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A nice day of dumb luck
Jun. 15th, 2013 12:19 amToday was a day of errands. Earlier I had to go back to the parts shop and pick up a pair of replacement tail lights for my MINI Cooper S. Though it hardly seems like it, I've had that car for over ten years now! The original tail lights have become cloudy due to UV damage from sunlight, and unlike many cases where I've sanded and polished the damaged layer of plastic, the clear plastic covering these assemblies has clouded throughout the depth of the plastic itself. I had ordered these the other day when I had picked up other parts. Turns out one of the boxes had been opened and a piece of mounting hardware was missing. The guys knocked 20 bucks off the price of that particular part, and the missing part was not an issue, since it can be transferred from the old assembly. I love inadvertent bargains of opportunity.
Later in the day Jeff called to say he was stuck working late (imagine that) and he was going to miss out on taking his dress clothes to the cleaner. I rounded up his stuff and headed first to the credit union for spending money and then to the cleaner. Some fool in the parking lot cut across my path as I was turning into the parking spot and I had to slam on the brakes. No harm, no foul. When I got back to the car I noticed it was handling oddly as I backed out of the spot and maneuvered my way out, as if a tire was going flat. This wasn't a far fetched scenario, as there is a huge amount of work happening across the road from Mayhem Acres on the House of Seven Toilets, and nails in the road are a distinct possibility and past occurrence. I drove back home the couple miles a bit more carefully, through the tight parking lot curbs, three traffic circles and all the turns in my neck of the woods. Car seemed to handle fine, tracking straight and true as always. I parked in front of the garage and got out to check the tires, all looked fine. Humph. I then stood outside the car while I turned the steering wheel side-to-side. Imagine my total WhatTheFuckness when the left front wheel was not moving at all. The tie rod end on that side had completely come apart:
Normally when this happens, the front wheels turn in opposite directions like a bow-legged cowboy's boots and the car goes nowhere, or it suddenly veers off in the direction of the failed side. This car drove just about normally. I had to laugh, because this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen. Apparently, the tie rod end was ready to fail due to a lack of lubrication, and that aforementioned need to slam on the brakes while turning into the parking spot was what finally pulled it apart. The tie rod ends are "sealed and lubed for life" and don't have any means to grease them as part of normal maintenance. Anyone can see the ball is dry as a popcorn fart on a vinyl sofa. "Lifetime lubrication" never is. Well, it is, according to the designers of this stuff. The life of that part ended today, it was lubricated for the thirteen years of its life. Most likely the replacement parts I'll get will come with grease fittings and will last well beyond the mere 13 years these did if I perform the same ritual of chassis lubrication as on the other ball joints on the car. The befuddling part of all this is, I regularly check the condition of the running gear on this and my other rides, and this never gave any prior indications of impending failure. No noises, looseness of the steering, wandering in the lanes, etc. Instead of working in the yard tomorrow as I had hoped, I will be working on this, replacing the tie rod ends on both sides and checking out every linkage, control arm, ball joint and component looking for any other problems. I will also have to perform my super-deluxe squinty-eyeball front-end alignment so I can eventually have it put on a rack and machine aligned. If it works out like the last few times, they will put it on the rack and say everything's fine.
Later in the day Jeff called to say he was stuck working late (imagine that) and he was going to miss out on taking his dress clothes to the cleaner. I rounded up his stuff and headed first to the credit union for spending money and then to the cleaner. Some fool in the parking lot cut across my path as I was turning into the parking spot and I had to slam on the brakes. No harm, no foul. When I got back to the car I noticed it was handling oddly as I backed out of the spot and maneuvered my way out, as if a tire was going flat. This wasn't a far fetched scenario, as there is a huge amount of work happening across the road from Mayhem Acres on the House of Seven Toilets, and nails in the road are a distinct possibility and past occurrence. I drove back home the couple miles a bit more carefully, through the tight parking lot curbs, three traffic circles and all the turns in my neck of the woods. Car seemed to handle fine, tracking straight and true as always. I parked in front of the garage and got out to check the tires, all looked fine. Humph. I then stood outside the car while I turned the steering wheel side-to-side. Imagine my total WhatTheFuckness when the left front wheel was not moving at all. The tie rod end on that side had completely come apart:
Normally when this happens, the front wheels turn in opposite directions like a bow-legged cowboy's boots and the car goes nowhere, or it suddenly veers off in the direction of the failed side. This car drove just about normally. I had to laugh, because this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen. Apparently, the tie rod end was ready to fail due to a lack of lubrication, and that aforementioned need to slam on the brakes while turning into the parking spot was what finally pulled it apart. The tie rod ends are "sealed and lubed for life" and don't have any means to grease them as part of normal maintenance. Anyone can see the ball is dry as a popcorn fart on a vinyl sofa. "Lifetime lubrication" never is. Well, it is, according to the designers of this stuff. The life of that part ended today, it was lubricated for the thirteen years of its life. Most likely the replacement parts I'll get will come with grease fittings and will last well beyond the mere 13 years these did if I perform the same ritual of chassis lubrication as on the other ball joints on the car. The befuddling part of all this is, I regularly check the condition of the running gear on this and my other rides, and this never gave any prior indications of impending failure. No noises, looseness of the steering, wandering in the lanes, etc. Instead of working in the yard tomorrow as I had hoped, I will be working on this, replacing the tie rod ends on both sides and checking out every linkage, control arm, ball joint and component looking for any other problems. I will also have to perform my super-deluxe squinty-eyeball front-end alignment so I can eventually have it put on a rack and machine aligned. If it works out like the last few times, they will put it on the rack and say everything's fine.
