Wheel came off on motorway, are garage liable??

[Bs6VR6 10]

Well, had an interesting Friday night. On our way to hot-rod hayride yesterday, M4 is heavy and the rain is lashing down. Traffic ahead is slowing and eventually stops. I go to pull away and feel a horrendous clunk from the front left, can tell straight away something catastrophic has happened. Get out and passenger wheel is hanging off lodged under the arch. Driveshaft hanging there.

Thankfully two guys in a pickup managed to pull the stricken car from he middle lane and onto the hard shoulder. 3 hour wait in horizontal rain to be collected. Reason? It appears the lower balljoint had not been correctly attached. Of the three bolts that hold it to the wishbone the front was missing. But here is the strange thing the other two were still in place? Also no damage to the balljoint? Only had the tracking done 4 weeks ago, my only idea is the idiots didn't have the balljoint correctly inserted into the wishbone and as a result it was effectively only being pinched in there by the prong at the front. Where the hell do I stand as it's made a right mess of the front left corner, wings screwed. Not sure about track rod. But cv joint is now knackered. But more importantly if this had happened at speed we could all be dead. I'm fuming but want to know where I stand before I call them. Anyone offer any insight. I'll try and upload a picture shortly.

 

Max,

 

Edited July 25, 2015 by Bs6VR6

[lilfuzzer 1]

Not sure how you stand mate gutted for you. So much work you have done sorry to hear this happen

[Yandards 0]

First of all as you say lucky it was at low speed.

 

Looking at the pictures and I am guessing the balljoint bolt holes on the centre and rear are ok it seems that they were not through the balljoint holes themselves and have been like that for quite some time - in fact looking at the anti roll bar link bolt thread (which is obviously new) they are much older.

 

Not sure what work aside from tracking you had done and if it was just toe in/out or a full camber/caster check too - which it should have failed.

 

Dig out any receipts you may have as a starter for ten as they may well argue they did not disturb the balljoint - they should have spotted it though.

[Bs6VR6 10]

Hi, all components were new or bought within 6 months, all 3 of the 13mm bolts, the top plate, balljoint everything. It was a complete set up. They did everything, as it was all put together new and I had no way of setting it up in the garage. I had to farm out the setting up, So a complete geometry set up from scratch apparently to original VW spec. But I remember at the time they didn't charge me full whack as they were unable to get all aspects as per the spec they had on computer. They blamed it on the fact it was lowered. Now the adrenaline and shock have worn off I'm fuming,left with a potentially massive repair bill, endangered all three of us plus whoever else was on the motorway, and logically the only conclusion I can come up with is that the balljoint was not correctly bolted and effect my only sandwiched between the wishbone, lethally dangerous!! I've done nearly 800miles since the tracking so this could of gone at any time at any speed. Shudder to think!

Cheers Chris, appreciate the sympathy, just raging now but want to ensure I have them bang to rights befor I call!

[VAG-hag 0]

Hard to right now but consider your absolute luck you weren't testing out the pull mate!

[Bs6VR6 10]

Guys it makes me feel a bit sick to think about it, I've driven to Devon and silverston prior to this and it could of gone at any time. I consider myself incredibly lucky it went when it did. It could of been so much worse, I don't even want to think about it.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

not nice seeing this, could of been worse and atleast parts can be replaced, really not sure where you stand, i guess it comes down to weather you can prove it hasnt been played with since being fitted?

[Bs6VR6 10]

There arranging a tow truck to collect the car and take it in. I cannot get my head round how it even happened though. The two bolts were still in and tight. No damage to any of the holes in the lower ball joint. Passed 2 MOT's with no mention of any issues from front suspension. And I've done nearly 800miles with no issue. No noises bar the dust shield and no funny feeling suspension. Handled beautifully. I'm just baffled.

Wheel is back on now anyway and apart from outer cv and wing doesn't appear to be any damage to anything else. Still feel very shaken up. To be fair Its kinda the last straw really. Thinking I'm gunna get this all fixed and then put her up for sale. Ive got too much going on at the moment to be throwing endless money at the car. Will be a total bargain to someone as the amount of work and parts bought is huge. See how I feel once it's fixed I guess but can't even stand to look at it at the moment.

 

Max,

[dragon green 4]

Gutted you missed the Hayride,

As said,at least it was at low speed,and still repairable

[Bs6VR6 10]

Cars now at the tracking place so will see what they say. They haven't charged me to recover the car back to them, so at present they are at least being agreeable. See what they have to say now. Once back together it didn't appear to have any damage to anything bad the outer cv and wing. If that's all that's been broke I will consider it a very good outcome considering what could of happened.

