I need to share this information with as many E30 owners as possible so this doesn't happen to anyone else.
The short version.
I recently replaced some suspension parts including the tie rods on my sons E30 and they broke causing the car to loose control, hit a bank and roll.
Please take note of the seller of these kits and don't buy one. If you know of any one who has recently done any front suspension work to thier E30 contact them and ask where they got thier parts and show them this post. If you frequent other E30 forums please post up a link there back to here.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/311437146151 ... EBIDX%3AIT
I did look at the sellers feed back but I never did notice this from someone who bought the same kit. We are not the first.
The detailed version.
Firstly, I don't want this post to be taken as some sort of excuse for Luke. He certainly played his part, mainly the speed that he was doing. It is not ok for him to drive like he was, especially when he had a friend in the car. He had a free period from school and decided to go for a spirited drive on a back road before heading back to class with his mate. Also, in part it is for me as I feel as if I hold some of the blame and at the least, want it known that it was not driver error but a mechanical failure and feel i need to document exactly what happened. It should also be known that Luke has had advanced driver training and competes in Hill climbs at the local track. His driving ability is very much above average and he is familiar with correcting over steer.
Anyway, I purchased and installed one of these front suspension kits for him. The car was then taken to a suspension specialist for a wheel alignment.
This Tuesday (4 weeks later) I received a phone call from him during the day and he said.
"I have rolled my car. I wasn't going excessively fast. I tried to correct it but I couldn't do anything with it."
I got to the scene and found this.
How the hell he and his friend were not badly hurt is beyond me. I spent some hours there waiting for police and tow trucks etc and I kept looking at the marks on the road and I could not for the life of me work out how he went off where he did. The Police officers explanation was that he lost it half way through the corner, over corrected, over corrected again coming out of the corner out of control and into the bank on the right. There were no fish tail skid marks anywhere through the corner only the straight marks heading straight at the bank. Luke says he did not fish tail through the corner. I trust that if he stuffed up he would simply say so.
Once the car was at home I was looking over it and it occurred to me that the front left tie rod was still perfectly straight but the connection to the inner rod (rack end) had come apart. I need to stress at this point for those who may not know, that this connection in the tie rod is supposed to be a permanent connection, never to be taken apart. It is crimped onto a threaded rack end rod.
The front left wheel took the first impact into the bank, was torn down and under the car. The sway bar brackets were ripped down, the control arm bent down and torn off yet the rack with the rack end looked fine and the tie rod hardly had a scratch.
I looked to the right front suspension and the tie rod end was attached to the steering arm but the tie rod was snapped off and no where to be found. The rack end was neatly sitting in the end of the rack. The rack ends, rack mounts and the rack itself has absolutely no signs of stress. The front right wheel is still located in its correct place yet no tie rod to be seen.
Here's what I think happened. He came through the corner and as he straighten the right front tie rod connection gave way. This caused right wheel to turn hard right and cause the car to head right across the road possibly pushing the rear out going by the marks on the road. At this point the extra load on the left tie rod caused it to let go also. The car and front left wheel slid sideways into the bank tearing the wheel down under the car and the car rolled over. At this point the right wheel is hard back in the mud guard and as the car rolls over, the tie rod if flicked outward. As the car came down onto its wheels again the right tie rod was speared into the hard, decomposed granite and then was torn off as the car kept moving. The bend and break point in the tie rod end fits right onto the rim edge.
I believe this because I went back to the site and found the right tie rod embedded into the ground about 4 meters from the initial point of impact of the left wheel into bank. At this point the right front has had no impact, yet the tie rod is in a position to spear into the ground. It must have been broken! The car then continued to roll several more times coming to a rest.
I also pulled apart one the original tie rods that were removed. It required the pressed part to be heated glowing red, an 18" shifting spanner and set of vice grips in a large vice to separate them. You can see in the photos the original has quite deep impressions from the thread and when I run a screw driver over them you can hear it clicking.The cheap replacement has only very slight marks that can not even be felt.
I am convinced that both tie rods broke causing the crash. Certainly there is blame on Luke because of the the speed he was doing. The speed limit there is 100km/h and he says he was doing around 120km/h. His mate also kept saying to me during the afternoon on the side of the road. "We weren't going that fast" My Landcruiser would go around that corner at that speed, however, if he was doing the speed limit, perhaps it would not have been so bad and maybe just one roll over.
I have contacted the seller (I am fairly confident he speaks English) and told him what I believe, yet he is still selling these sets. I know this because I got my mechanic to purchase another set from him 36 hours after I sent him an email. I may get them tested by someone when they arrive. Not sure exactly yet but I will update this when I get them and do something. Any suggestion welcome.
My wife has German relatives and we are in the process of trying to find out who in Germany we can contact to get this seller to withdraw these from sale. Its a public holiday there at the moment so will need to wait till Monday.
My son and his mate could have been killed. There is one less E30 in the world, this guy is still selling this crap and I am really pissed off. If there is anyone here that is located in Germany, please, can you offer any help? Any government agency who regulates motor vehicle standard or the like so we can report this guy and get him to stop selling these sets. (or at least the tie rods)
I will get my mechanic to leave some more appropriate feedback on EBay once we get the new set and I might try EBay for recourse, but from past experience they probably wont care.
Thanks.
