I happened to be in downtown Flint , MI today and walked past this late model Buick Verano with the rear passenger wheel snapped off on Saginaw Street. A kindly elderly gentleman was waiting there with it for the tow truck…it was his niece’s car and she had to get to work. The car was just three years old, and seemed to be in otherwise in impeccable shape and freshly washed to get the snow and slush off.
The man wasn’t sure how many miles were on it. He thought she might of hit a pothole but he couldn’t find it in the immediate vicinity. If it was a pothole…it was a doozy. OK, let’s not immediately pile on GM here. But generally speaking modern day cars these days are made of pretty stout stuff…and you just don’t see this kind of major failure too often, even on old hoopties.
This is where Luddite-old-Me wants to say “Tell me again about how great these modern independent rear suspensions are. This has never happened to one of my live-axle cars.”
I will not pile onto GM here – this is the sort of thing we have to expect in CAFE-world where light weight is prized above all. I too live in the pothole-rich environment of the slushy midwest and prefer stouter stuff.
The modern world is full of disappointment. Now get off my lawn!
IIRC, it’s the same trailing-arm suspension as the Cruze with which it shares a platform.
To pile on on this clear luddite win, these larger diameter OEM cast alloy wheels are not light, they’re probably in the 25-30lbs each range w/o tires based on my experiences(I’ve recycled a few damaged wheels for a quick buck here and there), which is well more than the older stamped 14-15” steel wheels of the day whose taller sidewall tires also probably would have absorbed this impact better.
In my world I’d rather sacrifice the wheel or tire and drive home on a spare than sacrifice the suspension and pay a tow bill.
The problem here is how many remaining new vehicles actually have any sort of spare tire (compact or otherwise)? Everyone’s going to the much cheaper and lighter spare inflation ‘kit’ of some rinky-dink, tiny air compressor, pre-filled with Fix-a-Flat goo. While that’s all good and well (well, sort of) for a slow, small leak in the tread, what happens when it something substantially more intense? It’s not even a given that a grungy, old can of Fix-a-Flat is going to get the tire inflated enough to get the vehicle where it needs to go for a permanent fix.
I’d love to see a CC which lists the few remaining vehicles that have a spare tire, real or otherwise.
One of the first things I checked when I bought another car last year, yep full size spare and the changing tools all present and correct even the guide to use changing the factory alloy rims is there, the wheels use bolts not studs and nuts and are a pain to mount without the guide.
This fight has become a rearguard action- When we bought our MX-5 RF last year, there was no spare, and I noticed that while there was space for a jack in the trunk, there was no actual jack.
After some research, I determined the spare wouldn’t fit in the trunk, and if you wanted a jack, Mazda sold it as an accessory. When I asked the wife if she wanted to buy buy a jack, she replied “What for? I have AAA.”
Given this attitude and the overall reliability of modern rubber, factory spares will soon become as rare as manual transmissions (if they aren’t already…).
I find such a ridiculous attitude with people rationalizing the lack of factory eqipipped spare tires. “What are the odds I’d need a spare”, well what are the odds you’d need a safety belt or an airbag? Personally, I’ve never been in an accident since I started driving(knock on wood), yet despite newfangled modern tires(???) I’ve had three flats, hmm….
Here’s the thing carmakers, your customers aren’t beholden to your shareholders, your cars are expensive, don’t try to justify dumb ideas to me in the name of profit or gaming CAFE standards and just give me an extra god damn tire. A can of volatile acid goo isn’t a substitution and it’s every bit as temporary as a temporary spare anyway.
Looks as though there is a very nasty scrape on the part of the wheel that is “turned in” towards the car. Did she actually hit something with the wheel?
My ’89 Mercury Tracer drove its last 100 or so miles with a wheel (also the rear passenger side) that didn’t look too different. It was still pointed straight ahead, but with the bottom jutting out a few inches more than the top. The top of the strut tower and its mounting area had rusted apart, leaving only the axle supporting the wheel. I don’t know how much longer the wheel would have stayed attached to the car. I do recall the ride was punishing with effectively no suspension at that corner; I carefully avoided potholes to the extent that I got pulled over once by cop who thought I was drunk because I was waving around a bit. I didn’t tell the cop about the broken strut fearing I’d be forced to repair it or else have the car impounded or something.
The second I looked at the above images just now, I thought to myself, “That looks an awful lot like downtown Flint”.
The bricks of the downtown stretch of Saginaw Street seem to be in pretty decent shape, so I don’t think we can blame this Verano’s failure on a downtown pothole. I hope her workplace was understanding.
