What have I broken?

What have I broken?

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miniman

Original Poster:

24,827 posts

261 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
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You know those boulders they use at motorway services roads to stop errant drivers accessing the grass verges? Here's a nice street view from Reading services (extra points for guessing East or West carraiageway!):



Anyway, last night whilst momentarily distracted after 8 hours in the car with 3 kids, I drove over one banghead

Frankly given the massive bang and rapid descent back to ground level, I expected to see a wheel hanging off but all seemed ok on face value. I checked over as much as could get at underneath and there seems to be no damage, however there is definitely something wrong as the vehicle feels imprecise, and there's a slight sticky point in the steering. We limped slowly home and the front tyre went down a few miles later - I assume its related although it does have a nail in it.

Tyre changed, we carried on and got home slowly. It gets dragged into lane 1 tramlines much worse than before and there's a definite odd feeling about it. Obviously the tracking is way off.

Any thoughts on what I'm dealing with? It's going in to the garage on Monday for a good going over. Could the steering box have been damaged? I can't believe I'll get away with just the tracking and a tyre!

Edit: it's a facelift Disco 2 TD5, by the way.


Edited by miniman on Saturday 30th August 12:44

tb1880

93 posts

237 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
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Wow, good work, they are big as well.

My money would be on a bent track rod, as it sounds like the car is still generally drive able it's probably not much more serious than that. The other possibility is a bend in the front axle, this may be hard to spot unless there is any obvious damage.

If you get on your back and look in front of the front axle you should be able to see if any of the steering arms are bent.

Hope that helps,

miniman

Original Poster:

24,827 posts

261 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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Result from the garage: no damage cool

4sure

2,438 posts

210 months

Thursday 4th September 2014
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You actually drove over one ??? yikes

miniman

Original Poster:

24,827 posts

261 months

Thursday 4th September 2014
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4sure said:
You actually drove over one ??? yikes
Ahem, yes pretty much! I got out assuming it would have just ripped the front wheel off but it seemed to have just dealt with it!