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for awhile now i've been hearing a squeak from the rear, until toniight it didn't pose a problem. i'm driving home like normal from my gf's home and as i wait to turn left on a green, when i start off, all of a sudden i hear a loud bang and then metal scraping on the bottom. i immediatly get out to check whats wrong and to my surprise i see that the rear axle ( i think that's what it's called) on the passenger side has snapped and the spring is pushing it against the ground which is causing the scraping noise. i'm so pissed off, and sad right now, how could this happen. has this happened to anyone else before? some guidence would be nice. i'll try and get some pics up tomorrow

axle? I dunno but there is that lower support that holds in the spring. All that needs to come loose is a bolt, that could have easily rusted away or somehow backed off, or maybe broke?


Do you have your car lowered?

yes, i think that's what it is, it's holds the spring on the bottom, also it's right next to the sway bar end links. and no, my car's suspension is still stock.

thats a serious safety issue then, yikes!

How did you get home?

luckily i was 1 stop light away from my home. it was so embarressing. i crawled slowly home at like 5km/h and stopped occasionally so that it wouldn't heat up to much, cause i smelt metal burning. and some people said they saw sparks

ok, i feel screwed. what to do?

what year??
least expensive problem is if its just the lower control arm....anything more then that and it could be a whole slew of things, and the svt rear suspension parts arent cheap.

im gonna say more then likely you'll need to tow it to the dealer

Drop it off at the dealer.

Uh wow. What Anthony said for sure.

NOS2Go4Me,Jun 23 2006, 01:33 PM Wrote:Uh wow. What Anthony said for sure.
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If ur car is out of warranty all you need is a lower control arm and maybe swaybar linkage. I have heard no more than 3 cases happen since 2k, you're having some bad luck.

yea, i sure am having bad luck. here's a pic. i hope this makes better sense of it all and also you can help me clarify what the part is exactly. here's the pic. i hope i don't get in trouble by any ford reps. also, this crap had to have happened just as i'm about to leave to calgary in 1 week.

its the control arm
$130 for the part and i think its 1 or 2 hrs of labour to change by the book.

wow, that is a very odd place for it to break, what does the other end look like?( the piece wiht the camber bolt still attached to the subframe?

looking at the pic, you might be able to get away with jsut the control arm. itll depend how much stress that put on the other suspension parts. is the camber out real far or is still fairly neutral?

good luck, and i hope none of your bolts are seized cause that'll make it even funner!!!

i think the camber is way off, cause yesterday night i was trying to back into my driveway and my wheel looked like it sunk right into the finder parallel to the ground, well not that extreme but it was enough to freak me out.

Ouch!
That actually just happened to my dad's... He has an 04 zx5.... :unsure:

It was a pretty quick fix with the dealership, odd that it happened to both of you guys though!

SLIP STREAM SVT,Jun 23 2006, 12:16 PM Wrote:i think the camber is way off, cause yesterday night i was trying to back into my driveway and my wheel looked like it sunk right into the finder parallel to the ground, well not that extreme but it was enough to freak me out.
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you might be ok, are you plannign to bring it in to the dealer??

yes, i'm bring it back to dealer, i'm hoping to get a tow truck as i can't drive it right now. is a regular tow truck ok or would a flat bed be needed?

id say ur safer with a flatbed, beacuse a tow truck will put extra stress on that rear suspension.

better safe then sorry.

Yeah, bed that badboy.

Jesus Christ!

I've never seen that happen with ANY car.

Are you sure that it's never been in a collision? Some stress fractures would certainly do that. Not every day driving. Never in a million years.

It really looks like someone oversteered the car into a curb, and they just replaced the wheel/tire without checking if the control arm was fractured.

Quote:Ouch!
That actually just happened to my dad's... He has an 04 zx5.... 

It was a pretty quick fix with the dealership, odd that it happened to both of you guys though!

Guys, both of you call Transport Canada to open a defect investigation NOW. This is gonna kill somebody.

We've seen this happen with moddified cars, typically cars with big rear swaybars and nothing else. That is "excusable" in Ford's viewpoint because the cars are modified.

If this is happening to stock cars, it needs to be recalled.