Some things shouldn't be ignored

**oafpatroll** · 20-12-2022, 19:50

I do as much of the work on our cars as I have time to as I'm a tight wad and I think I'm more inclined to take the care and time which wouldn't be commercially viable for a professional. I also suffer(ed) from the delusion that I'm good at it.

About a week ago I noticed a barely audible clonk in the left front of my bakkie on very low speed weight shifting, i.e. brake or accelerator application especially with the wheel turned. Holiday gees and beer and whiskey and wine had me postpone looking into it. When I did I had a proper scare. The left upper wishbone ball joint mount was down to 1 of 3 bolts still torqued down, one was down to a couple of threads and the other was halfway out. When I took out the torqued one I got a bigger eye opening. The threads in the area of the joint were obviously stretched so I'm guessing that it was not very long for this world.

Checked the RHS and all was good and the torque wrench clicked merrily on all three bolts. Scuttled around all my friendly industrial supply places and was not pleasantly surprised to find that only 1 of the 4 had stock of any grade 10 M8 bolts in any length. Picked them up and set about replacing all the bolts. The thread in the mount where the stretched one was seemed boogered which didn't surprise me and I assumed I would need a new ball joint assembly. While waiting for call backs on stock I thought I'd try the shitty 'bore ' camera I'd bought on a whim and it revealed that there was excess material in the threads. Checked the bolt and it was light on material so I ran a tap gingerly though it from the bottom and it cleaned right out.

Put everything together with the slightly over length bolts and then added skinny nuts drenched in locktite on the bottom of the assembly and marked the bolts so I can check them tomorrow after a bit of mileage.

This was a sobering experience for me. I've rebuilt and restored a number of cars at the the nuts and bolts level and have done maintenance and repair of safety critical components of my vehicles and occasionally those of friends and family for 30+ years and as such I rate(d) my care and diligence.

Problem here is that I am the cunt that that last had that assembly apart 2 years back when I replaced the shocks. I must have done something wrong or omitted to do something and the consequence to my family of that joint coming apart at speed during a sudden change of direction or under hard braking chills me. Punchlines of this little morality tale are that you should remember that as a human you fuck things up, are never as clever as you think you are and that some stuff shouldn't be ignored. The last one especially.

**Koebelwagen** · 20-12-2022, 20:17

It happens, don't beat yourself up about it.

The shit dealer workshops have dished up in terms of servicing my and my family's vehicles over the last few years is ten times more. Isuzu fitted cable ties as clamps to my dad's basically brand new D'Max, Toyota almost got away with not changing the differential fluids in my Hilux, Suzuki omitted dust sleeves on caliper bolts.

Mercedes have over the years managed to strip every single bolt on the sump guard of my wife's ML, once left a rag covering half the radiator, omitted to fasten the air filter clips etc.

Toyota didn't fasten the diff seal nut on my quantum and when it fell out, we think 3000KM later with a resultant loss in oil that lead to the diff being destroyed, refused to take responsibility for the R23k fix.

Honda Umhlanga stripped the sump plug on my then 40k KM CRV, then tried to deny responsibility until I contacted Honda HQ and threatened to drive the vehicle into their reception area.

All you can do is learn the lesson and make sure the mistake doesn't get repeated. I guarantee you dealer mechanics have done far worse more regularly.

**oafpatroll** · 20-12-2022, 20:20

Apologies dealers and mods, the gees and whiskey had me post this in the dealer section rather than the general discussion section. I'm unable to delete it from here so would appreciate it if it could be deleted or moved as appropriate.

**oafpatroll** · 20-12-2022, 20:58

Originally Posted by Koebelwagen

The shit dealer workshops have dished up in terms of servicing my and my family's vehicles over the last few years is ten times more.

This, apart from an interest in cars and other mechanical stuff is what got me into doing this stuff. My father's first 'spogmotor' was a 230E Merc that he got as a company car when hitting the corporate middle leagues. Back then the tax scam was you could buy your company car at it's tax depreciated value at the end of the lease term so he and I would do extra oil and lubrication type service on the cars he wanted to keep or move on to relatives. The Merc was one service away from the end of the lease and we had checked it out front to back. The last people in the diff was us and we had marked the diff drain and fill plugs. On my dad fetching the car from Cargo Motors after it's last service the diff seized on the M1 highway. He was with the workshop manager when he tried to explain the fact that the fill plug's mark was unbroken but the drain plug's was.

**Ds J** · 20-12-2022, 23:21

Daar is n goeie rede waarom perdeverkopers so n slegte naam gehad het.

En soos altyd is dit enkele kansvatters wat die eerlike ouens n slegte naam gee.

**KK20** · 20-12-2022, 23:37

Originally Posted by Ds J

kansvatters

We are blessed with them everywhere!

**krieger** · 22-12-2022, 00:32

Henkel Loctite or Permatex thread locker is your friend and a torque wrench. Having a suspension or steering vibrate loose is a bad day quick.

I use it on all bolts, drive shafts, ball joints, etc. Steering bolts or nuts and tie rods are safety wired like the aircraft industry uses for things you don't want to vibrate apart. Here is av safety wiring howto. https://www.aviationhunt.com/safety-wire-locking/