Steering failure

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8

800jimbo

New Member
Posts
59
Location
Winchester
I had a bit of fun last night driving home - hit a pothole and suddenly found myself with no steering! Luckily I didn't hit anyone or anything - the car weaved across the road bouncing gently off the banks and I managed to stop on the verge off the carriageway.

I couldn't see too much as it was dark and I was on a soggy verge, but it did appear that a ball joint on the offside had sheared. The chap who kindly stopped to help (Land Rover) said that the steering basically operates on one wheel which turns the other. Unfortunately the break happened on the steering side of the equation.

The only injury sustained was when I put my hand on a small but very angry stinging nettle, which is still smarting :(
 
The road surface on the A31 sucks down your way ! when you get past Alton going south it's like offroading

Stinging nettle.. at this time of year ? :eek:
 
Thinking about it, what was lucky was that I didn't initially realise the steering was broken but thought I had a flat tyre; if I had known straight away that I had no steering I might have stopped a bit quicker which, in a twisty bit of road, could easily have lead to me being hit from the next car coming up behind. It certainly would have caused a major blockage.

Stinging nettle. I know. I was totally unprepared.
 
ukadamwest said:
The road surface on the A31 sucks down your way ! when you get past Alton going south it's like offroading

Stinging nettle.. at this time of year ? :eek:
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It is like the french riviera down there. I don't think they've ever seen snow. A colleague from Portsmouth came up to Bucks thinking he'd need his passport to get past the M4 and they'd be reindeer running loose. God help him if he ever makes it past the Watford Gap.
 
Grrrrrr said:
It is like the french riviera down there. I don't think they've ever seen snow. A colleague from Portsmouth came up to Bucks thinking he'd need his passport to get past the M4 and they'd be reindeer running loose. God help him if he ever makes it past the Watford Gap.
Click to expand...

Quite tropical here today, seriously I was in t shirt and shorts. Balmy 3 degree's:D
 
Niceties aside - Isn't anyone just a little bit worried that this man suffered a complete steering failure? Imagine this was at motorway speed?
 
I suffered a steering ball joint faiiure on my series 2a when in the Congo or Zaire as it was known then and was going down hill approaching a bridge made of logs laid across the creek but luckily the front wheels tramlines through the logs and i managed to stop soon after and then came the problem of repairing it at the roadside with no spares and no civilisation for 50 kms. this was in 1973 so it was a bit more remote then.
 
Well I ended up with 5 new ball joints including associated track rods and the steering is transformed!

What's worrying is that the car was MOT'd late November not long before I bought it.

Having had the joints replaced I can now appreciate how bad they were.
 
800jimbo said:
Well I ended up with 5 new ball joints including associated track rods and the steering is transformed!

What's worrying is that the car was MOT'd late November not long before I bought it.

Having had the joints replaced I can now appreciate how bad they were.
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Don't take it back to the services for the blind garage where the MOT's are done by a guide dog. :D:D:D
 
800jimbo said:
Well I ended up with 5 new ball joints including associated track rods and the steering is transformed!

What's worrying is that the car was MOT'd late November not long before I bought it.

Having had the joints replaced I can now appreciate how bad they were.
Click to expand...

As an MOT tester myself, I find that worrying too.
The next worry is 'what else did he miss?'
 
N5Fav said:
As an MOT tester myself, I find that worrying too.
The next worry is 'what else did he miss?'
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Maybe it was a ghost ticket. A lot of them about. There was a thread on here some time back were a test had been done somewhere in Scotland three months previously. The car had been bought at auction with a valid ticket and i think brought down by transport to a southern buyer. Shortly after he got it a brake pipe failed. He posted photos of them on here, at the very least twelve months growth of rust on brake pipes. They just don't get that bad in three months. We even had the garage owner who did the ticket on here threatening people. Sending threatening Emails Etc.
 
wammers said:
Maybe it was a ghost ticket. A lot of them about. There was a thread on here some time back were a test had been done somewhere in Scotland three months previously. The car had been bought at auction with a valid ticket and i think brought down by transport to a southern buyer. Shortly after he got it a brake pipe failed. He posted photos of them on here, at the very least twelve months growth of rust on brake pipes. They just don't get that bad in three months. We even had the garage owner who did the ticket on here threatening people. Sending threatening Emails Etc.
Click to expand...

Missed that one, would have loved to cross snide comments with that prat.:)
 
tomcat59alan said:
Missed that one, would have loved to cross snide comments with that prat.:)
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Had to be seen to be believed Alan. Looked like it had spent twelve months soaked in brine. Pipe unions 10 mm deep in crusty rust. Believe VOSA were involved but did nothing i know of. Maybe monitored garage for a while. It was a real shocker. Having said that i don't know many VOSA employees that know their arse from their elbow anyway. When i got my MOT testers ticket you had to have done an apprenticeship and a minimum of two years on the tools out of your time. Now it's an NVQ and twelve months sweeping up. Maybe Beasty can dig it up but think it will have been overwritten by now. Belay that, think this is it. Long thread. http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/need-urgent-advice-help-123576-15.html :D:D:D
 
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