Edit: A better version of my story [;)]

Man, I don't know what it is, but seems like everytime the car is ready to run, something get's in my way. And that is what just happened about 2 hours ago.

It's really dark with no lights on, on the 4 lane divided road. Out of no-where this 4x6 foot pillow/matress about 10 inches thick is in front of me. I ended up going over it, and having it stick to my suspension protector. I drove to a small ditch to let it loose so I can pull it out....

On my way home, I hear this flapping sound, like something sounded like it was stuck to the axel. I checked it out, and there was nothing. It happened several more times, and I continued to check.

I still saw nothing, so when I got home, I took the wheel off and there was nothing noticabley different. Except the rotor has a nice scratch ring that lines up with the outer brake pad. I figured a rock was caught and fell loose as I pulled the wheel off. However, it turns out that the Ball Joint has broken! The wheel hub, rotor, and the wheel itself can be wiggled while on a jack.

I'm going right back to that body shop to have them fix it. Luckly it's the same Half Shaft that was broken in the hydroplane. They don't need to know about that sleeping bag and I have a lifetime warrenty for as long as I own the car [:)]

I'm telling them, they need it done by Friday no matter what, because I plan on dropping the car off at Tom on the 12th, for guess you know what.

That sucks man!
Me and you, I put new wheels on my ride this weekend and I lose 4th gear 5 hours later because of a malfunctioning shift solenoid a...

Well hell! I fixed the brake. But guess what! The Wheel and rotor both shake!. Even when teh wheel is bolted on. Sounds like the fixed ball joint broke. GRRRRR!!!. I don't have time for this crap now....lol

You know this goes along with the shoe thing. I really don't understand how someone could just toss a large piece of shit like that onto the roadway. On the other hand, I've never understood how in the flying nun someone loses a shoe on the highway?!?!?! I just laugh my ass off everytime I see one.

Sorry to stray off topic but it was bothering me.

Sorry to hear about that. I had a few close calls with fallen truck debris/wooden crates a couple of times on the freeway. But I'd have to say the worst things are those damn potholes that construction crews forget to patch up. I hit one pretty bad and it sounded like my damn axle snapped. But I guess I got lucky, because when I had it checked out nothing was wrong.

I also remember one time I saw a giant heavy duty hammer laying in the middle of the road, probably dropped by some utility truck. Fortunately traffic was backed up, so people were moving so slowly that they were able to avoid it. A couple of people tried to pick it up by rolling down their window and reaching down as they were passing by. It was pretty funny.

I hope nobody ran over it. Shit like that can really mess your day up real quickly. I know one of these days it's going to happen to me and I won't be laughing...

Get this.....In November of '03, my wife and I were heading out to see her sister out in Iowa. She only had her Mazda Protege for about four months during this trip. As we passed through a tollbooth here in Illinois, there was a lane reduction in a construction zone with concrete barriers on both sides of the two lanes.

We were driving behind two flatbed tow trucks when the one in front of us ran over a two foot piece of green U-channeled bar. I was driving her car at this point and I literally remember time moving in slow motion. The piece of metal flipped through the air and there was nothing we could do but take the hit. There wasn't a shoulder to pull to the left and the right lane was packed with cars. That piece of metal hit my wife's car and rattled pretty nasty against the underbody as we hit it at about 70 mph.

Instantaneously the car started revving really high and I could smell coolant burning off. We had to pull off the road about a mile and a half outside of the construction zone to check out what happened. I popped the hood to find that the piece of metal pierced through the plastic of the bumper, went through the radiator, then the a/c core and break the shift linkage on the transmission.

We never made it out to Iowa that day, but if that bar took an extra spin two inches higher....I wouldn't be telling you this right now.

Holy crap that's scary...worst that's ever happenned to me was last week. A Metro Transit bus merged into my lane with me right next to him at 60 mph, I darted to the next lane over and luckily there were no cars there and then later on the freeway some dude on his cell phone did the same thing only he looked over, dropped his phone and went back into his lane.

Then I flipped him off and sped away...I was pissed and very very causious the rest of the day.

