Potential dangers of our 20year old Z32 parts [PICS]

Had a scary little surprise while driving home to Greenmount after Pexy-Poo's birthday bash. While driving along an 80kph zone just outside of Toowoomba, my rear passenger side HICAS steering arm snapped clean. Instantly the rear end started swinging out on me as i fish-tailed it up the road, just crossing the other lane for a bit, before i could pull it back, and over on the side of the road. (i was lucky no one was in the other lane)

So after i changed my undies, i got out of the car and inspected what happened. I obviously couldn't drive it so i called my tow truck mate to drop my Zed back home in the garage.

This is how it looked straight off the tow truck....












The Steering arm sheared off neatly where the lockin nut is on the hub ball joint. I might add that i was driving 80kph, coasting down a slight incline of a hill, no cornering or possible strenuous driving to stress this part out any more than normal. I believe this broke because of a combination of being a 20 year old part, being driven 50km's per day to and from work, and having stiff suspension wouldn't have helped. So it's just fatigued, and that particular trip going over a mildly rough road was the straw that finally broke the camels back so to speak. ...so it goes to show that this could happen to any Zed, any time! So keep an eye out on these car parts people. :zlove:
I'd hate to imagine how it would have acted if i was doing 100-110kph and with oncoming traffic too!










After removing it (PITA job btw) and have a look at the whole thing, it's a pretty small, frail and insignificant looking part - that obviously plays a very important part in driving a safe car! So I'll be keeping an eye on my suspension and steering components a bit more often i think.


FYI peoples, i found THIS TECH ARTICLE extremely helpful in getting the steering arm out in case it helps others at some point. :zlove:


...oh btw, this beer was drunk while working on the car. [TIS]


Cheers,
Benny. :zlove:

 

Damn, that is scary! Glad it didn't turn out worse, Benny. Is there a HICAS elimination kit available that replaces these arms? (orange driftworks item or something comes to mind)

 

Damn Benny... thats terrible news, glad you are ok and there was further damage done.

A similar event occured to Lloyed when he snapped an adjustable upper arm on the rear, but by the looks of it yours seemed to have a worse result.
A deffinant reminder to keep an eye on things but it's almost impossible as it may just be a hairline crack and with all the dirt it's simply impossible to see.

By the way why is the Blue Beast always dirty? :zlove:

 

Lucky there Benny

Glad no damage came to such a nice Z, or to yourself. I did notice a small bend in the tie rod end just before the shear. Maybe the previous owner has hit a gutter or something weakening the part but since you didn't do it you would be none the wiser.

Anyway glad there was no damage

 

Wow you're lucky! Well done bringing it to a safe stop.
Perhaps a good time to R&R the rear subframe assembly? Delete HICAS/install a Non-Turbo rear end with beefy Tie Rods, etc.

 

Lucky save there Benny, very lucky.

It's a little odd though, there should be no shear stress on that rod. Do you have a HICAS eliminator bar in place and a wheel alignment done recently?

 

Apparently there's a locking kit out there that does away with the arms and bolts direct to the hub ball joint. Not sure what breed it is though...

Not that i've noticed. Seemed quite healthy under there whenever i've looked, but in saying that, i haven't purposely looked for harline fractures in the steering rod though, so couldn't accurately say.

hahaha, i was waiting for someone to mention something! trust you Matt! Actually funnily enough, there's been stack of rain and roadworks along my route to work and back every day, so it's hard to keep the road gunk off it all the time.

Stock as a rock back there Andy, still got the operational HICAS and everything. Alignment was last done when i got the 19" wheels and was all nice and straight.
It's puzzling to me too, as there's no actual main reason why it broke, just fatigued over the years i guess.

I'd also like to make a HUGE shout-out to Eric (drz400y) for helping me out and sending a replacement arm to me on a same day courier for me to fix this arvo. Much appreciated, and am glad you have a huge range of spare parts in your workshop for this exact reason! you're a champion Eric!!! :zlove:

 

glad your ok benny, is it possible the extra weight of your rims have caused the stress?

 

+1 Good to see Benny okay and the nice Blue Zeee intact!

 

I guess it is a possiblity Trav, i can't imagine lots more weight. As they're a very light wheel (for the size), and i know of many members with big wheels that are quite heavy and haven't had this drama (that i know of anyway).

I guess it could have even been caused from maybe previous owners using that arm as a tie-down point during towing or something even, and stressed that bar? Could be anything really.

Anyway, it's all fixed now. Test drive shortly. :zlove:

 

very lucky dude ..

I never did like that stock arm which gets used with most hicas eliminators as well ..

The UAS one is a strong replacement which gets of all the 20year old crap including hicas

 

Ive got the new UAS Hicas delete kit sitting here.
If you need the Zed and want to get the job done pronto,You can use my kit for now and then reimburse me later on.

 

wow, benny ...close call there ....

hope that you did not miss the Greenmount Pub special, $1.00 a beer for the duration of Sunday's grand final ... lol...

 

I wonder if the offset and neg camber is causing your rear wheels to try and bump steer....
Looking at that shaft is has been fractured half way through for a while. And how you did no gaurd damage with all that lowness I have NFI.

Rob, any idea what the UAS eliminator arms are made out of? Obviously the threaded end is no larger than stock so there is no strength gained there unless the materials are better than the OEM steel shafts.

 

More importantly, where are your good wheels?????

 

That is scarey, especially since it is something that you would not see if you inspected it visually. Just got to wait till it pops! Glad that everything turned out OK (apart from the loss of undies).

 

pretty sure its mild steel but will double check in case its chromoly... am aware its the same thread size but better than a fatigued 20year old one.

bearing in mind no one changes these when using the usual hicas eliminators

 

Good questions there Eric!

Well for starters, i've installed the new arm now (thanks Eric), and everything is working perfectly as it always did. So far from a test drive there's been no other damage at all. ...and that includes no damage to the fender either (luckily)

Upon further closer inspection of the broken arm, it's evident that it has had a fracture nearly half way through it for a while. And when i join both pieces together, i can clearly see it's slightly bent from that point.
It actually looks like that arm has been used at some point before my owning the vehicle that it's been used as a tie-down point. And it may have fractured the arm a long time ago, but only just now finally cracking the rest of the way through.

Only problem though, is now that i've fixed it again - i can drive into town to work tomorrow. What have i done?!?!

...and thanks for all the kind and concerned words folks! It means a lot to both me and the blue beast. But it looks like it's all pretty much incident free apart from that one arm. :zlove:

 

Glad to hear your OK Benny and that the Z is unscathed as well (with a new tie rod) apart from shitting it's Z pants

Great people on here, especially Drz400y getting you fixed up quick smart and Zano offering you his HICAS delete kit.

If the rear tie rod can cause such a dangerous situation upon failure, I think it should really be flagged to people getting HICAS delete kits to get ones that replace the tie rods as well or at least install some new OEM items in the process.

Cheers,

Craig