track bar bolt gone

[ichoplin]

Last nite I was driving home from work and noticed my steering wheel was way out of whack. Instead of the horn pad being horizontal, it was almost vertical. Fortunately, I was able to pull of at an actual service station and went to looking around. When I crawled underneath, I found that the track bar bolt on the passenger side was GONE! Not broken and still in the bar, but gone.

How scary. Again, I was lucky. The station where I stopped had a fully stocked Fastenal bolt bin and I was able to purchase a bolt to get me by. I had to drop the tie-rod to get the bolt back in, how the heck did the old on come out?

The ironic thing is, I was on my way home to trade my 06 in on a very low-mile 02 HO. I guess it knew something was up.

Anyone else ever heard of this? The more I think about it, the more worried it makes me.

Ian

 

[AEdelheit]

Well you can get the track bar bolt out without removing the tie rod if you turn the wheel, As for coming out it had to be loose for a long time and your steering would have been pretty loose so next time something doesn't feel right I would recommend crawling under there and making sure everything is tight. Or if you had a mechanically inclined recently ex'd girlfreind/wife that could also cause those types of problems!