01 Straus Spindle knuckle broken

You don't state the mileage of this vehicle but to me it sounds like the ball joint was worn out and hitting the curb made it pop out. How often do you get this vehicle serviced or have the recommended services done on it.

Glenn Beasley Chrysler Tech

vehicle only has in the 51000 mile range. typical maintenace was done get oil change every 3000 with inspection and service, but the ball joint didn't come out, where it attaches to the spindle/knuckle broke off. the cast steel piece broke off with the ball joint still attached. Dan

fred wrote in news:scath.229749$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe17.lga:

Wow! Hard to believe the mounting broke before the ball joint. Must have been a direct hit on the curb maybe. But then that doesn't explain the sudden loss of control to begin with. Check the break points on the mounting and see if there is any rust in the fracture. Could have been a tiny fracture that has been there over time and finally gave way. Secondly if you've had any work done on that wheel in the past you may want to pay a visit.

And the weather conditions at the time of the swerving were??

Weather was overcast, If I remember it had rained the day before but the roads were dry and it rained later that day. After looking closer at scene and damage, I do not believe the knucle broken on the curb. The rim has deep scratch along the edge almost all he way around. So the rim had to be in contact with the roadway long enough to scrap almost all the way around. There is only light scratching on curb. After the curb the car slid on wet grass and mud into a chainlink fence. The fence was only slightly pushed in where front made contact. Looks like front hit first the rear slid around and made contact. Between front and rear contacts there is a fence post which was not bent, broken or leaning. So it seems to me that the car had lost most of it's speed at that point. All that leads me to believe the part was broken before it hit the cub. BTW the is a slanted curb, much like a driveway. I'm not a accident reconstructionist (though I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but it looks like a pretty interesting job. Finally heard back from Dodge and they said if insurance thought the part broke first then they would look at it otherwise they were not interested in looking at it.

overcast, If I remember it had rained the day before but the

Sorry, I was leaping to the obvious mid-winter conclusion about ice.

overcast, If I remember it had rained the day before but the

:) Don't ice on the road too often down here is Southeast Louisiana. Don't remember for sure but prob. uper 30's low 40's.

Just did a search of nhtsa.dot.gov about this car one of the safety recalls was 00V225002 some of the steering gear boxed had a loose nut that could cause "vibration to stiff sterring, and in worse case, no ability to turn left." The vehicle has been repaired (from accident) and now drives fine. As far as I know they did not inspect or do any work to steering gear box. Could this problem be intermittent? Site says number of affected units 2865, how do I know if it is affected? How hard is this part to get to in order to inspect? Going to find something with VIN on it and call dodge dealer.