Time has passed so now I can write about my little incident without cursing :-)
Aprox. two months ago I was driving home from work in heavy rain, stopped at the light at a T-junction, took a right turn and did a slow
180 spin which ended with me parked neatly next to the curb in the opposite direction of traffic. There was little drama, fortunately no traffic and in fact no one saw me do it. But there was an ugly sound when the spin ended by my left rear wheel hitting the curb!I wasn't racing and having just left plus in fact I driving a bit slow due to the rain so my speed was maybe 15 MPH so I am sure that either my wheels or the road was extra slippery due to oil or something. The road from work takes me past a harbor where lots of goods are transported so maybe some spillage took me out (There should have been a guy with a orange/yellow striped flag).
Anyway I am writing this to warn about being to relaxed just because you drive slow in a place where you have been hundreds of times.
I was lucky as there was no traffic so I did not cause damage/harm to anything but my MX-5 and my pride. Plus also I got soaked by the rain while I waited for the car transport as the car was in a bad place in a fast/heavy traffic location so I did not dare sit in it :-)
My small spin broke/snapped three out of five wheel spooks completely, cracked a fourth about half way and when I mounted the emergency spare for transport it was pretty clear something was out of twisted. No panels was harmed.
The parts list from the garage goes like this:
MD21 25 500 - Drive shaft NC10 25 360 - Lower wishbone
9965 F6 6050 - Mazda alu-wheel NA01 24 460 - Bushing (2x) NA01 28 4D0 - Bushing NA01 28 4B0 - Bushing 9YA1 01 201 - Bolt NA80 28 66ZD - Bolt (2x) NC14 26 140 - Spindel (Not sure what this is) NA01 28 8C0C - Bushing B01A 33 060A - Hub (Not sure about the translation) x - Two new rear tires (They must match) x - Four wheel alignmentParts, labor and transport came to just under 5000 US. Fortunately my insurance covers it so I get stuck with the first 550 US or so. Only my premium goes up so with that included the little spin cost me 3000 US!
Both spare parts and labor is pretty expensive in this place. The drive shaft alone is almost 1000 US and just the transport cost 300+ US and that was for 7 miles or so. Had the car ended up a less problematic place it may have been cheaper as I had to have it moved on a Friday night.
Kind regards Bruno