consuming (and therefore very expensive), IF you could find a tech that was qualified to do so. But what I've wondered is whether there might be different, factory alignment specs for cars with 16 or 17" wheels, vs. cars with 18" wheels (like mine). Has anyone heard of different alignment specs for different sized wheels?

Webhito: "I picked up my kids as well, and as soon as the rear end was loaded, most of the wiggling was gone, still stiff and hard, but much less wiggly"; you don't say which car was much less wiggly: was the Accord less wiggly, or your Fusion?

bbf2530: I just checked the door sill placard on my car, and the recommended tire pressure is 34 PSI. I then checked the tire pressure with a good gauge, and I got 33-34 PSI on all four tires, so I don't think underinflated tires is contributing to this effect. And by the way..... are you sure your recommended pressure is 38? I've been messing with cars for a few decades, and I've never heard of factory tire pressure recommendations being that high.

Hi Webhito. I haven't had the chance to take it into the dealer yet. I had an appointment to take it in about a month ago, but I moved the day before and taking my car to the dealer was pretty low on the list of priorities. So to answer your question, no I haven't gotten the problem fixed yet, but the more I drive the car, the more convinced I am that there really is something amiss. If I get it fixed, I'll post it on this forum. I'm really surprised that you're having the problem on such a new car. I sure hope that doesn't mean it's "normal".

Hello. I've had experience with both Monroe Quick Struts and Monroe OESpectrum replacement struts (they are NOT the same thing, and are aimed at different markets), so I can make a valid suggestion for you. I had an Oldsmobile years ago that I installed Quick Struts on all four corners - hoping to restore the factory ride - and was really disappointed to find out that the ride was noticeably stiffer. Then more recently, I installed OESpectrum struts on all four corners of a Lexus and was quite pleased with the ride. So for you, you might really like the ride of the Quick Struts - and you can't beat the value and ease of installation of the entire strut assembly. Hope this helps!

Did you get the "Quick Struts" or the "OESpectrum" strut? They are not the same thing. I have experienced what you described regarding the stiff ride on a Oldsmobile I had years ago when I installed new Quick Struts on all four corners - very disappointing. But more recently, I installed the "OESpectrum" struts on all four corners of a Lexus and was very happy with the results. According to the Monroe website, the OESpectrum struts are "Engineered to match your vehicle’s OE-specified ride and handling profile". The Quick Struts probably will allow you to go around corners more quickly, but unless you're a hot-rod, I doubt that would outweigh the noticeably worse ride.

Hi all, I have installed an equalizer as part of an upgrade to my factory radio on my 2014 Fusion. In addition to the constant 12V source (hard wired to the battery), it needs a switched 12V source (turns on and off with the key). I'm sure I could hook into something on the backside of either fuse block, but getting TO the backside of both fuse blocks is really difficult. Does anyone know where I might find a switched 12V connection near the dashboard or console? Scott

Hi eGuru. I have had the Steeda gas struts on both my Gen 1 Fusion and now my Gen 2 Fusion, and I highly recommend them. Living in Michigan where rust is always a concern, using existing mountings holes (so you don't have to break the paint by drilling new holes) sealed the deal for me. They work quite well. Just make sure you have someone helping you when you install them to hold the hood in place while you have the bolts removed (do ONE side at a time, and make sure you place a blanket or something between the back corner of the hood and the windshield - just in case!). With two people, it's a ten minute job.