Left Front on the ground, car cannot be TOWED

[yiminlu]

I can't believe this is happening

My Milano was parked in the garage. 5 hours later I went in and the left front is on the ground. This is where the Evo skirt kills me: I can't remove the jack cover as it's almost touching the ground.

Only the left front corner of the bumper is on the ground. The rest has clearance. All tires have pressure.

Tow truck came, but the driver won't risk damaging the car. I suspect a broken shock, spring? but again, the car was perfectly still in the garage!

At this point, I'm thinking removing the bumper assembly unless you guys have other suggestions? I need to raise the car ASAP before something else got hurt.

[alfaspence]

That sounds like a torsion bar issue

[alfaspence]

stuff like this doesn't just fail tho

[Craig]

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world"

Your going to have to lift it, remove the wheel and have a look.

[ossodiseppia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alfaspence That sounds like a torsion bar issue

[slyalfa]

just jack it from the back jack point. it will lift the front side too. the back will be higher but both front and back will come up

[Craig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slyalfa just jack it from the back jack point. it will lift the front side too. the back will be higher but both front and back will come up

[alfaspence]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ossodiseppia Ha, I've had one break all by itself on a Porsche I had in college. My brother swore up and down that he didn't do anything.

[yiminlu]

Yes it's a broken torsion bar. Luckily it did not bust on the road. I've removed the front bumper so the car can be towed. Now I'm looking for a torsion bar. Anyone has one for sale, please PM. Thanks

[AR4me]

A torsion bar that breaks when the car is sitting in the garage... Can you take some pics of the break and post them?
Jes

[La Voce]

Second that Wow. A torsion bar is one sturdy piece of solid steel. Has anyone else ever experienced this?

[Dragline]

Interesting. Several have expressed surprise that a torsion bar would fail. I'm not sure if the surprise is that it failed at all, or failed while at rest and not while cornering at higher stress. I have no experience with the Milano so please excuse me for butting in.

Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth cars of the 60s thru 80s (and beyond?) used torsions on almost all their vehicles. I remember hearing during this era that torsion bar failure would almost always occur at rest. Now is this, if true, because of some crack propagation / metal fatigue reasons or just because a car spends %90+ of its lifetime at rest (similar to "%90 of all accidents occur 5 miles from home"). The only torsion bar failure that I've personally seen was on the family's 80s Chrysler. Yep. Broke right there in the garage when no one was around.

Ossodiseppia, you might have to finally forgive your brother after all for the Porsche.

Gerry

[AR4me]

Glad I have the RSR setup with coil-overs at the front
Jes

[sh0rtlife]

ive seen a few broken torsion bars from mopars..being a diehard mopar fan(most 67-69 cuda's)...ive also seen the damage to the floor pan of a few..that the owners described as a shot gun going off

the smallest chip, gouge or scratch should ALWAYS be ground and PERFECTLY smoothed or your asking for trouble, in fact in every mopar shop manual(the ones used at the factory service centers) state this!...

i believe this is why some of the milanos seem to have a rubber coating on there t-bars to prevent the possibility of any damage that could result in failure

[yiminlu]

Still looking... No one's got torsion bars to sell?