The tire rim/wheel is stock, and is on all 4 corners, some of the paint on the strut is worn away, shiny really.

This suggests there may be an issue with your front wheel bearings as that is about the only way the tyre can come in contact with the strut (unless you you've got massively over-sized tyres, or are running rims with far too little offset)

Spacers only help if you've got wrong offset or too large a tyre fitted - I think in the latter case you'd be looking at something like a 205 or bigger (based on what my brother used to put on his Escort of a similar date to yours.)
That wrench looks, to put it politely, pathetic - if you have a stuck nut then you'd be safer not trying to use it, the "rods" pull out of the centre pressing so easily :-(

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

The wear pattern you have described is very symptomatic of a worn wheel bearing :-(
I hope your friend is able to correctly diagnose the problem. And if it is a wheel bearing adding spacers will only make things wear much faster.
As it stands your car is unusable, which given where you live in relation to "anywhere of use" is far from a good thing.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

If the correct wheels and tires per the factory recommendations are fitted, absolutely no spacers should be used.
They upset steering geometry and bearing loading.
And if anything is so far outta whack that the stock wheels and tires don't work right, the car should be taken off of the road until properly repaired.
Something just ain't right here.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

IMo this thread has been chronicling a slow motion train wreck now sadly it seems to be picking up speed. I am not pleased.

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The intensity level in this thread needs to be dialed down a notch or two. Please everyone think about the tone of your posts as if you were talking to each other in a friend's house. I know we all want to shake our fists and heads sometimes about things we don't agree with or we want to get a point across, and that's ok, but it's counterproductive for everybody to post in ways that antagonize each other.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Reopening thread. Let's all try to respect each other.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

No one can't sue oneself.

My friend Lars did. He won. Not the smartest thing to do, but possible.

No one can't sue oneself.

My friend Lars did. He won. Not the smartest thing to do, but possible.

Is Lars a Lawyer or an Attorney?

My sister's first husband was one, He said "He could have had a fool for a client" or something like that, but then I was a young kid then.

The quote is, The man who is his own lawyer, Has a fool for a client.
Reminds me of folks who read something on the internet and say, I've read that-------.

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[/quote]

Old James

Let's get back the car...
It is perfectly possible with a front drive car like your Esort to have a failed wheel bearing the passes the "rock" test you describe but to e scrubbing the tyre on the strut. I wish we'd taken photos of those on both my brother's and parents cars when they had failed wheel bearings...
Get the whope front suspension checked for wear because there's a lot more bits than the struts and a lot of bushes that do fail with age. But as I said earlier miss alignment will not cause the tyre to run on the strut. I've just thought of another source of the tyre rubbing on the strut - a badly damaged lower strut but that's a rare one and would require a masive impact to cause it as thats a large lump to bend (at least on an Escort).

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

A traffic ticket is no big deal. Try being your own lawyer for a real case. like assault , shop lifting, robbery or even Homicide and see what happens.
As for your car. Hitting a speed bump, Curb, An object in the road, Or a pothole can cause major damage to the suspension of any car. I blew out a side wall and dented a rim on my car last year by hitting a steel object at night doing 65MPH on the highway.
But then you read the internet and are an expert on cars. Just get the car fixed so you don't endanger another driveror a pedestrian. Ever see what happens when ball joints fail at speed? I have.

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[/quote]

Old James

I never said you had bad ball joints. Just asked if you ever have seen what happens when they let go at speed. And about time you fixed the car and not buy crap off of E-bay.

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[/quote]

Old James

Vic, it is you who knows nothing. I have had ball joints fail in a few tens of miles never mind the hundreds or thousands you have covered. And the same applie to bearings. Driving on poor roads, or hittings things in the road, or overloading a wheel, and a few other things can all lead to premature failure.

Stop being so rude and arrogant to those who try to help you.
Just now your car is in a very dangerous state, there is something seriously amiss with front suspension. You've had a front tyre srubbed out and on the same corner the tyre and suspension are rubbing against each other and all you want to do is put another tyre on. That's a it like putting a bandaid on to fix a broken leg.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I really don't know why you carry on with these threads of yours Vic, if it's to try and justify your spending habits and bad choices to others then your badly mistaken (if it's all to justify it all for yourself then you are delusional).

Firstly buying a relocatable home in a run down trailer park out in the middle of nowhere was 1 big mistake (as you now seem finally learning) and why you bought a Mustang instead of a Crown Victoria, or even better yet an F150, is totally beyond me. I'm a bit older than you Vic, 1.5" taller and since 1 too many spine compression injuries I know that I'm overweight at 265lbs, but there's no way in the world that I'd own anything less than a full sized family car for myself.

But what bit of madness drove you to buy a small family hatch that is basically designed for 2 average adults with 2 children totaling your whole body mass?

Quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised that after all this time with your weight bearing down on basically 1 corner of your car that you have twisted its chassis (it was not designed to take the sort of load that you put on it).

In the end it would be best for you (and us) to just give up on these threads of yours and end the heartache, ridicule and negativity that comes with them everytime you start 1.

Cheers.

OK, everybody......listen up please.

We all know how Vic operates now.
He makes decisions that he either knows are not quite right or perhaps are misinformed at times.
Then he posts about them here looking for approval.
When he does not get it, he gets upset and thinks the whole world is out to get him.
And then goes to any lengths to justify those decisions.
I do think at times he is trying to convince himself.

So..........
If you have a kind word of advice to offer Vic, do so.
But then, please don't continue to berate him if he does not accept it or disagrees with it.
Because if Vic has his mind made up to do something, he is going to do it regardless of popular opinion or advice.

It would be much better for Vic if the arguing and nitpicking about his plans ceased.
Good advice is fine if one offers it and does not get upset or argumentative if Vic does not agree.

As always, just my opinion.

Meow.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Locking thread for a few hours so that everyone can take a deep breath.

Thread is open.

Vic, please remember that public comments are invitations to public responses and public critiques. If you do not want input on a topic, do not post information about that topic in your public thread.

If somebody comments in a fashion that is hostile, threatening, insulting or antagonistic, please red-X that post. DO NOT respond to comments that are hostile, threatening, insulting or antagonistic in a manner that is also hostile, threatening, insulting or antagonistic.

Everybody else, if you feel compelled to comment on something that Vic has posted in his personal journal-style thread, please do so in an objective fashion. Bonus points will be given for kindness.

Bonus points will be given for kindness.

Could you talk to your husband and see if they will count towards a toaster.

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Vic - they are sold in pairs for a very good reason SAFETY - fitting one (or two) on one side of your car will substantially reduce the margin of safety -DO NOT do it.
Also, if a wheel bearing is shot then, by adding a spacer to that wheel, you really are heading down a very steep slope to loosing a front wheel and, at best "ending up in the ditch" with a wrecked car.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I am unlocking this thread.

To all concerned, if you see a post that concerns you for any reason please red-x it and try not to get into arguments.

Thank you for you co-operation.

Just to put the record straight again

No one said they were illegal.