Parts that can cause you to crash your car.

[anaksarawak]

I just experience a fail ball joint nut and this caused the car I am riding's front wheel to collapes.. Lucky it was at a junction and speed is slow. If it fail 5 minutes ealier I will not be posting this story.Symptoms seemed innocuous enough: Whenever my friend stepped on the brakes, the car would dive to the right momentarily, then immediately straighten out again. I figured it had to do with the brakes. The brakes are almost new as it was changed two months ago. At 40kph, accelerating from the stoplight, disaster struck!There was a sudden BANG, the right front corner of the car dropped, there was a very loud screeching noise and some smoke. A split second was all it took to guess what had happened, even though I'd never experienced anything like this before. Fairly frightening, actually.The steering lost control and there jerk when the joint came apart, and the brakes stayed fully functional. Within what must have been milliseconds my friend steer onto the sand/gravel shoulder to prevent suspension parts from being ground to dust by the asphalt. In retrospect, that was probably the best thing to do. By the time the car left the road, the ball joint nut and stud had been ground down to half their thickness. Any further and the lower control arm would likely have been damaged as well.The actual damage that led to all this was the balljoint's nut came off and I suspect the workshop staff didnt install the pin when he replaced the drive shaft and lower arm.The tire was destroyed, having its tread worn away to the steel cords at the point of contact. The inner CV joint had been pulled apart, but miraculously the bearings had got sucked into the boot and did not get lost! The moral of this story is that if you're told your lower ball joints need to be replaced, just do it, or please know what the mech is doing and ensure they did it right. There too many "Ah Goo or Ah Kow" workshop out there and called themself specialist. It's a small price to pay to go to a reputable and respectable workshop... believe me, life is in your hand.The tiny parts

Here how it look like

 

[enkil]

Glad u r ok.. Thanks for sharing bro.

 

[leforte]

wow... same thing happened to me a few years back. scary and definately life threatening.

some other symptoms that points to a failling ball joint may be a stiff steering with sounds or knocking characteristic when you turn the wheel. if any of this symptoms appeared, its highly likely that your ball joint has seized and can no longer rotate freely. go have it inspected ASAP.

 

[shyful313]

waaaa...have to check mine..scary maaa:listen:

 

[astroboy]

Normally ball joint does not just seize up without giving out symptom. Look at those huge wheels on the Lexus. The ball joint is actually connected to the steering tie-rod where alignment is perform and when steering is turned, the steering rack shaft will push this ball joint in/out to steering the wheels. The bigger the wheels, this ball joint will be more stressful.

Always pay attention to knocking sound from the floorboard and knocks that transmitted to through the steering when u crossing humps or uneven section of the road.

If this ball joint is loose, another possible symptom is alignment will start to become erratic. Technically the safety pin will prevent the nut from coming off, yet the looseness should still be felt by the driver.

I see many irresponsible foreman didn't put back the safety pin, very dangerous.

 

[bimmerholic]

Damn those F***ing A**hole mechanics around! Placing our lives in the hands of a bunch of boys scout is like literally digging your own grave right out.

My long lasting habit is to always stay at the workshop & WATCH every step the mech takes to fix a part. CORRECT him there & then if you notice something he neglected. Always be there watching if you have undercarriage work to be carried out. Includes suspensions controls, steering controls, wheels ESP BRAKES!!!

There's no second chance here!

 

[ckhaw]

Yea man. That's scary. But normally parts like this would not fail without symptoms. If there's a loose ball joint, you won't be able to do your car alignment properly at all, when you jack the car up, you can feel the looseness at the wheel. A good tyre shop will tell you immediately you should get your car checked, and won't proceed with alignement as it's a waste of money.

Thanks for the sharing bro, helps create awareness on safety and proper maintenance to our german beauties

 

[anaksarawak]

Thanks bro...

There no knocking or any noise at all only the steering is not feeling right.

Like what astroboy and many said.. it started with alignment...

The problem of the Lexus is the foreman used the normal nut for the lower arm instead of torque nut or those with pin. Toyota's ball joint nut is without pin.




"If this ball joint is loose, another possible symptom is alignment will start to become erratic. Technically the safety pin will prevent the nut from coming off, yet the looseness should still be felt by the driver."

I see many irresponsible foreman didn't put back the safety pin, very dangerous.

 

[jumpman]

hm...sounds like what my mum had experienced when she got home one day a couple of days ago. When she was outside the front gate...there was a sudden loud noise and the car suddenly dropped height. The whole car slanted to one side. luckily it happened right outside the house, though it trapped all the other cars inside the house lol! Anyways, good lesson to be learned. Always take note of ur car, esp the undercarriage stuff. Cheers`