Probably slid sideways into a square curb or something similar.
You gotta watch for those 6-inch high everted potholes. They’re everywhere, always on the side of the street, and no one’s doing a thing about them.
It’s a conspiracy, man!
‘Everted pothole’!
I saw a Mercedes that had done the same thing earlier this winter. Good thing it was at low speed!
At first I thought the wheel had broken, that happened to a friend who was horsing around with his Mazda 5 in the snow (Yes, the Mazda 5, notorious hoon-mobile 🙂 ) and hit a curb sideways. With a steel rim you drive home with a wobbly wheel, but cast aluminum just fractures..
The wheel and tire appearing to suffer no significant damage from this literally crippling impact certainly makes me question the robustness of the rear suspension components in these. Modern materials may indeed be made of stout stuff, but like most things they are engineered to meet a price and performance target. I tend to prefer overbuilt when it comes to suspension, even if the cost is a few extra ounces of unsprung weight.
Here it is.
That looks like the axle stub itself broke. I agree with the post above that this looks like she slid sideways into a curb.
In MN, I often see older Hondas abandoned along i94 with the same issue, only with the front tires.
In MN, I often see older Hondas abandoned along i94 with the same issue, only with the front tires.
The key word there is “old”. I saw a Focus wagon on the side of I-94 a few years ago where the one and only front right ball joint failed and the bottom of the tire was splayed out.
Then there was the old Lexus my neighbor had.
I’m probably the prime Luddite around here as I refuse to switch to a cell phone.
I remember when the 1972 Ford Torino exhibited a tendency to break it’s rear axle within months of the cars coming to market, spawning a safety recall.
One fine day in 73, I was rolling through Dearborn on I-94 and noticed a late 60s/early 70s GM A body resting on the shoulder. As I passed, I noticed the right rear wheel was missing, and I could see the brake shoes. A few yards later, I saw the owner of the car, pushing the errant tire with one hand, while holding the broken halfshaft, which was still attached to the wheel, with his other hand.
One day, my mom was pulling out of the bank in her 72 Torino (later production model that the rear wheels did not fall off of) She missed the curb cut to the street, and hit the curb with her right front wheel, at little more than a walking pace. Snapped a tie rod end.
And there was the recall on that same Torino for a cooling fan that could fly apart and spray shrapnel around.
My uncle sold his 6 cylinder 50s Ford when he bought his first Travelall in 58. The guy that bought the Ford pulled the 6 and put in a V8. Showing off his handywork to his friends, the guy wound up the V8, dropped the clutch, and snapped a rear halfshaft.
A friend of mine knew a guy with a 68 or 69 Torino. He punched the gas one day, and all the teeth stripped off the plastic timing gear.
Nope. I don’t buy that modern cars are more fragile than cars of 50 years ago.
Yes, the ’72 Ford rear axle recall. It had to do with excessive axle shaft deflection causing early bearing failure. Ford must have switch metallurgy at this time, because it wasn’t a new design in 1972 (28 spline 8″ or 9″ rear axles). My dad had to bring his Torino back within weeks of buying it brand new to get new axles and bearings installed because of that recall. The replacement axles were quite a bit larger than the originals, same as a 31 spline 9″ Ford axle diameter. Ford did have a rudimentary quick fix they installed on some of the early cars before the larger axles were ready. It was essentially an extra retaining plate that create noise when there was excessive play in the bearing. This would warn the driver of the impending failure.
Ford 9″ axles had retaining plates which normally kept the axles from falling out. On the other hand, the “c-clip” axles, which was most of Chevrolet’s rear axles, when they broke an axle shaft, there was nothing to keep it inside the housing. Like that A-body you mentioned, the axle and wheel would just leave the housing. C-clip axles have been used into modern times on pickups.
The fan recall you mention were the flex fans Ford used on some A/C equipped cars in the early to mid 70s. Not all cars had these flex fans, but it’s hard to believe that an OEM would use a flex fan considering there poor reputation.
I generally agree with you though that old cars had there issues and weak points too and that modern cars are fine. Even “tougher” trucks can have failures like this. Like I knew of a guy doing donuts in a snowy parking lot in an ’80’s Chevy C10 truck and snapped a rear axle when he hit some dry pavement. Or another who had a 2000 Ford F-150 and the tie rods disconnected while driving down the street causing steering loss when the truck was just out of warranty. And if this car did hit a curb, they can do a lot of damage to a car. I saw a “tough” Crown Vic hit one before, bent the rim, and bent all of the front control arms. Initially it just looked like a flat tire.
