yesterday, i had an accident getting to school. As some of you may know, the east coast was drenched Sunday and Monday during downpours that eventually cancelled a Nascar race in Atlanta Sunday at 6:00pm est. Anyway, i hydroplaned through a huge puddle, hitting my right front wheel on a stone wall, knocking a boulder out. the resulting impact damaged my right lower control arm. I can't steer the car; it's like driving an F1 car, hitting a wall, and driving without a wheel. I had to drive the 9.5 miles back home, to a "i'm-so-angry-i'll-kill" dad who's screaming and yelling before i even walk through the door.

Does anybody know of any other companies that manufacture front control arms for the focus besides Focus Central?

And if anybody has tried the FC control arms, how are they, are they a good price?

Thank you.

gthang
Sorry to hear about your accident, but glad you were not injured. I was that angry Dad last week, when my son wrecked (total loss) his 2002 ZTS Mach Audio that I bought for him.

Wouln't the part be cheaper from Ford? And, it wouldn't hurt to try to find one from a good salvage yard. One off a newer Focus hit in the rear would be fine.
Good luck
bfocused ( an angry dad)

Hey man

sad to say i did the same thing yesterday with my focus...i hit a stone wall and my front tire is [:)][:)][:)][:)][:)]ed im havin it looked at today

good luck with urs man

FC is the only company that makes lower control arms. If you want cheap, goto a junkyard and pick them up. I snagged a set for a project for about 50 bucks for the pair.

Hey man I did the same thing last january in Fredrick, MD. It started snowing and I got on the off ramp and it was a durango in front of me and an explorer in the back I was the only one that didnt make the turn, so you know It costed me about 500 buck plus raised insurance! But try a junkyard, I couldnt do it because I was like 40 miles from home

my dad never lets me get a word in. once he starts yelling, it's damn near impossible to shut him up, however, he has rifles in storage...

he never wants to hear my side of the story. he always assumes that if i tell him i had an accident, it's because i was speeding. he goes on and on about how i've got 2 speeding tickets, 3 spin-outs, and now my 3rd accident (2nd this month). i just wish he'd shut his f-ucking mouth for once. i swear to god, i might call the police about, he hits me so often i have to lock myself in my room. did anybody hear about the Scruggs kid who hung himself?

Originally posted by gthang
my dad never lets me get a word in. once he starts yelling, it's damn near impossible to shut him up, however, he has rifles in storage...

he never wants to hear my side of the story. he always assumes that if i tell him i had an accident, it's because i was speeding. he goes on and on about how i've got 2 speeding tickets, 3 spin-outs, and now my 3rd accident (2nd this month). i just wish he'd shut his f-ucking mouth for once. i swear to god, i might call the police about, he hits me so often i have to lock myself in my room. did anybody hear about the Scruggs kid who hung himself?

Dude, sorry to hear about your father, sounds like he's got serious problems.

But I gotta say, your driving record sucks. I drive pretty fast myself: commuting to work on familiar roads, I am constantly 15-20mph over the limit everywhere, from the 40+ on the 25mph backroads, to 80+ on the 65mph highway. I have zero tickets, zero accidents, zero driving incidents of any kind for... geez, let me think... last ticket was 1992 and I went to court and got out of it. Last accident was, gawd, 1984.

If my son had your driving record, I'd take the car away. Sorry bout your ride, good thing youre not hurt, but maybe you should take a step back, and a close look at the way you drive. Then I'm sure your relationship with your pops will change, BUT if he's hitting you, thats abuse and grounds for a shotgun to the knees!

I agree that your driving record alone leaves suspision about the accident. Not good buddy.

Ok.. now for something much more serious. DO NOT TALK ABOUT KILLING OR MAIMING SOMEONE IN A CHAT ROOM!!!! If your father is abusing you, talk to the authorities. Get help, and do it right. You deserve to not be abused. And also, If your seriously talking about killing yourself, GET HELP NOW!! I know your stressed. You need someone to talk to and unload your thoughts to. Maybe your joking in all this, but usually there is truth to flip comments. I am sure no one here wants to hear about a son killing a father, or a kid killing himself, much less someone from this board doing it!! Use your head here Ok? Do the right thing

yeah, i remember a day when we we dismantling a chair to take to goodwill, and he's undoing some screws and i started to help, and he aims that b.itchslapper at me. i can't take him anymore. sometimes i wish bad things for my father but the next day he's happy again. he's got to get some anger management a la Anger Management.

And besides, i've got pretty good driving skillz. I believe you're a good driver if you are able to handle corners at 100mph, avoid cops for 8 months doing 100mph and no radar detetcion, avoid getting sideswiped by a guy changing lanes as you're trying to pass him, etc. Believe me, even though the autobahn is an american speed freaks dream, as long as there are no cops around, you can do whatever speed you want on the highways.

anyway guys, I'm not really thinking about killing anyone, not even me. It's just that i get so f`ucking frustrated that it seems like a logical idea.[:(!]

sorry bud, if you drive like that, your a terrible driver. A good driver does not endanger others in any way. Your dangerous and need to settle down and realize there are other people on the road with you and deserve to be treated with safety and respect. Plus the fact of your accidents and spin outs.

Wow dude u guys are crackin down on this kid he got in accident, i did the samething that day, it was pooring rain and i hydroed doin like 35 and spun into a wall.

