Yep, it happened to me

[resuwrecked]

I have read a few stories about this scenario taking place, and damn does it suck when it happens to you. This took place a few weeks ago.



The lower ball joint decided to take vacation, leaving me to skid for what seemed like a quarter mile. It was also nice how it happened on a sweeping turn, trying to shove me into the other lane, where there happened to be an oncoming car :confused1:. My fender got a little messed up, easily bent back into shape. The axle ripped out, flinging the steel balls everywhere.

The tire wore 'till it blew out. Nice huh.

Luckily I was close to my parents' house. My Dad came and I jacked the car up, kinda reassembled the axle, popped the ball joint back together, and threw on the spare. He flat towed me the 2 miles to the house.


New axle, new used set of front tires (thank you Expert Tire used tire pile at 10pm), and I'm good to go again :toothy8:
I think the first half of the skid took place after I hit a bump at wot, causing the wheel to pull forward and toe in, causing me to veer left a little, then as I started to brake, it slammed back into the wheelwell and toed 90* out lol.

[David88]

Wow. Glad your ok. Thats a scary ride.

[sasquatch]

ouch... im glad you are ok and the festiva is back and driving again

[thered56]

ooooo dude, glad everything is alright, dangerous stuff. I'm glad I just replaced mine! hehe

[festivaWES]

Wow, lucky outcome! Could of been much worse.

[MONSOON]

Oh damn! Glad youre alright and were able to get it fixed.

[Hodag'stiva]

Me Too

Happened here, too. In front of my town's McDonald's. At 8:30 in the morning. At least I was able to grab my Sausage McMuffin with Egg while waiting for the tow truck.

It sucks, it's a design flaw and it's damn more irritating than burning through mufflers every 10,000 miles.

Glad to see you survived it unscathed.

B

[Britstiva]

Wow guys, that looks very painful! Is there anything the rest of us can do to avoid this problem with our cars?

[Hodag'stiva]

Wow guys, that looks very painful! Is there anything the rest of us can do to avoid this problem with our cars?

I'm reminded of a corpsman who treated me for kidney stones a long time ago. I basically begged the guy to give me the secret of avoiding them ever again. edited for language

To my knowledge, there's not much. Maintain your alignment, keep an eye on your boots. If anyone does work on your CV joints, make sure they know what the hell they're doing. At the first sign of popping noises, take it to the shop.

The good news is that it's not likely to happen at speed. Mine happened as I pulled out of a parking lot and into traffic - I'd be curious to know how fast resuwrecked was going and how much he turned the wheel - mine was pretty much cranked all the way over when it happened.

B

[resuwrecked]

I was going over 60 :toothy10:. I hit a bad bump and when the suspension was rebounding it separated. The typical shake the wheel up and down to check for ball joint play doesn't work on our cars. With the car in the air you have to pull/pry down on the swaybar/lower control arm and if there is any movement, get a new one.

[Britstiva]

So basically, it was the lower control arm failure with a mix of a bad cv joint? I know in my Aspire, the lower control arm and ball joint are built in together. So while I was having the drive axles replaced, I had the control arm replaced too.

[muscle_Car1]

I've had 3 bad control arms in my day. I always have a few lying around for when they might start to go bad. Its what $50 for a pair? And how much is a single tow?

[festymick]

OH MY GOD.
You were so lucky! Damn it looks messy hay? Whew.
I'm still shocked by those pics- incredible.

[Ogrestiva]

Mine happened coming out of a walgreens parking lot

[m715]

I have changed them out with as little as 15,000 miles or so on them before. It was in a turn on a narrow 1 1/2 lane road with uneven surface ( you guys in MD have NICE roads to drive on, and have somewhere to get off the road too), and it peeled a slice like a lathe off a stock alloy wheel..... A LONG chip that looked like a birds nest. If there is ANY play, I swap them now. Wish I still could get some TRW arms.... they lasted best of all the brands.