Lucky but costly escape... UPDATED PICTURES

[the delta force 0]

Not a good story!!!

 

I had to move my Corrado from my sisters driveway to my house yesterday (no more than half a mile). I was doing about 20mph along Chiswick High Road when 'BANG' the car stopped suddenly and wouldn't move. Thought I had hit something but when I got out and checked, the front left side had dropped and was resting on the wheel which was almost at full lock on one side.

 

On closer inspection the left wishbone had snapped completely so there was no way it was going anywhere. Called the RAC who were there in ten minutes - and two vans turned up...

 

They managed to jack the car up and push it off the main road where I waited for a low loader to take it to JMR in Littlehampton.

 

John (JMR) already snowed under, straight away told me to get the RAC to bring it to him. When it got there, he called to say the subframe needs replacing as the corner of it has ripped out. He also said I'm a very lucky man not to have been travelling at speed when it went.....!

 

Should be getting a call with costs tomorrow....

 

Stefan

 

p.s. Have a photo on my phone which I will hopfully add a.s.a.p

[n3p 3]

Sorry to hear about that mate :( But atleast you're ok :D hurrah!

[dr_mat 0]

How could that happen?! Corrosion?

And how is that whenever anyone else calls the AA they get there in ten minutes, for me it's 90 minutes ... ?!

[ardandy 0]

It took the AA (well a local guy on behalf!) 40 mins to come to me and that was on xmas day! :lol:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

How could that happen?! Corrosion?

And how is that whenever anyone else calls the AA they get there in ten minutes, for me it's 90 minutes ... ?!

 

Because they know it's you and they drag their heels :lol:

[craigowl 0]

That is worrying.

Call me trusting, but how could a proper MOT check and or service not have revealed corrosion/wear sufficient for a robust component like a wishbone to fail like that?

[Jim 2]

Holy cow. That was a seriously lucky escape. I think i'd be getting John to have a THOROUGH look around the underside of the car to see if there are any other little gems like that waiting for you!

[DanVW 0]

Bloody hell :shock: glad your ok though fella, if you had been giving stacks down the motorway it could have been a different story!

 

I have been noticing/ignoring a knocking noise from my drivers side wishbone, best I get it looked at sooner rather than later!!

[the delta force 0]

I was going to take it into work that night which would have meant a drive to Heathrow on the M4... John (JMR) said I'm a very lucky man...

 

He only had a brief look last night but said it looks like corrosion. He'll tell me more today. I don't know if an MOT would pick that up (or am I being stupid) From what I could see yesterday, it seemed like there was more on the inisde, but it was difficult to tell.

 

As to the RAC, the first guy was there literally within 15mins and he called his colleague who got there in another 10. I don't normally write letters of thanks but they were so helpful that I did. The first patrol man stayed and chatted to me for over an hour before he had to go and called his control room twice for updates as to where to recovery lorry was. They said 18:00hrs and it got there 18:04, so you can't really beat the service I got from them.

 

I'm going to go on a bit but even John didn't have to take it at such short notice. I had called him earlier in the day just to check I was still o.k. to go down on the 31st for some other work to be done. He said he was having a knightmare day yesterday but when I called him again after it happened, the first thing he said was get them to recover it to his workshop. Again top service.

 

What's that saying about clouds having a silver lining???

[DanVW 0]

Top service all round but Pic's required! :-)

[ardandy 0]

I had a simliar thing on xmas day.

 

The trouble is, although it went in to get the seized brake caliper swapped I ended up saying "whilst its here!".

 

Although the extra did really need doing, a brake caliper turned into a lot more work for around £500!

 

Keep the blinkers on! :lol:

[the delta force 0]

Picture from mobile

[ardandy 0]

Would that be visible when its intact? Not sure it would be from there?

[ADZ_VR6 0]

Ill be cheking mine i think, did it give u any warning?

