Close call on the way home tonight!

[crashwg]

A couple days ago I parked a little too close to the curb and bent the return line from my power steering.  It was bent in such a way that it was rubbing on the boot of the right front wheel's axle and it made a heck of a lot of noise.

Today, on the ride home, it started to get worse, even started to shake the van a bit so I figgured the boot had torn and was flapping whatever with every rotation.  Finnaly it got to be too much so I pulled over.  I check it out and see no evidence of the boot tearing...

At this point I'm obviously like "what the hell?"  "what could be causing this"  I push on the wheel and nothing happened to make me think it was loose or anything, but just to make sure I put my finger in the lugnut's hole (that sounds kinda dirty) and I find nothing!  Check the next one, nothing!  A third and a forth, nothing!  I had snapped off 4 of the 5 studs and was 1 away from causing a 5 car pileup!  BTW, for those not car savvy, a stud is the little threaded part that you put the lug nuts on.  The lug nuts and the studs are on 393 somewhere...

The only good thing is that 1 lug nut was enough to get the van onto the back of a tow truck which took the van to my place of employment where I have access to the tools I'll need to fix it.  Oh and I didn't DIE of course. 

[SirPeale]

Holy crap!

[mccoy178]

Yeah, you may want to look into that!  Geez..........................................

[Santoro]

It's obvious that your nickname has jinxed you.

[missioncontrol]

glad you didn't find out in the worst way

[AtomSmasher]

I thought crazy foreigners (as in not American ) called the trunk a boot, never heard tires referred to as a boot before.

Anyways, this reminds me of something similar that happened to me.  I was in my old '74 F-100 truck and taking a corner pretty quick when I heard a loud pop, being a stupid kid I decided to ignore it and try to get home and check it out there. After about a block further I lost pretty much all power and heard a loud grinding sound coming from the front wheel.  I figured it was time to call a tow truck and when the tow truck lifted up the front end of the truck, the right front wheel stayed on the ground as the rest of the truck went up.  Apparently what happened was the truck was in full time 4 whell drive when it wasn't made to be that way and after a while the extra stress on the wheel hub made it blow up leaving nothing to hold the wheel in place.  I just got lucky the wheel didnt fall of earlier and cause even more serious damage to my truck.

[RayB]

I thought crazy foreigners (as in not American ) called the trunk a boot, never heard tires referred to as a boot before.

"CV boot" is a rubber enclosure filled with grease. Ensures the joints holding certain wheel parts to other parts stay permanently lubricated and unexposed.

[DrewKaree]

"CV boot" is a rubber enclosure filled with grease. Ensures the joints holding certain wheel parts to other parts stay permanently lubricated and unexposed.

Only ensures it stays lubricated for a reasonabe length of time before the boot develops a tear, allowing any and all manner of road debris and grime in while enlarging the tear at the same time.

But I'm not bitter about that POS car

[tommy]

"CV boot" is a rubber enclosure filled with grease. Ensures the joints holding certain wheel parts to other parts stay permanently lubricated and unexposed.

Only ensures it stays lubricated for a reasonabe length of time before the boot develops a tear, allowing any and all manner of road debris and grime in while enlarging the tear at the same time.

But I'm not bitter about that POS car

You would think they would come up with a better material than plastic to use on certain car parts, might not have so many repairs so i guess not. 

[Stingray]

"CV boot" is a rubber enclosure filled with grease. Ensures the joints holding certain wheel parts to other parts stay permanently lubricated and unexposed.

Only ensures it stays lubricated for a reasonabe length of time before the boot develops a tear, allowing any and all manner of road debris and grime in while enlarging the tear at the same time.

But I'm not bitter about that POS car

You know you can and should replace them if they appear to be damaged. The boot will fill up with crap in no time and destroy what it's meant to protect.

-S

[RayB]

I second that opinion. You're supposed to replace it when you find out its torn. Doesn't cost much. Costs ALOT more to replace the parts its meant to protect.

[ChadTower]

Only ensures it stays lubricated for a reasonabe length of time before the boot develops a tear, allowing any and all manner of road debris and grime in while enlarging the tear at the same time.

That happens to pretty much all cars here in MA because of the harsh winters.  Every car I've ever had has had to have the ball joints replaced at least once because of it.

[Stingray]

Shoulda replaced those boots.

-S

[ChadTower]

Not being a car person, not having a way of knowing when the boot is torn or any idea of how to replace them or what tools would be needed, that's not much of an option.

From what I was told by my mechanic this time, Civics don't even HAVE boots. 

[Stingray]

Not being a car person, not having a way of knowing when the boot is torn or any idea of how to replace them or what tools would be needed, that's not much of an option.
 

Lack of tools and/or ignorance of how the thing in question actually works never stopped me from taking stuff apart.

-S

[ChadTower]

I need my car to get to work, thus I don't do more than very basic maintenance on it myself.

[Havok]

Haha - I had a similar experience once, but not because of a curb. I used to have a '76 Z-28, all hopped up with a small block chevy 350, and a Muncie "rock-crusher" 4 speed manual. Of course, I drove it hard. All the time...

One day, I'm driving, and intermittently, I hear these loud popping noises. Since I was almost home, I didn't bother checking it since the car was still driving ok. So, I come up to the next red light, wait... turns green - I then START to drive away, and POP! THUNK! The car leans to the right.

I get out, WTF! Take a look at the passenger side, and see my right rear wheel lying on its side, off the car!

All five of the wheel studs had snapped clean off. Of course, like all things that happen bad, I was going to upgrade the rear axle, however didn't have the money to do it yet. The guy that came to tow it away had a heck of a time getting the car safely on, since he didn't have a cherry picker (type with a flatbad).

Ahhh.. the good old days...

[DrewKaree]

You know you can and should replace them if they appear to be damaged. The boot will fill up with crap in no time and destroy what it's meant to protect.

-S

You are going downhill in my book, and FAST!  You damn wiseacres and your can-do attitude going around thinking things should be getting done!

And I was a kid with no idea they should be replaced.  My buddy had the same thing happen to his car, and he just junked it.  I figured that's what you do with little 4-bangers with 150k miles on 'em.  Well, actually, I figured you junk a Renault 15 minutes after you drive it off the lot, but my buddy seemed to think it was a good car.  He shoulda known if it was French, it'd give him trouble sooner rather than later

[Stingray]

I'm a slacker, but man, you gots to take care of your car.

-S

[DrewKaree]

I'm a slacker, but man, you gots to take care of your car.

-S

Go-getter 

[Stingray]

I'm a slacker, but man, you gots to take care of your car.

-S

Go-getter 

Uh, and you're a... you're nothing but a poo-poo head.

-S

[Harry Potter]

Hey HEY!

There's a place you can call him really nasty names.

Save it for there you slack poo-head. 

[Stingray]

You're not the bosss7 of me.

-S

[Harry Potter]

Submit. You do every other night. *need groucho*

[Stingray]

Submit. You do every other night. *need groucho*

My powers seem to have no effect in this strange universe.

-S

[Harry Potter]

Try harder.

500 PMs to Saint every minute should do the trick.

[Stingray]

That's a good way to get my title chaged to "banned".

-S

[Harry Potter]

Nah. I heard he loves it.

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

[ChadTower]

Submit. You do every other night. *need groucho*