There is no such thing as a "safe" Tempo. (That is not sarcasm). We call these "killer cars" because it is so common for ball joints and tie rod ends to separate just a few hundred miles after an inspection shows they are fine. Those broken parts are usually blamed on the crash when in reality, the part broke, you lost control, and went into the tree or oncoming truck.
There are other things that can cause the noise you described. A binding upper strut mount can cause a "twang" sound when turning because it won't let the coil spring rotate freely. That is not serious in itself but it puts added stress on the spring. If that spring is rusty and thinking about breaking, that binding mount could hurry the failure up.
The best place to start is with an inspection at a tire and alignment shop. They can help decide how serious the noise is and what is causing it. Don't ignore steering or suspension parts that are worn. Those parts can break on any car and cause a loss of control, but it is much more common on Tempos, the Ford-built Escorts of the 1980s, and their Mercury twins.
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Thursday, April 7th, 2011 AT 6:23 PM
