2001 ford focus--strut, swaybar or swaybar links??

Question

when driving the car if i hit a bump the rear of the car swerves furiously and a freind was driving behind me and said the rear passenger side tire bounces up and down outragiously. can u help me out with this issue? thank you for your time...

Answer 1

That is a bad strut/shock, no question.  The passenger rear unit has either leaked badly or the valving has blown out so there is no compression or rebound control.  Thus the strut/shock can not keep the tire firmly planted on the pavement like it should.  This is consistent with your vehicles behaviour.  

If the car has more than 50k miles I would replace all 4.  When replacing the fronts also replace the coil springs since these have a very high failure rate on the Focus. If they are not broken already they will so might as well take care of it while you have them out.  Also when replacing the front struts plan to replace the front stabilizer bar links.  These frequently go bad too and they are tough to remove without wrecking them.  Since they attach to the strut on your vehicle again they have to come out anyway and are cheap.

Answer 2

Oh my god!  I had that car, same year make and model.  I am quite certain that issue is on recall with Ford.  I am not sure if you bought your car new or used, but I bought my car new and I got a recall notice for this exact problem you are describing sometime around 2002.  If you did not buy the car new, you probably would not have known about the recall.   I cannot remember what the part was that had to be replaced, but you seriously need to call the dealership asap - this is really dangerous.  Your local dealer can run the VIN to verify all the recalls on the car and see if the repairs were done.  You probably already know, but obviously there is no charge for repairs on recall with the dealer as long as you get the repairs done at the dealership.  I am not sure if you also hear a loud humm often coming from the back tire areas periodically but this has something to do with the recall also.

Answer 3

strut easy to tell if its wet  or looks oilly its bad and since your friend could see it bounce its bad

Answer 4

If your tire swerves when you hit the bump it's probably the back sway links that are bad. If it bounces and uaually the strut but it could also be the coil spring.   If you have never removed one, don't the coil spring is under pressure and a spring compresser is in your best interest.

I am not a professional, only give advise based on personal experience

Answer 5

Strut

Answer 6

That's a strut or shock problem.