[Mike_Mac]

im pretty lucky with this one. earlier in the day i spent 4hrs on the highway, drove around down. then at 6pm i was heading down my street to pick up some fire wood. i heard a rumble sound after 10-20sec i went to pull off the road, when i hit the brakes and started to turn the control arm came off the knuckle.

amazingly looks like a new axle and pinch bolt and the car will be good.
the shock/top plate/spring were not damaged
control arm has some scuffs and the boot tore, but ill be replacing that when i get $ for the CFM or dominent arms.

tire has some damage to the tread (from the road)
rim was scraped a bit but not much, mostly just removed power coating

tie rods good, knuckle looks fine

fender is not really damaged. the fender liner is a bit chewed from the tire but still intact.

all done by a pinch bolt that failed.

 

[2002greenzx3]

wow that sucks man. but at least it's not too hard of a fix

 

[Mike_Mac]

when i first saw it i thought this would be a 1k fix, but everything held up but the axle. should be up and driving tomorrow if it doesn't rain and ford stocks the bolt and napa has the axle.

i was thinking, new control arm, new fender, new axle, new tire, new tie-rod, new shock/strut

 

[sleepyboy]

Wow luckily you pulled over when you did or it would be all that you thought it would be to fix and maybe even more.

 

[Mike_Mac]

Wow luckily you pulled over when you did or it would be all that you thought it would be to fix and maybe even more.

i was doing 60 when it failed, i think the rumble was the arm coming out and when i touched the brakes to slow down the torque from that pulled the assembly sideways.

at first i thought the carrier bearing took a shit, it sounded like the rumble was coming from under the passenger side (my girl friend thought it came from there too)

 

[Mike_Mac]

i pretty much tried keeping the car straight till i slow down enough and tried to move it towards the side of the road.

my original goal was to park in that lot (can see in the pics) and see whats up, then this happened, lol

 

[stilix]

Dam dude the really sucks.

 

[Mike_Mac]

i felt much better knowing it was a cheap fix, but then i was thinking what if i was in traffic taking a turn and this happened.

i think of one cornor in town i daily take fairly fast because its fun (speed limit is 50 and most people slow down to 20-30 but the focus can hold 50 threw it easily). if it failed doing that i would have hit other cars and probably get badly injured. making me re think how i drive the car now.

 

[misfire]

that sucks! scares the crap outta you when your car drops to the ground doesnt it? lol. happened to me in my crown victoria police interceptor a couple years back.

 

[don627]

Yikes!

 

[Mike_Mac]

that sucks! scares the crap outta you when your car drops to the ground doesnt it? lol. happened to me in my crown victoria police interceptor a couple years back.

car didn't feel like it dropped much, but it pulled really hard into oncoming traffic, make a horrible screech. im just lucky this didnt happen when i was on the highway doing 120 and cars all around me.

im still kinda shakey from it scariest thing i have had happen do me, i thought my car might be toast.

weirdest thing i drive the car fairly hard, it sees the drag strip ~2 times a month. and it fails when cruising at 60 with nor real warning, other then a few sec of noise.

guess being 7 years old and 250k did its toll. needless to say i'm replacing both bolts and will probably look into replacing most/all bolts on the car.

 

[sleepyboy]

Wow 250k mi, that and those bolts should be replaced each time they are taken off if I remember right, wow lol

 

[Tom-E09]

well theres your problem.. the control arm isnt connected..


jk. Glad you and the car were ok

 

[WiscoGTI]

Sheesh. Good thing that didn't happen at 75mph on the freeway.

 

[mikebontoft]

your alignment is out a bit... ha.

I'm impressed the brake line didn't separate!

 

[Lowtek]

Holy crap dude! I bet that was scary.

P.S. your car is the 5-door version of mine.

 

[volcomstone1966]

s#it that sucks

 

[don627]

I think I'm going to go check my pinch bolts!

 

[benkap]

Ball joint failures are TERRFYING.

Nothing like your wheel going sideways at crusing speed.

 

[alex62390]

DO THAT RUBBER BRAKE LINE, it has been stretched and is now possibly weak.