ok so i was driving down 405 and i hear a pop and then a clank/ping, then about 5 minutes later also on 405 i hear the same thing. I keep driving because im only about 2 miles from my apartment, and then i hear another ping/clank after a speed bump on my way up to my apartment. I park the car check everything out in the engine with the engine on, and nothing seems disconnected or anything. then I walk down to where i heard the clank after the speed bump and find this laying on the ground! no idea if it goes to my car or what but it seemed to be in the right place. where the hell does it go? and how many are on that piece because i have a feeling that more parts than that fell out on the freeway. sounds like it came from the middle of the car somewhere or from the firewall or tranny tunnel





kinda worried

 

check all your rear suspension parts.

 

awesome, dont exactly have the parts to do that at my apartment, um safe to drive to a friends house?? any other ideas are appreciated thanks

 

Crawl under it and look for missing nuts, broken sway bar, something out of place.

 

Looks like the big washer that goes on the tension rods (front suspension under the bottom radiator cross support).

Might want to check that.

 

even better, if its the tension rod shim, can I get it anywhere or is this going to be a part thats impossible to find, and since its front i will probably not want to drive on it till its fixed, correct?

 

Well... you apparently still have one that you recovered. I imagine it's the outer one because you probably wouldn't have made it home if the inner one fell off (meaning the tie rod completely separated from the cross member.

I suggest going out and looking at it right now...

 

well ok that just put a damper on my weekend,
thanks for the help will update after i look at it

 

ok so yep sure enough its the tension rod, the bushing is still there but the outer washer and the nut are gone, it would seem like those would need to be torqued down??
anyway assuming hardware store will have the parts, just gonna take the ones off the other side in and get them that way

 

It also reminds me of the washers used on the Mustache bar.

 

anyone know if they are any torque specs on this nut?

 

I'm sure it's in the FSM. Just down load it.

http://www.xenonz31.com/s130/reference.html

 

lol, wow, I have it already, and didnt even think about looking there

 

I've broken ZX tension rods using polyurethane bushings...if you need to replace them, use either new rubber bushings, or half poly & half rubber. The poly doesn't give enough & it snapped in only a month!

 

did you replace the tension rods too when you put in the urethane bushings?

 

bumping for question; how am I supposed to get a torque wrench in there to torque the tension rod nuts now???

 

just tighten it down with a wrench

and not give one **** about it

 

Technically you will need an alignment after removing / replacing a tie rod. Get it snug and take it to an alignment shop. You can't really "torque it to spec" because it has a plastic bushing that will keep "squooshing" together as you tighten...

 

squoosh (skwsh)
tr.v. squooshed, squoosh·ing, squoosh·es Informal
To squash or squeeze:

funniest word ever!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah... ya know... "squoosh! squoosh!" New word for today's intrawebnet advanced technology.

 

A good old "Monkey Twist" should hold it...

 

500 mile journey coming up; don't really want the damn thing to fall off again, any other ideas, blue 242 loctite?? nylock nut?

 

Just match the other side (unless the other side is about to fall off too). IIRC, you should see a couple rows of thread sticking out the top of the nut (stock).