What a day what a day.
Wife and kids where off to six flags today so I went for a little
joy ride. Left rear tire pressue pop'd an alarm shortly after leaving
the house, 23lbs would get me to the store and back so I didn't
worry about it, just kept an eye on it.
Took the long way home, through some somewhat curvy two lane,
then on to the freeway. Above 60 I was getting a groam from the
left rear so I decided to pull off and throw some air in it so I could
get back up to speed to make sure that was the source of the groan.
I left the service station and hit a red light on a slight incline. She
rolled back a bit so I eased the clutch with some throttle to pull
it back forward and "BAM". Nice loud bang out of the left rear, scared
the crap out of me. Pulled 100 yds into a parking lot with quite a bit
of rattling. Underneath, behind the left rear axle, a bar coming from
around the differential has pulled loose from the body. Looked like it broke
loose at first.
Luckly I was only a block from the dealer so I limped it into the service
bay.
A little closer look at it and it looks like the arm attaches to the body/subframe with a rubber bushing and it looked like the bushing
may have failed and allowed the arm to pull loose. The bolt was still
intact with what appeared to be part of the bushing still attached to
it. The left rear wheel seemed to be suffering a small amount of
negative camber as well.
I'm not real familiar with independent rear suspension and I couldn't find
a good diagram/photo of this location of the car.
My description is as accurate as possible given the situation and short
time I had to look at it.
I was still a ball of nerves when I left the dealer so I didn't snap a pic
of it either..my bad.
From the research I've done this afternoon, I beleive the arm I was looking
at was part of the cradle that holds the suspension. I haven't been able
to find any other instances in the forum.
I found some "squeaky suspension" threads that look like may have been
resolved by replacing this bushing.
I just thought I'd throw the story out there to get any thoughts on
the issue. I'll have more info early next week when they can get it in
and have a look at it.
Now I just have to convince the wife that I wasn't having to much
fun with her baby when it happened
