if its cold enough outside could shit start breaking? today it was about -12f and i was driving taking my girl home. i got back to my house and i was parking in front of my house. i was backing up to get closer to the car behind me when all of a sudden i hear a bam. i push the gas and my car was going nowhere. i got out and my driver side wheel was like siting at a slant and the car was to the ground. my passanger side is ok but my driver side was to the ground. i look at wat was wrong and the wheel hub wasing connnected to the car. man this sucks i got school tomorrow and stuff now i dont got a car. it seems like my suspenion is ok but i really cant see. ill take pics tomorrow and show you guys what happen and hopefully you guys can help me get my car running again. i was thinking that it was so cold outside that the medal froze and when i hit that patch of ice that there was to much power that it just snap something

 

Sounds like ball joint(s) gave it up.

 

cold may have contirbuted, but ive had a ball joint & control snap on my 01 TLP when i had it.

 

-12 isn't cold enough to mess with the grain structure of the metal. It's prob just wrong place, wrong time kinda thing.

 

^ Agree.

 

yea it was prob just about time for it to break. how much do you think the ball joint will be. i looked and if im correct on the names, the bolt that connects the wish bone to the rotor broke in half. how much do you think it will be? and is it hard to change. do anyone have a diagram of the wheel and suspenion part

 

Sorry it happens, but I think you are lucky that you were not on high speed otherwise it could be worse when balljoin is being seperated when the car is in motion.

 

yes im so glad that it happend when i got infront of my house

 

The rotor is part of your brake system. The upper control arm connects to the knuckle. If that "bolt" you speak of broke, thats your upper ball joint.



http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/...catdisplay.jsp

 

what do i need to do to fix that bolt? will i need a whole new knunkle

 

Thats the "Lower Balljoint" You need to buy a new ball joint, remove the knuckle and have it pressed into the knuckle.

And in all honesty if that one broke, odds are your other one is shot, plus your uppers are probably shot. I would have what ever mechanic that does the work inspect the others.

 

when i looked at it this morning it i found the broken part of the bolt right next to the tire and it looked rusted up. how would you know if the top one is shot? i was gonna try to do it myself. is it hard to replace that or should i get a mechanic to do it

 

You can tell when they are really bad by clunking noise. Other wise you have to jack up the car and apply force to them to see if they move.

To repair you have to remove the knuckle (part 1/2) which you have to remove the axle nut and upper ball joint. Then you have to have them "Pressed" out, they dont just pop out. then they have to be pressed back in.

 

well im going to lincoln tech so i can just print out how to remove the knuckle. is it a hard job getting it off? and what do you mean by it has to be "pressed out" is there a web site or something that shows me how to do it

 

The shop manual for any recent Honda product will show how to remove the knuckle assembly. The spindle nut on the outer CV joint is very tight and you will need a strong breaker bar and length of pipe. The ball joint tapered pins need to be removed with some kind of puller. I have had good luck with a small pitman arm puller.

The lower ball joint is a press fit into the knuckle and is also held in by a snap ring. If you take the knuckle assembly to a machine shop they can R&R the ball joint for you
or you may be able to do it with a vise and some sockets.

 

This will give you a general idea of what is involved

http://www.nzintegra.com/wheelbearing.html

 

Well said with the link.

 

so this is wat my car looks like now





and this is wat it looks like behind my wheel

 

yep, lower balljoint!

I'd say you shouldn't try to fix it yourself if you don't even know where to start and don't have access to a press!

If you know what you are doing they aren't that bad to replace; I have changed them without using a press! But if I were you leave something like that to a professional!! If something is done wrong it could end up very bad!

On saturday I was driving down I94 in Milwaukee and there was a escalade with 20's and it broke ball joint....

 

Yep, lower ball joint.

 

i could rent a press from checkers. yea i think when that broke my axle broke too

 

This happened to me on my 95 honda accord and is a common issue on honda's. Next time when you hear some squeaking when you turn the wheel you'll know what it is. I sure do now. Be thankful you weren't on the highway.

 

yes im really thankful that it happen when i got home. im so glad it didnt happen on the highway

 

Something doesn't seem quite right to me. Based on your description of finding the rusty threaded stud & nut [bolt], and your picture, it looks like the ball joint broke off above the tapered part of the stud. Typically worn ball joints come apart leaving a worn ball with stud & nut attached. Breakage like yours usually happens from over or under tightening. Take a close look at the tapered hole in the steering knuckle to make sure it wasn't damaged by a loose ball joint stud walking around till it snapped. Has anyone had the ball joint apart recently, like to replace an axle, or an axle seal?

 

i dont think the axle or anything like that been changed on my car. the only thing was the transmission. other than that everything is the same since i first bought the car

 

They typically remove the lower balljoint in the trans removal.

Why do you think your axle is broke?

 

cause it looks like when the ball joint broke the strut forks fell down and hit the axle. half of the axle is sticking out of the wheel hub and it looks like stuff leaked from the engine side of the axle

 

He has Springs also. So the ball joint was probably removed then.

The axle will pull out of the boot. So the inner joint will stay in the transmission and the shaft will pull out.

Or the shaft will pull out of the joint closet to the wheel.

It is normal for an axle to pull out when the ball joint breaks.

 

well when i put in my springs i never toke apart the ball joint i just push down on the brakes and pulled the sturts out

 

The ball joint has completely separated from the lower control arm and what is very strange is that the tapered pin is not there. It looks like the castle nut came off and the tapered pin loosened up and came out of the lower control arm. You need to determine if the tapered hole in the end of the lower control arm is worn. If so you will need a new or used control arm.

Anyway new lower ball joints on both sides will be needed.

The half shaft may be repairable with a boot kit or swap it for a rebuilt halfshaft.

Hopefully that's all that will be needed.

 

wat is the half shaft?

 

`half shaft` is what us old guys call a cv axle assembly

 

There is NO need for the ball joint to be separated to change shocks and springs on the TL

 

yes i changed my springs without taking the ball joints out just push down on the brakes and pulled the struts out. ill be buying new ball joints and new axles

 

I think it's a little weird how rusty the tapered part of the ball joint is! I've never seen rust there before!

 

damn..i feel your pain this same thing happened to me like a week ago. Except I damaged my fender in the process prob cuz of the rims. Kinda weird that mine also happened immediately after pulling out of my garage and the night before i was cruising on the highway. Made me think a bit...

 

yea me to i was driving my car all day and the day before to. i was taking my girl home and as soon as i got home i was trying to reverse to park infront of my brother car and i hit some ice and bam that shit happened. sucks but im glad it didnt happen while i was driving

 

i sure don't miss those cold spells back in Denver..hope hyou get it all fixed up soon

 

i have trouble taking off the rotors. i used a hand impact screwdriver to take off the screws on the rotors but they dont want to come out.

 

can anyone help me out with other ways to remove the rotors so i can take the knuckle out so i can replace the ball joint and axle. i was planning on bringing the knuckle to a machine shop so they can instll the ball joint