Dave Parker

Last week, I had the right rear lower ball joint fail at the bottom of the threaded portion (going about 50 mph). Needless to say, this let the suspension separate, giving lots of camber and initially, a large amount of toe-out on that wheel. .... Did about 3 tank slappers until finally contacting the bridge concrete side with the rear corner.

The car has about 80k on it and last Spring I installed a set of PSS-9s and had the Kanas City dealer do a full alignment. .... Has anyone heard of this happening before?

Apearantly, you can not replace only the ball joint? Must replace the entire lower arm with the ball joint embedded in it?

pcar964

Ouch, sorry to hear that - did they check the condition of the ball joint when they installed the PSS9s?

Bull

I saw the same thing happen a year or so ago to a friend with a 80k C4S track car (some street) at Summit Point. He was a lot more fortunate as it happened when he came in from the last run (Red group) of two days, 5 runs/day. He was changing his wheels, let the car off the jack and there was a loud TWANG! It is interesting at 90+ degrees, sweating like rented mules, trying to get the car, with about 45 degrees of toe out, on a trailer.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune!

Dave Parker

I did the install and since that joint does not need to be separated to install the PSS-9s, I did not inspect the 'spindle' of the ball joint.

Dave Parker

Here's a picture of the rear ... you can see the wheel toed-out.

Unfortunately, it pushed the back end over and tweaked both rear quarter panels.

chris walrod

Dave, this truly sucks. I would be interested in seeing some pictures of the ball joint and wishbone. I certainly hope she gets fixed-up nicely!

pcar964

Ouch, that's a real shame... I wonder how much rear subframe damage was done? Keep us posted on the damage report, hopefully this doesn't become a warning of things to come on all of our 10 year old 993s...

Martin S.

Can we see a pic of the part that failed???

Thanks,

Martin

Dave Parker

I'll ask the shop to keep the part for me. I'm curious myself to see if there is a fatigue crack or what.

If they have to get the entire arm, it looks like a 2 to 3 week wait.

Flying Finn

That sucks Dave even though it could've been vorse.

Very interested about hearing/seeing more.

Premier Motorsp

I had this happen to me while leading GT3 at 24hrs of Daytona in 98. This would be the first street car I have seen have the failure.

It is hard to imagine why this part would ever break on a street car.

Scary. No warning at all and a crash is inevitable.

Chris Cervelli
Premier Motorsports

speedster 94

it is a common mistake with the pss when installed not right . This controlarm can be touched by the
stabilizerhanger on the pss , check the controlarm if it has some scratchmarks . I have seen that 2 times for the same reason , the stabihanger on the shockabsorber has to be in a certain angle ,otherwise it will hit the control arm when the car moves up and down .
Harald

tj90

Like others have said - it could have been much worse - luckily you and others around you were not hurt. Imagine no concrete wall on the bridge you were on? Cosmetically, this is not too challenging to correct. I hope that no major damage was done to the frame - maybe that is where the walls could have helped you out - looks more like a glancing blow...
Please post pics of the ball joint/control arm when you get a chance. I have aftermarket suspension (not PSS9) and based on what others have said, Im going to jack mine up and inspect for wear etc.
My experience on ball joints (unfortunately not porsche) is that they are all press fit. I had one dealership tell me that I had to buy the entire arm cause that what was the only thing available from the manufacturer. I kept calling around and did find the ball joint only... They are around, but trying to locate a porsche specific one may be more daunting. May pay to look around... A dismantler may be an option, but based on your experience, I doubt I would mess with used ball joints....

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Harald is absolutely correct here and I'd also add that I've seen cars come into the shop with loose bolts at the bottom of the shocks and lower toe control links that caused the very same thing.

viperbob

Like Chris said, I have not seen one of these fail on the street. I have seen cars that were in accidents that caused cracking of the arm and needed to be replaced. The ball joint on the rear suspension is not even replacable. You have to get a new lower control arm. These are readily available however. I can see two suppliers outside Porsche that even stock them. Don't know why your shop would tell you that it will take 2-3 weeks to get.

Glad when it happened though that you were not hurt, and the car was not more seriously damaged.