Steering failure - broken tie rod end on steering rod

[Scouse]

I had an interesting & potentially catastrophic steering failure on Monday afternoon.

I was driving into my son's pre-school driveway & I lost all control of the steering. Fortunately I was only going a couple of km/h & drove forward 10m into a parking spot. A quick look under bonnet confirmed the column was still attached to the steering box but looking underneath I found the steering rod adrift from the N/S steering knuckle. The threaded section had broken away from the tie rod end & the taper had popped out while going up the driveway.

The scary thing is that I'd driven around 150km that day, including around 100km at freeway speeds. There was no sign of the broken piece & nut so I assume it had been broken for a while & the taper decided the driveway would be a good spot to release itself. I dread to think what would have happened if it had done it elsewhere.

It's the original steering rod that came with the car when it was LHD but I reversed the steering damper bracket to suit RHD (other end from this track rod). It had the remnants of a LR parts label on it so I assume it wasn't the original from the factory though. It looks like a fairly clean break but there is one side slightly darker than the rest which might indicate a weak point prior to failure.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=116597&d=1479262226
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=116598&d=1479262226

116597

116598

[bee utey]

Judging by the fatigue fracture and the rusty stain on the taper, that's been loose for a wee while. I'd be very wary of replacing the ball joint without a thorough check of the matching tapered hole in the knuckle. Any elongation and it's scrap metal.

[PeterH]

Oh man, that's scary! Glad it happened at a time you could pull up safely.
Were there any indications or noises to give you a clue something might be going on under there?
I have not seen this before, I don't think it's a common occurence, but I'll be getting under and having a look at mine just the same.

[JDNSW]

I don't think it has been moving in the eye enough to elongate the hole, as this would show polished surfaces on the taper, not the even rusty surface seen - my suspicion would be that it has been overtightened at some stage, with an itial crack on the threaded bit, which extended through fatigue, and then has failed due to a shock load, possibly shortly or immediately before the steering failed - certainly that break has not been "working" for any length of time.

Scary! No way you would spot that in an inspection except by checking the torque on the nut - and even then you might just retorque it, taking up the loss of preload and accelerating the rate of cracking.

John

[Judo]

:o Not jealous. :wasntme:

[TheTree]

Mate

That's scary! Your Solihull Guardian Angels were looking after you for sure :angel:

Steve

[mtb_gary]

Between front prop shafts dropping off on the Hume Highway (facebook post) and now this steering linkage failure. I'm getting under my car on the weekend and checking as much as humanly possible.

Scouse, I'm relieved there was no damage to anyone and (only) the steering linkage on your car!