Check your wishbones.

[backseateducation]

Driving back from the shop today I saw a work colleague stranded at the side of the road at a busy junction. Initially I was concerned he had been in an accident, but I discovered that a car had pulled out on him and as he slammed on the brakes, the offside lower wishbone had basically exploded, on a quick inspection seemingly down to having been weakened through corrosion. A lucky escape - at least he wasn't doing 70 on the dual carriageway at the time!


Fortunately we managed to organise a tow. Tilting trailer, but we had to take it in turns to man the hand-operated winch! Good job it's nearly tea time!

 

[Relliott6879]

That car had to have been giving warnings for some while for things to get that bad. Most of us have experienced worn wishbones and that 'wandery' feel, almost as though someone has another steering wheel as the car makes subtle changes in direction that you haven't requested. To get bad enough to completely fail, it must have been lived with/ignored for quite some time.

 

[shirtyzeus]

could u see where it snapped matt?
it would have had to have been SEVERLY corroded to break...something the mot man should have picked up on even a year ago.
but then its a front heavy ford galaxy? and with all the pot hole and speed bumps about this component is one of the most stressed and disregarded parts of the suspension.

 

[backseateducation]

Not really mate. It was in more than two pieces though, and obviously the driveshaft was hanging out. He did let slip that he had the passenger side replaced for the last mot - I told him he should have bought my Mondeo, I had both done at the last service.....

 

[Relliott6879]

I'm always bemused by folk who replace anything like tyres, track rod ends, road springs, wishbones in singles. If one side has gone, the other won't be far behind it and the renewed resilience of the new part will likely accelerate the remaining wear on it's counterpart.

 

[Quicksilver]

They are a completely different design to 'our' wishbones with one large horizontal bush secured within a collar(to the left of the photo)which is bolted to the subframe. If corrosion has got into the collar and weakened it I can imagine the sudden pivotal force of the emergency braking around the smaller vertical bush has forced the larger bush out of it's collar.



Genuine part from Ford is over £300.00

 

[shirtyzeus]

ford still up to its overpriced tricks then.

 

[backseateducation]

That's pretty much exactly it Andy, the collar was where the damage seemed to have started.

 

[Quicksilver]

Especially when you consider the price of the genuine bush and collar is £45.00

 

[mabo]

#6
Thats a crap design.

 

[The Amazon]

Remember my dad had a ball joint snap on his Austin 1300 many years ago, we lived in Worcester and had been to Birmingham that day got to the top of our road and bang, very frightening and Only doing a couple of mph as we were turning into our street.

 

[mabo]

Back 40 years ago my Triumph Spitfire used to snap the bottom trunnion on the front suspension upright fairly regularly. Fitted replacements road side several times.

Also had the top wishbone snap off the front subframe on my XJS 20 + years ago now. I thought it felt a little loose at the front, checked it after a few days and found I’d been driving with only the bottom wishbone doing any thing useful. Pretty impressive that it drove around as well as it did.
That was a front subframe replacement, I bought a scrap yard one, refurbed it and fitted it on my drive. Home made engine support for the 3.6 straight six. Challenging but satisfying.