Why preventative maitenance is so good

[texan_idiot25]

On the way to work, I saw this perticular linoln on the side of the road. I could not at first figure why the car was leaning so much (I was coming down the road, looking at it's driver's door). Did they just park it on the median for some reason? I pass, and see it's nosed down in one corner... Get past, and I glance back in my mirrors to see something so awesomely sad, I had to run home, grab my camera, and get pictures:





Your asking yourself, "WTF LOL" right?

Turns out, the lower ball joint failed. Something that is checked at every tire and brake job (or should be), and easily checked in your driveway with any long prying item and some jacks. The results get ugly and EXPENSIVE.












This is what I think happened. The ball joint must have failed as they were turning right. Not knowing what to do, they put it in reverse and dragged the front end over back to this side road. You can see the marks from the lower control arm dragging, and the tire marks from it being stuffed inside the fender. The wet spot is the brake fluid, the brake line ripped when the driver went into reverse and stuffed the tire up into the wheel well. Must have all just come out when he hit the brakes for the last time to stop.



Even AAA said **** it! The car was here for most of the day


Ironically, this other Ford suffered the same fate.

[GearHeadV8]

hahaha that really sucks. that ford is hot i want a ride like that

[KITT222]

Wow that sucks. From the rea I would've said it was a sway bar or suspension issue but OUCH! That really sucks. I sense a new knuckle in this cars future. Maybe some bodywork. Hope the folks who were driving it didn't have a heart attack. Something like that would scare the heck out of me!

[TheB1GDude]

Lucky it wasn't doing 65 down the freeway otherwise that would have been a nasty pile-up....

[ravevolution]

oooh that sucks and boy is it gonna be expensive to repair that.

I work at a autoshop (a big name one) and I cannot stress enough preventive maintenance for vehicles.

I of course always get a customer or few who doesn't understand that paying X amount of dollars for a job and the amount of time it takes and let alone money involved to take care of them and further the more ya neglect it the more its goin to cost you in the end.

'You gotta pay to play' as one of my co-worker says lol

[texan_idiot25]

Originally Posted by TheB1GDude

Lucky it wasn't doing 65 down the freeway otherwise that would have been a nasty pile-up....

He's 100 yards from the freeway, this street is right off a feeder. Missed it by a mile.

[Kaze]

Makes me nervous cause the last time i redid all the brakes in my sable the driver side ball joint was showing some light wobble. My cousin was first to notice it, it wasn't anything horrible, but seeing this I can't help but remember his words... "These cars are known to have terrible ball joints"

So i guess you can say I'll be keeping a closer eye on it (I'm a paranoid type of guy). But this uterly sucks, I can only hope if something like that ever happens to me I'm as "fortunate" to not be on a highway.

[okoye]

DEMON CAMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!11!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FTW

oh yea hella stretch bruh

[kendallcschm]

wow.. XD i think its kinda funny when people don't think or care to check to see if their cars are ok.. lol.. whos ever Lincoln that was is so screwed XD ... i like that ford too.. maybe ill get one of those for my first car.. throw in a 900 V twin and ill be good XD

[clintr79]

They always check ball joints at saftey inspections.
My daughter has that same truck she loves it just had to but new tires the other ones went bald.

Ironically, this other Ford suffered the same fate.
[/QUOTE]

[winner]

Originally Posted by clintr79

They always check ball joints at saftey inspections.
My daughter has that same truck she loves it just had to but new tires the other ones went bald.

Ironically, this other Ford suffered the same fate.

lol i love thoose things too, my 4 year old neighbor lets me barrow hers, lol theres nothing like seeing a 15yr old 5'11 foot dude riding down the street in a barbie jeep lol i kinda gotta help it up the hills though

[texan_idiot25]

Is anyone missing the irony that it too is missing it's front passenger tire? I didn't take a picture of the stupid thing for chits and giggles

[winner]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

Is anyone missing the irony that it too is missing it's front passenger tire? I didn't take a picture of the stupid thing for chits and giggles

lol well, if you zoom in you can see that it was not a ball joint failure, the wheel is just not on the axle

[ling427ttvette]

When I saw the picture on the back of the car, I figured it was just a blown air bag in the rear causing it to lean.. but it just didn't look quite right.

Holy crap, I can understand that they needed to get the car off of the road, but had they left the car where it was it wouldn't have broken all of that extra stuff. It would have at the least needed the ball joint replaced.

God, they're not even that hard to do.

[texan_idiot25]

Meh, I'd wager anything that broke, would've broken when the joint failed.

[jimmythekid1]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

Meh, I'd wager anything that broke, would've broken when the joint failed.

if they had left it be I would say the tire and brake hose could have been saved

[ling427ttvette]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

Meh, I'd wager anything that broke, would've broken when the joint failed.

Yeah, the tire and brake hose would have been fine if they just left it. I had a couple vehicles come into the shop with broken ball joints, didn't really cause any other damage to the vehicle.. now if they tried to move it then yeah, it would have done what you see here.

[texan_idiot25]

They were moving when it broke, stuffing a tire up into the fender would have damaged the line and tire anyways. And only stupid ****s don't move their car off a road where drivers regularly do 50-60 mph.

[erics00ls]

I've seen a bunch of Ford cars (crown vics / marquis ' / mustangs / etc) with the ball joints failed like that on the side of the road.

GM > Ford.

inb4"but they're bankrupt"