Broken axles aren’t fun:
Ford must have switch metallurgy at this time, because it wasn’t a new design in 1972 (28 spline 8″ or 9″ rear axles).
The story I heard reported at the time was that Ford has continued using the same rear axle as the 71 Torino had. Problem was, the 72 model was larger and switched to BoF construction, so it was a lot heavier.
That may have been what you heard but it’s incorrect. The Ford 9″ rear axle had several variations of rear bearing size, but up until 1972 there were really only two, large and small. The 1972 Torino used the small bearing size. However, this was not the issue. Many heavy Fords previous to 1972 used this small bearing size, including Ford Thunderbirds, Edsels, Fullsize Fords and Mercs. The full-size Ford last used this bearing in 1967, and in 1972 both the heavier Thunderbird and Mark IV used the same small bearing rear axle. The point is Ford used this same combination on many past cars of similar or heavier weight and it was fine. Clearly, something else was at play in 1972. Interestingly, the heavier Lincolns and T-birds, which used essentially the identical rear end to Torino/Montego did not get recalled in 1972.
Ford corrected the problem at the factory by April 1972, meaning the problem cropped up early on. At this time there were 16 failures out of 423,000 cars with that bearing/axle shaft combo. There was a story about a 1972 Torino Station wagon losing its wheel on the expressway when it was still almost new. For this to have happened, the bearing would have basically had to completely disintegrate. This doesn’t happen because it is slightly undersized for the vehicle. That would simply result in prematurely wearing out. For a bearing on an essentially brand new vehicle to completely disintegrate, there are some serious manufacturing errors or defective materials. This is further supported by the fact that the updated parts didn’t included switching to the larger bearing. It still used the same small bearing and the updated parts did not have any reported failures.
As someone who has a ton of knowledge on these cars, and have torn apart and rebuilt these particular axles, I can say with some certainty that the axle failures was likely due to low quality bearings and axles. Ford was cheaping out on materials during this era and I have no doubt that was the real reason behind this defect.
Just the other day I saw a new Chrysler Pacifica in similar crippled condition. Somehow the front driverside wheel had been subducted. Who knows why, perhaps the tires were rotated and the lug nuts weren’t tightened.
That Verano though…that looks more expensive than lug nuts.
I wasnt aware of Buick having rear steer, my Citroens do, its a great feature, however now having read the post I see its an aftermarket install and not successful.
Ugh, the new cars do NOT come with a spare tyre. I will testify that the compressor full of goop does NOT work and the car has to be towed once it gets a flat, which is ridiculous. The compressor works fine if the tyre is a little low but does not work for flats. For the 2017 Pacifica, I had that experience ONCE and had to buy a new wheel and tyre as a spare, and because the Pacifica is new, couldn’t go to the junkyard and get one. $530 for what used to be (and should be) mandatory!
1. The Buick – where is that car made and is the quality of the suspension material used there not up to the designer specifications? Is this a Chinese car?
2. Spare tire on a new car? Surprisingly there is one on the 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback – I looked this week.
1. The Buick – where is that car made and is the quality of the suspension material used there not up to the designer specifications? Is this a Chinese car?
The Verano was built in a GM owned and operated plant in Orion Township, Michigan.
Flint native here. Having a bluesy day and your pic made me a bit homesick. In a good way tho. Cuz like I said feeling kind of down anyway. Flint vs everybody. -Rich
Recovered memory. Around 1961-62 on a fine day I was driving my ’51 Chevrolet convertible along a rural road (my father should have been reported for child abuse for allowing me to buy this $150.00 piece of crap). As I tooled along I spied a wheel rolling along parallel to me- uh… it was one of mine!!! I retrieved the wheel and somehow found enough lug nuts to secure the wheel. Laughing now; this car had been painted a flamingo ? reddish/pink. The rear speakers had been stolen from a drive-in movie theater.
Should be “.. might HAVE hit a pothole..” not “might OF…”
I recently saw this item regarding axle problems…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1096194078134415367
I don’t know if this link can be posted here. Sorry if it does not.
4 wheel steering was the “latest thing” in the early 1990’s; “Motor Trend” magazine had it on their cover several times.
I recall seeing a couple of highly optioned Chevy/GMC pick up trucks with this option. I was immediately dubious of this option, give the high mileage and rough usage given to some pick up trucks.
Like many questionably useful automotive fads; it quickly faded away.