Rusted Axil Bolts

No - this is the first I've ever heard of such an event. If it were typical, it would be big news.

Of course it's dangerous. Why did it happen? Who knows. Sometimes very rare things happen.

No gears? Not sure what you mean by this. If you mean that you couldn't move the shift lever, I'm not surprised. A drop to the road like this would quite likely result in some sort of damage to linkages, etc.

Where do you live? Near the coast? In an area that applies lots of salt to the roads in the winter? Is your garage heated (this isn't good for cars driven in winter weather)?

I'm guessing there is a lot more to this story than you are telling us so far.

Matt

Sounds like a fluke to me.

Matt Whiting wrote in news:ipvng.2$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.epix.net:

Not arguing the point, but why would a heated garage be bad in the Winter? Heating lowers the relative humidity and helps the car dry out, doesn't it?

Eric

Ice doesn't rust metal nearly as fast as water and salt that is encased in ice rusts at a slower rate than salt water.

It is better to leave a snow and ice and salt covered car out in the cold than the bring it in and warm up the ice and snow and salt and form a nice solution to rust the car.

Matt

What's a Sanota?

I had something similar happen to a 1979 Fiat Strada when it was 3 years old. You don't see very many Strada's on the road these days...

Ditto - almost - I know that in upstate NY out attached garage is just warm enough to melt the snow down to a nice brine. I expect a really heated garage would then evaporate the brine down to salt. Brine is the problem.

;-)

And what is an Axil bolt?

Matt

Matt,

I live in Indiana and yes they do at times have to apply lots of salt to the roads but as well I wash my car often. My garage is not heated but it would be warmer than sitting outside in the elements. I'm not quite sure what you mean by more to this story than I am telling you. I had not had any indication previous to this happening that there was something wrong with my car. It was only minutes before it happened that I felt a pull to the right on my steering wheel that something was not right. My first thought was that the allignment was off but it was also pouring down rain at the time and there was ponding on the highway. I'm not sure what else I can tell you, I didn't realize there was a problem until it happened.

Mitzi

Matt Whit>> I was driving my 1999 Sanota and was making a right turn off the highway and

Most likely, the axle pulled out of the transmission or the inner cv joint pulled apart.

I meant things like how many miles are on the car. I've seen 99 cars with 300,000 miles with 200,000 of those on salty NY or PA roads. If you wash your car often in the winter with salt on the roads, this is NOT good for it. Adding water to the salt is a recipe for rust.

Matt

Axil bolts come on Sanotas, sometime they rust.

Where in upstate?

This was much more true in years past than it is now. Seldom do you see much rust on cars even in NY where we use a lot of salt. Galvanized metals and plastic fender liners have done much to make those problems more of a thing of the past. We wash our cars regularly all winter long and we don't suffer major rust problems. If we didn't wash our cars in the winter we'd all be driving white cars. Today, the fears of heated garages, washing, etc. are a non-entity. My garage is heated and we've never had a car suffer any advanced rust problems.

down the road fro you - roughly rochester