Uh-Oh, what did I break?

[goldfinger]

I was turning into a Kum&Go, the driveway was sharp and kindof downhill compared to the road I was coming off of. I had to turn fast because a car was coming behind me (freaks!) fixing to take my tail end off.

I heard this *THUD* and as I turned the wheel back straight it popped the whole way........ any ideas? I drove back 80 miles fine.... perfectly straight so I don't think it screwed up the alignment.

It almost sounded like the wheel rubbing, but I don't see that being possible. I felt the popping in the wheel..... maybe like power steering slipping?

Pretty much what I did was hit the front end hard with the wheel turned almost as far as it would go.

BTW, the car is FWD. 1997 Grand AM.

 

[Robbie Alexander]

WELL I am no mechanic. And I think we need more INFO on the sound, least I do. BUT let me tell you that the sound you describe IMO could be a BOOT or an Axle... Depending on the miles and such, again I'm no mechanic
BUT I have had the PowerSteering go out and the boots were fired too.

I have also been doing ABOUT 120-130+ on a long ROAD trip in a SUBaru, and my AXLE broke. I was in the mountains, almost killed myself, pulled off, and everything seemed okay, "drove" well too, got back on the expressway, and around 120-130+ it did it again but worse, this time When I turned right, the car went LEFT (NO JOKE) I almost died, serious... anyway that was the broken front AXLE on the 4wd.

[ January 16, 2004, 11:09 PM: Message edited by: Robbie Alexander ]

 

[goldfinger]

More info..... let's see. It's got 83,000+ miles. As for the sound there was an initial *thud* and as I got into the driveway and turned the wheel back straight there was a popping sound. It was consistant and it didn't stop until I stopped turning the wheel back straight. I pulled into the parking lot, looked it over, and made my phone call. Then I started it up without going anywhere, turned the wheel both ways and it sounded normal.

I drove down to the college parking lot, made a few laps at low speeds to see if I could repeat the noise, no dice. Even went slow over a few speed bumps to see if a shock would make some noise for me. I made a few low-speed sharp turns (backing out of a parking space, ect) and it didn't make a noise.

The axel story doesn't sound like much fun! I'm just glad I made it back home because it was pooring down rain. I'm going to take it to work this weekend (35mph, 2 miles) and take it to a shop Monday, explain what I did, the noise, and have them look it over.

Just curious as to what I'm in for.

[ January 16, 2004, 11:22 PM: Message edited by: goldfinger ]

 

[goldfinger]

Well, for the record I took it to the shop. They looked it over, drove it and gave it back to me. Said they couldn't find anything wrong with it, only a black mark where it looked like the tire rubbed. I still don't see how the tire could rub, it would have to be twisted WAY farther than it should have been.

Guess I'm happy. Nothing wrong and they didn't even charge me to look at it, just told me to come back when I did break something.

 

[eljefino]

Maybe you also hit the front under-bumper on the pavement. The sudden lack of weight on the tire would be reflected as the tire not fighting the steering as much and you'd feel it in the wheel.

I assume the mechanic checked your ball joints and tie-rod ends and those came up clean. If you're really worried jack the car up and push and pull on the tire every which way; make sure it feels solidly connected to the rest of the car.

 

[Willie]

Off the topic...but you gotta hear this. I owned a 89 Suburban and the rear-end gears cracked so I bought a reconditioned one from a junkyard and paid a local ma & pa shop to install it. Got it back, and was visually checking the rear-end in my driveway (crawled up under it). Low and behold, the village idiot mechanic put the sucker on there and all the gadgets/hoses but forgot to tighten 3 of the 4 U-bolts that hold the rear-end on the vehicle. And the 4th U-bolt wasn't even on the axle!!! The only thing that held my rear assembly on was weight!!! One good bump on the freeway doing 75 and it coulda killed my whole family and someone elses. I was a little too young to appreciate what I could have done to that moron shop, instead I just called the owner and informed him of the mishap. Dude didn't even offer to give me a discount or free oil change! Anyway, moral of the story is--DON'T EVER trust a third party to quality inspect your important components after messing with them. I double-check everything I've paid a mechanic to do. Once, at a Chevy dealer--I found parts that I was charged for, that I didn't even receive!!! What's the world coming to when you can't trust a mechanic????? ;-)

 

[JohnnyO]

Could be a CV joint binding up.