Who here has worse luck with cars than me?

Patrick

Patrick

Registered
August of 2006, I purchased a 2004 Mustang. Four months later (January 2007), a drunk driver t-boned me in the passenger side, causing $16,000 worth of damage and hence totaling it.

February of 2007, I bought my first Mark VIII, a silver 1996 in pretty shoddy aesthetic condition, but good mechanical condition. A few weeks later, I get rear-ended in a parking lot, and from then on, my Mark keeps cutting off on me. After a few months and a huge hassle, I finally fix it.

And then, on 17 September 2007, I bought my new Mark, a red 1997 in near perfect condition except for about four nickel-sized dents, and a little difficult starting.

Driving down the road tonight, I hear a loud pop and the message center starts flashing "CHECK AIR RIDE SYSTEM" and "CHECK TRACTION CONTROL" back to back. Yeah, the driver side front air bag blew out on me. I car the roadside assistance number given to me with the warranty when I bought the car, and after standing outside for nearly an hour and a half, a tow truck shows up to take me home. I would've had it taken to a shop, but seeing as how it might be covered under warranty, I might have to go to a specific shop.

So far, it's not that bad, right? A blown air bag-- easily fixed, right?

Well, not anymore.

The truck gets to my house and the driver asks where I want to car dropped off. I tell him he can put it in the road and I could drive it up into the yard and deal with it tomorrow, since it's way too dark out to do anything now.

I'm standing in the driveway on the passenger side of the car, so I can't see the damaged part of the car. The driver is taking it off the bed of the tow truck and I hear a bang. At this point, I'm thinking that another one of the airbags popped. Nope! He comes up to me and says "Wooo you f***ed up more than the suspension.

Me: "Oh great... what happened?"

Him: "Your whole freakin' wheel just fell off."

Obviously, he had to leave the wheel pressing up against wheel well in order to get the car off the bed without doing *too much* damage to the car. So right now, the car is sitting in the middle of my yard with the driver side front tire literally almost perpendicular to the car. It looks like the wheel's still attached to the axle... if it is, the car's definitely totaled.

All I have to say is Monday, Mike Gerber's definitely going to hear from me. And I don't even know what's going to happen if my freaking warranty doesn't cover this.

Thank goodness for having backup transportation. My '96 still runs fine, and I've got a motorcycle. (2006 Suzuki Boulevard C50)
 
haha, I'll have pics posted tomorrow when it's lighter out and I'm not so shaken up. And to think... I even (briefly) thought about driving it home since I was only 2 miles away.

I seriously think I need to get rid of the "lucky" rabbit's foot that I keep on my keychain. (it's been there since I bought the Mustang... there's nothing lucky about that charm).
 
Oh no! Well, look on the bright side - you weren't hurt in any of these accidents, right?

I sure hope that warranty pays off, let us know what happens.
 
Get a little angle for your mirror....its worked for us and we have 11 cars! :D
 
I rarely hear of people literally driving cars until the wheels fall off....although technically on my first car I guess I did. A downed tree/wild ride removed mine.....as well as the caliper. Didn't see that turn...


I have had some bad luck with cars, but doesnt sound as bad as yours.
 
It sounds to me like you just broke your lower ball joint (along with the bad air spring).

That's not a big deal, a new lower control arm should fix you right up. Hopefully you didn't damage the fender though.
 
Pictures!

Pictures!

IMG_0209.jpg

oh God how did this get here I am not good with cars

IMG_0210.jpg

hmm... something doesn't look quite right...

IMG_0211.jpg

body damage

IMG_0213.jpg

under the car

IMG_0214.jpg

a little blurry, but closeup of under the car
 
Yes, you were lucky that you weren't driving when that ball joint failed.

You can see the ball joint socket, at the end of the control arm, is missing it's ball. It's still connected to your spindle.
 
