Tire rubbing wheel well? (video incl)

[Mike]

Hi, I think what I have is the front driver tires rubbing the wheel well but I am not too sure. I have not been able to reproduce this problem with any success. I finally got some video evidence… 🙂

See video

I was making a right turn (at less than 10km/h) and the car made a loud noise. (sounded like either tires dragging or rubbing the wheel well) There was a very noticeable deceleration and it felt like the car was pulling towards the driver side. I did not apply brakes.

I’ve had this happen 4 times in the last 3 years, so it is very rare and random. All 4 times happened during a low speed turn. (Less than 10km/h)

Car is 2009 Lincoln MKS AWD with Michelin PRIMACY MXM4 245/45R20. (I also had this happen with the Michelin PRIMACY MXV4s that came with the car.) It seems some other people experienced similar things on the Lincoln MKS Forum. Unfortunately I did not notice if the traction control light came on or not.

Does anyone know what would cause this and if there are any suggestions on how to go about reproducing it? Thanks.

Topic

[college man]

With the car standing still. Have someone turn the
steering wheel lock to lock to see if the tires are
hitting/rubbing on anything. If someone put bigger
wheels and tires without getting the rim back spacing
right its gonna rub.

[Ingvar]

Entire power train moves on mounts when you turn steering wheel. E.g., Honda even had TSB on that for 04 CR-V. One of the pulleys was hitting tire well.
But your issue being random and rather rare…. If it’s tire size, you should be able to reproduce it every time in tight turns.
Now, re-read ur post… Come to think, my Camry does same when I do tight turn in my driveway, reversing to back into garage. I know for granted it’s tire lugs skipping on uneven asphalt.
Another thing that can cause this is bad control arm bushings, as they allow back-fore CA skips. That needs to be further investigated on ur car.
Hey, that’s AWD car, right? Then easily ur differential/ t-case will do this. Make noise. Gears simply not meshing right. it’s 5 yo vehicle. 60K miles or so right? Time to do diff and t-case fluid change.

[Lorrin Barth]

If the tire is rubbing it should leave marks in the wheel well. You can pull the wheel and look.

This being an AWD it may have certain special features that increase traction in slick road conditions. I’d suggest going to the owner’s manual and reading what it has to say about how the AWD works. This may either tell you it is working correctly or provide a clue to what is wrong.

[Mike]

I can see marks left in the wheel well, but it didn’t seem very severe.
I was surprised by the force that came with the incident. Would tires rubbing the wells have that much force? It was like going from all normal to full wheel lock. The wheels and tires (MXV4/MXM4) are from Ford so I don’t think there is a size issue.

I checked the manual and the differential fluids are good for 150k miles. I’m at about 90k miles. Wouldn’t differential problems be easily reproducible? There are no abnormal noises or vibrations otherwise.

[Glenn]

Do the marks in the left wheel well correspond to the side of the tire (inside /outside) that would be making contact during a right turn? The current tire size, is this the size recommended by Ford for the car? Perhaps You could support the car on jack stands and have an assistant turn it lock to lock to visibly inspect what’s going on…

[Author]

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