Tie Rod failure while driving

[Gatorhead]

Hey guys and gals, I wrecked my baby last night.Thankfully I was only doing 30 mph and was able to slow it to under 20 before impact, but I went through three 6" posts and coral boards.got the entire front clip drivers fender and damages all over the whole body. I went off the road, down an embankment, missed a concrete culvert, hit the fence 3/4 to parallel, went thru and then got it parallel to fence line.There is a solid thicket 8' past the fence with lots of old growth live oaks.My air bags also did not deploy.
I was pretty much on a straight away and there are small hills (Ocala Fl) and then it also has dips throughout. I came off the hill and the car jerked hard left into the other lane and then began pushing back across the other and off the road. I was standing on the brake, downshifted to 1 all I could do to steer the sled. I saw the driver side front tire 180* out rim facing rear.
I have had it jerk hard left a few times prior to this and it was random, never a thought until now. That is a cast aluminum part! The tow drivers aid he has saw it before and they were never as lucky as I was because they were at speed, or in a corner!
There should be a lot of my former forum members on here now.I was highly active in all forums prior to FB/IG. I am a master mechanic.I have never saw this before,never heard of it either on these cars.This car is everything ZL, except the supercharger, which is why Ipostedin this section. My question is, have any of y'all saw or heard of this? I may post a photo of the broken part,but those files eat up server space when not necessary. Thanks, and I am OK other than heartbroken.

[KYVOM1LE]

Wow, what a story. Glad to hear you were OK & can't imagine this happening at operating speed. Did you buy this car new? Just wondering how the tie rod was damaged before it totally gave way

[JB'sZL1]

Good to hear there were no injuries. I've been on this forum for years and have never heard of this failure before.

[Happy_Dan]

Glad you are ok. What year and how many miles on the car?
I have never heard of that either.

[tstodii]

I've seen this happen to other cars, like a beat up 98 Accord. I was heading home and the car was sitting in the middle of the right lane with the driver front rim facing the rear like you described. Luckily they were slowing down to turn into the neighborhood so no injuries Glad you are okay!

[olblue75]

Tie rods I believe are cast iron not aluminum, I don’t think the aluminum could take the stress of the steel ball/bearing inside it, it would be too soft. An then again I could be wrong. An glad your ok the car can be fixed or replaced an understand your heart break.

[BMR Sales]

Gatorhead, how do you know that it broke before the accident and not during it. Don't listen to Tow Truck Drivers!

[Ajax2112]

Originally Posted by Gatorhead

Hey guys and gals, I wrecked my baby last night.Thankfully I was only doing 30 mph and was able to slow it to under 20 before impact, but I went through three 6" posts and coral boards.got the entire front clip drivers fender and damages all over the whole body. I went off the road, down an embankment, missed a concrete culvert, hit the fence 3/4 to parallel, went thru and then got it parallel to fence line.There is a solid thicket 8' past the fence with lots of old growth live oaks.My air bags also did not deploy.
I was pretty much on a straight away and there are small hills (Ocala Fl) and then it also has dips throughout. I came off the hill and the car jerked hard left into the other lane and then began pushing back across the other and off the road. I was standing on the brake, downshifted to 1 all I could do to steer the sled. I saw the driver side front tire 180* out rim facing rear.
I have had it jerk hard left a few times prior to this and it was random, never a thought until now. That is a cast aluminum part! The tow drivers aid he has saw it before and they were never as lucky as I was because they were at speed, or in a corner!
There should be a lot of my former forum members on here now.I was highly active in all forums prior to FB/IG. I am a master mechanic.I have never saw this before,never heard of it either on these cars.This car is everything ZL, except the supercharger, which is why Ipostedin this section. My question is, have any of y'all saw or heard of this? I may post a photo of the broken part,but those files eat up server space when not necessary. Thanks, and I am OK other than heartbroken.

I have one question. How fast were you really going?

[silversleeper]

Why would a person downshift to 1st if they were trying to stop? A master mechanic takes instruction from the Jr towtruck helper. Oh. It was randomly jerking hard to the left but the master mechanic didn't even look to see if something was loose or broken under the front? Is it April 1st? I thought it was Thanksgiving not April Fools day.

[Vegas Bound]

I smell BS. Insurance scam.

[myold88]

Originally Posted by Vegas Bound

I smell BS. Insurance scam.

Same here. Or did you ever notice how it's always the fault of someone else or something else ?

[Brutale arancia]

I too have had this experience. Ended up on the roof while learning that 1974 Vega can't take corners like a Vette.

[0stones0]

Originally Posted by Gatorhead

....

I have had it jerk hard left a few times prior to this and it was random, never a thought until now.

Even without being a “master mechanic”, who wouldn’t be concerned....hell even petrified, that their car just did this? Certainly doesn’t make sense, imho.

[cookiecdcmk]

I have done vehicle inspections for many years, and have never seen a tie rod end snap from a defect. I see the customer complaints that their vehicle just veered to the right or left, could not steer, and the vehicle went off the road and struck something. The impact is what usually causes the tie rod end to break. I can also read the so called "black box" data and you will see the rest of the story. Just to clarify, an improperly installed tie rod end could fail, but it would be highly irregular.