Car woes

[selenay]

So that MOT I very briefly mentioned in my last post? The one that I had been feeling good about because the car felt OK and I'd been keeping up with the tyre pressure thing this year?

Apparently I need a new steering rack. It's actually dangerous to drive at the moment. My mechanic wants "a word" to find out how I didn't notice it. It won't go through the MOT without a new one.

Er, what exactly am I supposed to have noticed?

*sigh* My mechanic seems to always end up disgusted with me for not noticing that things are wrong with my car. It's always worst when I think that I've had a good period for taking care of the car. Am now feeling angry with myself and frustrated that that's money for my move that will now have to be spent on replacing a (probably) very expensive car part. It certainly sounds expensive.

Oh, and I could have killed people by driving a car with a duff steering rack.

Can someone explain to me what a steering rack is?

Comments

[munchkinott.livejournal.com]

*looks at more technical explanations*

Do you go over a lot of speed bumps? Is your car front wheel drive? If yes to both of these questions, then that's how your steering rack got damaged. And this I know because when Mumsie's car got nicked a few years ago the little shits kerbed it on purpose (thinking it'd break the suspension and axel, major joyrider LULZ), it didn't. It DID obliterate the steering rack - the steering wheel was so loose you could turn it in a full circle twice before the front wheels moved. :-\

[selenay]

Not speed bumps, but there are some major rough sections on the motorways and local roads that I use. I do 74 miles a day on those :-) So that would explain why it happened, thank you!

And wow, those are some very stupid joyriders.

[munchkinott.livejournal.com]

Yes, that would definitely explain it. :-( Have a word with your pet mechanic and ask him if there's anything he can do with the suspension to take some of the impact out of it.

How Suspension Works.

If you look at the yellow steering linkage and where it connects to the blue control arm, now look at where the linkage is in relation to the green shock absorbers: Under. That means the linkage is taking the jolt of the car hitting a bump in the road and the secondary jolt of the shocks bringing the car down again. Basically, that's how your steering rack's been rattled out.

Thus, wikipedia have this to say about shock absorbers Since the tire is not as soft as the springs, effective wheel bounce damping may require stiffer shocks than would be ideal for the vehicle motion alone.

Which is useful, 'cause that sort of thing'll save you the price of another steering rack. :-D

Dude, I would like to round up all the little crash mad dummies, turn 'em into crash test dummies and happily spend a week ENCAPing the little shits so hard they need to remove their kneecaps from the parcel shelf. (Does it show that I don't like joyriders? *evil blush*)