[VAG-hag 0]

Really hoping for a good outcome mate.... Onwards/ upwards.

[mr lobitos 0]

did the garage put all the suspension parts on or just do the tracking ?

main thing is your safe and well, cars can be fixed

[Bs6VR6 10]

With a bit more time to think about it I have this horrendous realisation that the issue was with our installation of the lower balljoint. They would of possibly had to loosen the bolts to do adjustments, but ultimately responsibility has to lie with me as I fitted the components. Really sucks to think of the damage it could of caused, and I'm more than a little embarrassed I could of made such a stupid mistake. Having reassemble the wheel since the incident I'm not even sure how I could of installed it incorrectly as its such a simple part but I clearly did.

Although the fact that it wasn't picked up by either the tracking place or the two subsequent garages that did the MOT's is worrying. I'd of thought if it was installed wrong then this error would of shown itself in the numbers during the tracking. But alas it wasn't. Still racking my brain as to how it wasn't spotted and lasted 800miles with no noise, weird steering feel. As much fun as playing with cars is, it's really brought it home how meticulous you have to be, and how severe the penalties for complacency can be.

 

Max,

[Gti_Jamo 10]

The thing is with it all bolted up like that then any issue wouldn't have been easily spotted. The bolts were in place as was the ball joint. The tracking was also likely set up to compensate this anomaly in the suspension geometry. Count your blessings though, as that could have been a whole lot worse. Looks like you were one heavily loaded right hand bend away from a serious disaster. Atleast it's your own doing and not a shoddy repair by a proffesional or previous owner. My corrado when I bought it was a death trap, body filler holding the front subframe together.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

i once came very close to doing that on my old mk4 golf but two bolts were in properly, you wouldn't be the first and last to make school boy errors, learn from it, Double check everything and then again later on if you can,

[fla 9]

Max these things can happen to the best of us so dont beat yourself up over it. As above we're all glad you're safe. Just take some time away from it and when you're feeling more interested come back and progrezs with the things you want to. You know what a grwat vehicle you've developed. In fact so do we.

All the best.

Edited July 26, 2015 by fla

[Dox 22]

So going forward we should all install the centre bolt first to prevent similar happening again?

[Gti_Jamo 10]

And make sure the bolts go in from the top and nuts at the bottom as in the unlikely event they come loose the bolts have more chance of staying put rather than falling out the bottom.

[Bs6VR6 10]

Could this of been part of the problem then? I've just checked on partsbase as you had me worrying but the vr6 has the plate with three captive nuts and it does indeed go on top with the bolts coming up from below. The garage who did the tracking also commented on this but I'm 100% sure he bolts come from below. The wishbone has if I remember two little tags to locate the plate in.

Regarding which bolt to do first, all I can say is just triple check all three bolts are located through the relevant holes in the lower balljoint. I was sure it was right, and three garages didn't spot it, so clearly it can be put together in such a way it appears correct but is in effect only pinching the balljoint in place.

Thanks for the support guys, I know mistakes can happen but it is still embarrassing to have done it and scary to think how bad the consequences could be. Both me and the car have had a very lucky escape.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

im fairly certain you can put the bolts through the top or bottom, jamo makes a very good point about putting them through the top which i will do from now on, the only reason i put them through the bottom was because you have easy access to tighten them, its just one of them things where it needs to be fully shipped before you bolt it and tighten

[Bs6VR6 10]

Right, quick update. Picked the car up this afternoon. The only damage was a few splines were shagged during transit onto and off the recovery truck. So garage fitted new driveshaft complete with new inner and outer cv joints. Only charged me cost for the part, no labour and didn't charge me for recovery from mine to garage so in total £148. I had to pay a £45 surchage as my old driveshaft was damaged. Car feels superb. No noises and that slight vagueness at high speeds has disappeared. Brilliant outcome considering, and if I'd had my wits about me and had tucked the driveshaft out the way probably would of been no damage at all.

Considering what the other outcomes could of been I consider myself incredibly lucky. Lesson learnt. Got to give a shout out to Brunel tires in bristol. Been great throughout and were more than fair with sorting the issue considering the issue was ultimately from my installation.

Hopefully back to enjoying the motor that apart from this episode has been completely reliable and wonderfully entertaining. Onwards and upwards indeed.

 

Max,

[fla 9]

That's great news!

[seanl82 23]

Glad to hear its all sorted and no one was injured Max. Good to see the garage being fair too, there are too many that will just turn their back on you regardless of if they are at fault or not, in the hope you'll just go away.

[captainredeye 0]

Nice one dude, great result considering how serious it could of been, these cars really do test us at times.

[VW Sanburn 10]

Best of luck getting it fixed :(