Howdy,
Has anyone heard or had problems with tie rods failing with out any warning? My wife was driving my 07' GT coupe & swerved to avoid another vehicle when changing lanes on the freeway & car went violently out of control, & hit the wall. Fortunately she was not injured but the damage is extensive. After looking @ car I noticed the front left tie rod had snapped. As there was not external reason for the car to have lost control like water, oil, gravel on the road the tie rod failing would explain the loss of steering control. I & the guys @ bodyshop have not heard of a documented problem of this nature. Has anyone else?

 

Glad your wife wasn't hurt. Man that had to be one mess up feeling losing contol and slamming into a wall. That's a scary thought since some of us like to romp on these cars. I haven't heard of anyone else posting a broken tie rod. Have you done any mods to the car like lowering the suspension?

 

Thanks for the thoughts. No there have been no mod's done - car was bone stock! I had felt some minor mush & waffling the day before but didn't think much about it. She said she stopped & checked the tire pressure earlier in the day but pressures were OK. I do know there was a recall in effect concerning certain Eibach branded front struts installed on about 400 cars, but I don't think that was the issue.

 

Im glad the wife is ok.
Are you sure the tie rod wasnt broken by contact w/ the wall? Pics plz.

 

Its a possibility that it snapped when it hit the wall but there is little damage to the tire/wheel & it explains the sudden violent loss of control leading to the accident. I don't have any pictures I can upload yet.

 

Glad to hear you and the wife are ok. I have not heard of a tie rod end just breaking like this on it's own with the exception of on some 4x4's while offroading. The theory of it snapping on impact with the wall seems the most logical.

Richard

 

It all depends on fast she was going, too and how violently she swerved to miss the car. It's not my intention to insult your wife at all, but is it possible that she over corrected after the abrupt turn? Or possibly turned the wheel too sharply?

Mustangs have a light rear end and you can throw it out pretty quickly if you make a sharp turn at high speed. Over correcting in these cars can also get you in a lot of trouble in a hurry. The road need not be slick to lose control.

As a mater of fact, I found myself going sideways once making a U turn. I recovered with no problems, but it really taught me about the limits of the vehicle.

 

Apparently she lost control of the front end due to violent shakes wrenching the wheel back & forth long before (relatively) the rear end came around. I questioned her pretty closely about how she swerved & it doesn't seem like she overcorrected although she could have & doesn't remember or does not want to admit it. She doesn't drive all that agressively but the car should have handled a freeway swerve considering how well it usually handled. I just don't know.