SSTHO

So, I'm heading down the I5 from Vancouver to Seattle with a 1.5 hour boarder wait of stop and go traffic with some giant speed bumps.

I realized I needed to tilt my steering wheel 3-5 degrees left to keep my car straight. Found that a bit odd and pulled over to the rest area. Looked around, everything seemed fine, but then I backed up slowly and my steering wheel tilted left more than 90 degrees. I got outside and saw my car was sitting on the front driver side tire,...

Tow truck came (had a heck of a time trying not to scrape the car with dollies and flatbeds). When unloading the car, we noticed that the rear windshield had shattered as well. Now it is at Barrier Porsche and Andrew Staffeld.

- Issue: disconnected front control arm. There were no nuts on the front control arm. There are supposed to be two nuts to secure the control arm. Barrier Porsche said that someone forgot to put them back after the alignment,...

- My thoughts: I don't know if this is Fordahl's issue or a freak accident. Barrier tells me that no matter how hard I drive (I have had 5 track days or so since the alignment with Fordahl Motorsports), they would not loosen these nuts. I've lost confidence in my car once again and just don't know what the truth is or what it is most likely. Would like to know what our forum experts think could have happened.

- Outstanding: dealing with cross-boarder claims for windshield on insurance is a serious PITA. Now I've got to try to get a towing company to pay for the windshield they broke. Yippie.

NorthVan

ouch!

Good thing that Barrier was open. MCL wouldn't have been, and they would be two weeks away from seeing the car.

Marine Blue

Glad you weren't injured, that could have caused a serious accident!

Good luck determining the cause. I do wonder though if removing the bolts for the control arms is required to align the car.

pissedpuppy

that sounds like a PITA Sunday - hope all works our well for you in the end

savyboy

Ugh.

1. To add/remove shims (camber adj) it is necessary to loosen two nuts, the ones I suspect you are referring to. 10mm. They attach the inner end of the LCA to the bushing end-piece.
2. No way those would come loose on their own.
3. Most likely they forgot to tighten them as they were playing with shim pack thickness to adj alignment.
4. Damn are you lucky this didn't happen on track.

Whew!

One of the many reasons I do most of my own work. I just don't trust anyone (I trust maybe two people).

NJ-GT

In my 996 GT3 I had double nuts in the front LCA (lower control arms) connecting the outer piece to the inner piece. This was done by Jon Groom's mechanic based on their experience.

You could not have survived one track day without those 2 nuts in the LCA, it would have been disaster.

Unless you add shims to the LCA, there is no need to loosen these nuts.

AllanJ

Bummer. Sorry to hear about this. Yes, those two nuts probably weren't torqued to specs and came loose.

Also, get a Nexus card.

Good luck with the tow company!

Izzone

Me too

I do better work drinking beer than most mechanics do in their shop

I wont mention the loose parts Ive found from shops

SSTHO

Thanks guys for the perspectives. I've had better days,...

Barrier was not open on Sunday for Service. Your dealings with MCL were that bad? I know their past-GM was very hard on US cars to protect the dealer business (priority for MCL sales customers for service over US cars).

tcsracing1

man that sucks big time, especially out of country.

i have had tires come off my rims at speed so i know what it is like to slowly regain confidence after something unexpected.

When using a car on the track, it is not uncommon to have to go through the entire suspension to check torq settings and alignment after a full day.
the harder you drive, the harder the bits n pieces are worked.

paint markers are great for checking suspension bolt movement after track play for piece of mind.

this is why i prefer shops who run CUP cars on a regular basis as it is second nature for them to do these small things that if not properly looked after could potentially lead to big problems on the road or track.

Pre track and post track inspection is part of the game when running speeds of 150 mph+ and sometimes in our shiny late model P cars we tend to neglect the idea.
I know i do at times

Some people confuse Cup car operating expenses as being more expensive then the street car.
One of the reasons in particular for Cup cars is due the amount of time and money pre and post track inspections command. That and replacing parts before they are actually broken.

Realistically we should be doing the same on our street cars if we are seeing high speed track duty.

On the bright side at least there is no internal damage like your spindle etc....

TRAKCAR

I used to do y own stuff and be scared.
As long as I can afford it I prefer to trust my local shop with my car.

Now that I'm broke I will ahve to buy a trque wrench and change my own pads and delay oil changes.

NorthVan

Had good and bad dealings with them. Called last week, the day I was to trade my car in, as I had an electrical issue. They told me that they were two and a half weeks to get in to look at. I explained I was in a jam, didn't make a difference. Eventually got a third party to fix it, was a loose wire.

ChrisF

Good to hear you're healthy in one piece. Not fun to question whether a shop you trust with your life may have broken that trust. Hope everything gets sorted out.

Targa Tim

Tell them you know me, talk to Danny or Ray, and you can book faster.

NorthVan

Ray was on vacation, I didn't have time to argue. Found someone to help.

Thanks for the offer, however I don't like to drop names.