Quite unnerving. i for sure thought i was going to flip when i felt the back wheel ride up the ditch and the front end starting to swing out. It all went very quickly, felt the slide begin, attempted to correct to the right, but i just got carried over. mocked up a little sequence of events. a ridge of packed snow caught the inside of my front tire and the outside of my rear, throwing me around.
Car can look, even drive, Ok now but can hind various problems that bite hard later without warning.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Me and the car are just fine. luckily was only a few minutes from home, so called and had someone bring one of our vans over with a tow strap and pulled myself out. drove home, felt okay.
jacked up the car, put her on stands and gave everything some wiggling and looking over, everything seems alright.
looking it all over was just reminding me that i should really do a front end refresh. change out control arm rubber bushings for poly, lowering ball joints, new end links because mine dont look too good, inner and outer tie rods both sides
one thing that isnt quite alright though, is my drivers rear wheel. it has some side to side wiggle to it, but the tie rod seems rock solid. looks to me like my strut tower is twisting slightly? im not sure, got some investigating to do. cant see how that would be from the accident though, drivers side didnt see any impact from it.
Glad to know you are okay and the car is mostly unscathed.
My last Fiero had an odd issue with a rear wheel wobbling as you described, it would make one think it was a tie rod end or bushing, turned out it was the wheel hub! Replaced the wheel hub assembly and the issue went away.
Glad to know you are okay and the car is mostly unscathed.
My last Fiero had an odd issue with a rear wheel wobbling as you described, it would make one think it was a tie rod end or bushing, turned out it was the wheel hub! Replaced the wheel hub assembly and the issue went away.
Hmm, will look at it again tomorrow. I know i replaced one wheel bearing not too long ago, i think it was the passenger side. i ordered one for each side but i can't remember if i installed a new drivers side as well. ill try to get back about it in reasonable time. taking a trip to florida on thursday and won't be back home till the 5th, so fingers crossed on the car.
my exhaust seems to have gotten a little bent when it rammed into the ditch lol, and its pushing against the cradle now. i also picked up an odd droning vibration sound at maybe 2.5kRPM, gonna try to see if thats where the sound is coming from tomorrow as well between jobs.
What kind and size tires? When I bought my new '84 SE 4 speed, I erroneously thought that the weight distribution would provide VW beetle-like winter traction. Wrong... Lol! Couldn't get going, couldn't steer & couldn't stop in snow. Goodyear Eagle tires provided toboggan-like experience. Switched to skinny Continental all-season tires and got normal rear drive control and it was safe to drive. Decided to restrict driving to dry, salt-free conditions to prolong vehicle life; now have 396,000 km (246,000 miles) on it and still going.
[This message has been edited by David Hambleton (edited 02-21-2023).]