Wow...the noise the ball joint makes long prior to failing like that surely means SOMEONE didn't heed it's warning.
 
budpytko said:
Wow...the noise the ball joint makes long prior to failing like that surely means SOMEONE didn't heed it's warning.
Click to expand...

you hit the nail on the head, a ball joint doesnt just bust like yours did, they make alot of noise long before they " pop " as did your lower ball joint. your loose feeling and sounding front end should have given you fair warning that some day left untreated this was going to happen to you, just be damn thankful you werent cruising down the interstate at 70 mph when this broke, otherwise you may not have been around to tell all of us about what happend. buy a new lower left control arm, and a new air strut and put it back together, then rebuild the rest of the front end too, because if that ball joint broke, the others are right behind, looks like you may have warped the fender just a touch too, but not nearly as bad as what could have been, the car is far from totalled though, you got REAL lucky my friend!!!
 
Well, I'm not going to try to weasel my way out of this, but I'm just going to say that yes, I knew that it couldn't be good, but I took it to a mechanic to look at because I'm not very good when it comes to cars, and he told me up front that, and I quote, "right now, it's more of an annoyance than anything else. You've still got a good six or seven months before you even need to worry about it."

I figured a licensed mechanic would know what he's talking about, but I guess not, eh? haha

The odd thing is, though, that as of about a week ago, it didn't seem to be making the noise anymore. I didn't even realize this until I just started thinking about it now, but it very well might be that I just grew accustomed to it and didn't notice.

Probably a silly question, but just in case this isn't covered under the warranty, is this repair something that I'd be able to do myself? Work referring to both the suspension and the lower control arm. If it's something that I can do myself (and isn't covered by the warranty), I want to just replace the suspension all the way around with coilovers to eliminate any potential airbag or compressor failure in the future.

Edit: Thanks for the kind words, Jamie. And it's funny you should mention cruising down the interstate at 70mph... the night before this happened, I was going to take a ride down the interstate (at 70mph, no less) about 20-30 miles to badger one of my friends into giving me the $150 he's owed me for about three months now (I bailed his car out of impound a while ago after he got towed for parking in the wrong lot). Well, just before I leave, I give him a call, and he's working, so I didn't go on the long ride out there and back.

I guess Driller was right-- in a twisted sense of the word, maybe that rabbit's foot is lucky.

Edit 2: I was originally thinking about going out tomorrow and jacking it up a bit and putting a jack stand under it, just so I can get the tire out from under and take weight off of everything, but then I realized that that probably wouldn't be too good of an idea to have the jack stand sitting on dirt and grass. If it rains and the ground warps and that stand moves, the car's probably going to come crashing down, and the jack stand is going to jab into things that it was never meant to touch.

Do y'all think it would be a good (read: better) idea to go to a mechanic and see about getting just a cheap, old, used, bald tire from them, jacking up the car, and laying the tire beneath the control arm and letting the car sit on that for the time being?
 
Last edited:
Well, I'll take a lot more pics tomorrow when I get it jacked up and can get different angles. Just by looking at the pics, would it be possible for y'all to identify *everything* that needs to be replaced? So far we're up to tie rod, lower control arm, air spring... haha.

Dear God I hope this is covered by the warranty. x.x
 
Well, I called the warranty services, and tie rods and control arms aren't covered... which, if you ask me, is pretty stupid because while I may not be very good at auto mechanics, they sure seem to be a pretty vital part. I talked to Mike Gerber (the dealer who sold me the car) and he claims he has no idea how it could've happened, but that he'd take the pics that I printed out to a mechanic that he knows to see what he has to say. I'll take the pics to Art (the guy that fixed my '96 for me) to see what he has to say, and if it's all too bad... I guess I've got a project ahead of me. :)
 
Make sure you use quality suspension parts....

Suspension parts need to be fixed before things like this happen. If the car is making noise it is NOT normal... and should be fixed immediately... but I am sure you learned that lesson now. I am glad you didn't get hurt.

BTW I don't see anything wrong with your air bag... what do you mean it "blew"? Were the bags leaking down over night for some or what?!
 
Well, I assumed that the bag blew because when I turned the car on (before the tire fell off), the compressor would pump and pump and pump until it displayed the "CHECK AIR RIDE SYSTEM" message. I figured that since the compressor was working overtime, the bag was leaking all the air that was being put in.

Since it's not covered by the warranty, I'd just assume do the repairs myself, including replacing the suspension all the way around with coilovers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top