[the delta force 0]

I was in Poland for a week so I put it on my sisters drive and when I drove it back the half mile, there was a little more play in the steering but nothing to alarm me...

[the delta force 0]

Checked the other side and nothing visible....

[Sonicriot13 0]

I remember taking a mk2 golf I was doing up over to a mate who is MOT trained and he advised me to do the wish bones as they were so corroded they wouldn't get through. Probably because things like this happen.... Anyway mate, glad you're ok!

[davidwort 0]

Picture from mobile

is that really the wishbone that broke, the pic looks like it was the end of the subframe that gave way due to corrosion, nasty though.

[corozin 0]

It's really unfortuate to hear this happened to you but frankly I'm surprised we havn't seen more of this.

 

We shouldn't forget that our cars really are getting pretty old now and the subframes on these cars are not the most corrosion resistant part of the car. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking things underside are 100% simply because the Corrado bodywork resists corrosion pretty well for a car of it's time.

 

My recommendation to anyone who hasn't done this before is to check (or get fully checked) all the underside stuff when you next get an opportunity. Don't rely on the MOT station to tell you. Specifically you need to check the subframes, wishbones, suspension bushes, tank straps, brake lines, exhaust brackets and the state of the lower sections of the slam panel (that mounts the radiator and sits behind the front bumper).

 

I'm not scare-mongering but you should be aware of the state of these items and if necessary make a plan to replace them over time in risk-order. Wishbones for example really aren't expensive (from GSF). Don't forget that the Corrado is a powerful car with a potential 150mph+ top end and in that sense should be maintained in a a similar way to as if you owned a Porsche. You really don't want anything to fall off when you're pressing on, as the OP has been fortunate to find out without injury.

 

John

[ADZ_VR6 0]

Ive just changed most of the suspension and put new wishbones on cos of worn bushes, only really changed struts at back and im doing all the brakes. is there anything else i should be looking at, do i change the sub frame what would one cost. how far do u go ? advice please

[Andy665 0]

Corozin - totally agreed - when I bought the Nugget G60 I got John (JMR) to do exactly as you have said, anything that John suggested was replaced was replaced.

 

John (as a qualified MOT tester) was very thorough and took the cautious approach, if it was suspect it was replaced - might have cost me more initially but seems to have worked out for me - 100% reliability over 35,000 miles and coming up to 4 years.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you're OK and the car is repairable - could have been so much worse

[corozin 0]

Ive just changed most of the suspension and put new wishbones on cos of worn bushes, only really changed struts at back and im doing all the brakes. is there anything else i should be looking at, do i change the sub frame what would one cost. how far do u go ? advice please

 

 

Well as I said above the first step is do assess the state of things. By now even the latest subframes will be starting to show signs of wear and tear even on well maintained cars. As with many mechanical things there is no hard rule determining whether a piece needs to be swapped out as so much depends on the life the car has lead & how it's stored etc.

 

My '93 car has lead a pretty hard life (including trackday work) and when it was in bits last summer I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it was holding up. That said it was showing signs of surface rust so I had it shotblasted and recoated as a replacement was not required. By contrast the subframe of a '95 car that I owned until 2005 was in a lot worse state corrosion wise than my current car's one was, despite the fact that (at that time) the car was effectively 4

[the delta force 0]

Just got off the phone to John (JMR) who has managed to source the last subframe at VW in Germany which is going to be shipped over tonight...

 

I'm heading down there for the day tomorrow to see the damage as he is even shocked. It has rusted from the inside so no real way of telling it was that bad.

 

The subframe has ripped out the mounting point. Again he said it was luck that I was not travelling at speed.

 

More photo's tomorrow......

[the delta force 0]

Just back from JMR and John already has the new subframe from Germany. It literally is the last one from the factory.

 

John was right about being lucky... see attached photos.

[ADZ_VR6 0]

Just back from JMR and John already has the new subframe from Germany. It literally is the last one from the factory.

 

last one to be made? are they now obsolete