Mounting point failure.

[CMF_mipcar]

Has anyone ever had this happen to their Micras? I was driving my new car and heard a loud bang from the rear but as it was dark and the was driving okay I continued home.

On inspection it turns out to be the chassis mounting point for the rear stabilisor bar has broken completely off.

I'll have to measure up the bars on both my cars to see if this is a heavier one which put more load on the mounting point but considering it's a car with less then half the k's of my other one it's odd it should have failed like that.

Mychael

 

[smidge]

stabiliser as in sway bar? not that uncommon for them to break on cars that are punted hard or not set up properly... any suspension mods?

 

[CMF_Yom]

The droplinks themselves can fail, ball pop out of the socket sorta thing.

But if the chassis mounting point has physically ripped off.. Well lets just say that I'm not suprised.

Cheers

 

[CMF_mipcar]

Yeah as in sway bar. I measured up both my Micras. Both have Whiteline gear but the one that broke has a 22mm extra heavy duty bar. My other higher mileage car has a 20mm heavy duty.
So once I do the re-welding I'll toss the 22mm bar and go for the 20mm one.

Mychael

 

[CMF_Yom]

No point wasting your cash.

By rewelding it you'll be making the point more sturdy. The other side will be the next to rip off.

The mounts are only pressed on and panel pressing quality can vary.

 

[CMF_mipcar]

Could do that. I've been very happy with the handling of my other car with the lighter stuff. I personally reckon 22mm is overkill. You strengthen up one point to take extra load and something else happens. With the 20 mm I got better handling and no breakages to the standard bits.

Mychael

 

[CMF_Yom]

I wouldn't bother. The mount could have been ripped off by the factory swaybar if it was driven hard enough.

 

[CMF_mipcar]

Sorry have to disagree. Extemeley unlikely with the factory bar unless a fault from new and with my other car 200,000 + k's on the 20mm bar and no failures. No normal road work even with spirited driving should cause a failure like that. It's the only failure I've experienced with my 3 Micras. Two had the 20mm bar and the one the broke (on a low K car) has the 22mm bar.

Mychael

 

[CMF_Yom]

Not all panel pressings are the same. Not much you can do about it really.

 

[CMF_mipcar]

True, anyway getting it welded up. Will reinforce the other side at the same time.
I contacted Whiteline just to ask about the lighter bar and they were interested to see pics of the breakage. They thought they might have a fabrication upgrade to make the cars stronger there.

So I'll send them some photo's and see what they can come up with.

Mychael