And hes like spilling his guts about how his dad beats em and ur like yeah id beat u too. go easy on the kid

[:p]

well with his driving record i really dont blame the father for getting upset. what he does to him i dont think is right and you need to get some help with that gthang. i would definately consider you a bad driver and a danger to others when you are driving that fast

Originally posted by ZtsFocus
Wow dude u guys are crackin down on this kid he got in accident, i did the samething that day, it was pooring rain and i hydroed doin like 35 and spun into a wall.

And hes like spilling his guts about how his dad beats em and ur like yeah id beat u too. go easy on the kid

[:p]

The fact that his father hits him is BAD FREAKIN NEWS and I sincerely feel for the kid. I, personally, did not say "yeah I'd beat you too". His father needs serious help. Substance abuse issues, perhaps? Anger management?

The fact that he cracked up the car (I prefer not to use the term "accident") is related to what appears to be crappy driving skills, and it is a completely different issue from the father situation. How many people managed to NOT ball it up in the rain that day? Almost everybody, right? So what are you trying to do, blame the RAIN? Call it a random chance occurance that was unavoidable? Bull. Take some responsibility for your own actions.

thanks guys. Um, lets see, i will start a new thread about the good driver part.

Now the reason i had the accident was because i'd never been in a puddle that deep before, and the winds pushed me into the stone wall, all the while i was trying to keep the car away from the wall that's why my steering got whacked up. It's because i was trying to avoid going to the wall and also steering the other direction to avoid going into oncoming lanes.

My first accident, which occured two years ago, was my fault. it was rush hour, on an exit ramp, trying to make a left, there was an endless line of cars coming from my right. so i finally found an opening, so i start to pull out, then realized a car was coming from my left and hit the brakes and he tried to avoid me but he hit in the right front of my civic, totaled the shi'tty car. someone broke into the car while it was at a garage awaiting the insurance adjuster. took $1k parts off my car and probably sold them to some dude from tijuana.

My second accident was earlier this month. i was at a yield sign and didn't realize that there was a merge lane just for us. well i pulled up a little further, you know, creeped up and this woman behind, prolly yakking away on her celly, rammed me from behind. No it didn't feel that good, if you know what i mean. my dad wasn't as angry as he was when i had my third accident. he even insisted on getting me an aftermarket rear bumper. that is, until i came home two hours after i left for school and told him that i busted up the steering. he took the money he put aside for the rear bumper, and spent it on repairing the steering and lower control arm.

Anyway guys, thanks for the sympathy, and yes, sometimes i do get freaked out doing the driving that i do, but that's for the new thread.

G-Thang

gthang, I'll happily give you credit for this: when you get rear-ended, that is ALWAYS the fault of the other guy. Cops look at it this way, insurance companies look at it this way. Sounds like even your unstable father looked at it that way.

The day I picked up my Focus, I was just leaving the dealership and about 2 miles down the road approached an intersection with a yield sign. Hey, I'm driving a freakin' brand-new car with about 5 miles on the odo - so, yeah, you can bet I'm slowing down and watching carefully thru this intersection. That's what "Yield" means. Next thing I know I hear SCCCRRREEEEEEECCCHHHHHH and a Jetta slides past me out into the intersection under full-lock, smoke pouring off the tires, the whole nine yards. Chick is still on her cell phone, but she's sawing away at the steering wheel and from the look on her face she probably lost her place in the conversation. She missed my brand-freakin'-new car by about an inch, and that is surely the closest I have ever come to crapping my pants in my adult life.

geez, see what i'm saying? Here in new york, you can't drive and chat at the same time, it's a misdemeanor. also you can't chat on your celly in a restaurant, movie theater, or any other public place. If you get a phone call while you're driving, either pull over, or let a passenger (if any) take the call. Sometimes, i think people are just too dam lazy to pull over. We don't have time for anything anymore these days. we need a change in the time system.

Gthang

My dad took the car in for repairs on Thursday of last week (October 30) and it's still in the shop today (November 3). Can't believe the car has been in there that long for a lower control arm. My windshield was several days too, and several trips and they still haven't fixed the windshield.

I hate that shop.

Gthang

the car is still in the shop , might as well perform the last warranty check-up while we're at it. I have to drive my mom's taurus until i get the car back.

The reason it's taking so long is because they had to search for a new wheel. the edge of the rim had been chipped off real bad. so they're going to replace that wheel, give the car an alignment, replace the front control arm, and who knows what else...

Because my parents are running low on cash, i need to find a job soon to support them, and to repay my father for everything he's done for me. Even tho he sounds abusive, he's still my father.

Later,
Gthang

well i got my car back from the shop (finally!) and it's much better. however i still have to replace the damaged FR wheel. dad is trying to bid on an ebay'd wheel. So i'll let you guys know how things go.

So there was a steering wheel vibration caused by a damaged rotor, that's fixed and the new wheel is on. It's much better, but not perfect. my dad thinks there's still some "rotational noise" -his words not mine. could it be the axle?

Originally posted by gthang
So there was a steering wheel vibration caused by a damaged rotor, that's fixed and the new wheel is on. It's much better, but not perfect. my dad thinks there's still some "rotational noise" -his words not mine. could it be the axle?

Wheel bearings.

umm, let's see a few months ago we just replaced the bearings. the sound of the noise isn't the same. maybe the brake caliper got jostled out of position because of the bent brake rotor?

Originally posted by gthang
umm, let's see a few months ago we just replaced the bearings. the sound of the noise isn't the same. maybe the brake caliper got jostled out of position because of the bent brake rotor?

Um, I dunno, gthang. I was just guessing on the wheel bearings because they could have been damaged by that same hit that bent your control arm and wheel. The caliper should re-center itself on the disc... unless something in the caliper mounts got tweaked too, preventing it from moving freely.