Insurance covered the bill on that one. It came out to $4300 for parts and labor and took two weeks to fix. We dropped it off at a nearby Mazda dealer in Naperville. The place was posh and they wouldn't let us take the Murcielago as a rental...lol

That sucks, I have two quick stories regarding things on the highway:

Me and my buddy were driving back from a movie, I was 17 at the time, and we see this slammed s10 on the side of road with a mattress underneath. We pull over more out of curiosity than anything else.. We walk up, and see flames coming out from underneath. I run back to my jeep and grab this small fire extingushier I kept in the back, and as I walking back the engine catches fire and the whole thing goes up in flames, the little extingushier just wasn't enough. So we watched this really cherry s10 burn to the ground. I guess it was lowered so much, the engine was resting on the mattress that the guy had hit on the highway.

I was driving to school and had a brand new chrysler crossfire at the time (before everyone had one) and was doing 75 or so on the highway, when a tire on a 16 wheeler ahead of me started to break apart, I slam on the brakes, but a huge chunk comes off and flies at my car, smashes in the passenger headlight and bounces off and end ups up cracking my windshield. I couldn't swerve because I was flanked on either side by other cars. Scared the crap out of me, and f'ed up my new car.

Driving in and around detroit is like being in a fist fight; you gotta take a few bruises and will eventually get knocked out.

And I thought MN driving sucked...

Those stories are hell of a lot worse than mine. Glad you guys are ok....

I just got back from the Body Shop, and the good news is that, the Ball link just had to be tightened! They fixed that up real quick with no charge, and now all is good.

Now the car is at Andy's to get my new fiber-glass hood painted. [:)] whew!

one time as I was goin to a meet in chicago I was driving down the highway and a huge shreded piece of tire about 5 ft long flew at my car, hit my hood and luckily bounced off the sidepillar. scratched my hood up but thankfully everything else was ok.

Also I was drivin down the street one time and I was behind a semi and there were cars in the other lane. Well I was behind the truck by about 2 cars and all of a sudden I saw a huge piece of what looked to be snow (it was winter) but I couldn't swerve to the other lane for other traffic and couldn't stop in time. Well I hit it HARD...Well come to find out it obviously WASN'T snow and the damn thing bent my radiator and condenser. It literally looked like a ball hit it real hard. broke the radiator support and fans also. it was a real mess. good thing insurance took care of that.

it's a good thing you were ok and they were able to fix it man!!!

Man, good thing you didn't swerve to the side and hit a divider like some people do. Glad you're okay and your car is up and running.

You know this goes along with the shoe thing. I really don't understand how someone could just toss a large piece of shit like that onto the roadway. On the other hand, I've never understood how in the flying nun someone loses a shoe on the highway?!?!?! I just laugh my ass off everytime I see one.

Sorry to stray off topic but it was bothering me.

LOL, flying nun...thats hilarious...

BTW, its from riding with your shoe out of the window. I used to do it all the time. Kick a leg out and rest it on the mirror and set the cruise...

That would be an interesting story. . . . .

. . . . .show up with one shoe. Haha

That would be an interesting story. . . . .

. . . . .show up with one shoe. Haha

lol..."yah I lost a shoe."
"where?!?"
"Umm...I was on the highway and I stuck my foot out the window."
"So what does that have to do with anything besides you being a nutcase?!?"
"Ummm...that's how I lost my shoe."
lol...I could see it now!

My ex used to do that also. I hated it. That's one of the stupidest things you could possibly do while driving.

Plus, you kick your interior trim accidentally. NO BUENO!!!!

Tell me you guys have never wondered how a stupid ass busted shoe ends up on the road. One time I saw one and started looking up in the nearby tree for the jogger it came off of.

Haha. I've seen accidents actually where a shoe flew out. I was like WTF!!!!!

^^^^^^^^^^^hah Hah!!!

Dude, I felt bad, but I couldn't help but laugh at a random shoe laying in the freakin' street. I felt bad.

"Honestly....who throws their shoe?"

Alright Mr. Powers. haha