Wow! Broken upper link bars! Is this common?

[-DouG-]

My friends picked up a Trailblazer last summer… they noticed that the rear sway bar was missing (so was the spare tire) and the end links were dangling there… he just zip tied them up with the plan to grab a sway bar for it one day.

The other day my friends girlfriend was complaining about a noise and wobble in the rear of the Trailblazer.

Both upper links were broken! and one of the lower links was bent! The passenger side mount was rotted so we welded that up too… smh

Is this a common problem? I'm guessing it's just a victim of years of road salt….

 

[The_Roadie]

Yep. Years of road salt combined with an abusive previous owner and a lack of comprehensive pre-purchase inspection. Skipping that when your friend bought a used car could have killed somebody if the axle let loose. Losing BOTH uppers is a first in my experience, since there's almost nothing stopping the differential from tilting down at the front and breaking the driveshaft. They should do a GOOD inspection of the panhard bar and especially the brakes lines, hydraulic and emergency.

Hope they got a bargain, because there's going to be lots of other stuff rotting off if the control arms died.

ADDED: Oh, I see the ebrake line is already dead. I can't understand why a truck like that can be sold and re-registered without ebrakes working. Death trap.

 

[Sparky]

Well, I've had both my uppers break, but a couple years apart from each other. The one broke when I hit a crater in the road though so I can't fault it directly. My mount boxes are also getting pretty bad too... That truck does look a lot like mine lol, very very rusty. Like Roadie said, I sure hope they got it for dirt cheap...

My parking brake didn't work when I got my truck either. I wouldn't call it a "death trap" though since there was nothing wrong at all with the main brakes (still isn't). I fixed it, but nearly 2 years ago the cable rusted and seized up so I removed the parking brake stuff again. Not worth the effort to fix it IMO. That parking brake could never stop the vehicle anyway except maybe a very slow roll, so calling it an emergency brake really isn't accurate I don't think.

 

[Matt]

That parking brake could never stop the vehicle anyway except maybe a very slow roll, so calling it an emergency brake really isn't accurate I don't think.

It's a parking brake, not an emergency brake, that's why mate. Who but mericans call it an emergency brake?

 

[BlazingTrails]

You've got it backwards bro. Some people call it a parking brake mostly people with manual trans. If your brakes were to fail that is your only means of stopping the car. Hence the name emergency brake.

 

[The_Roadie]

If my hydraulic brakes fail on a steep mountain trail, I have maybe four ways to survive. I'm not going to abandon one of those options because I'm too cheap to keep it properly maintained. YMMV.

 

[Matt]

But we're hijacking the thread, so I'll end it here.

http://www.cartalk.com/content/emergency-brake-any-other-name

 

[Sparky]

If my hydraulic brakes fail on a steep mountain trail, I have maybe four ways to survive. I'm not going to abandon one of those options because I'm too cheap to keep it properly maintained. YMMV.

I'm too cheap because it isn't worth fixing on my rustbucket of a truck that is never seeing steep mountain trails. Your application may vary.

 

[Sierra Alpha Alpha bravo]

We're not talking about a cupholder were talking about breaks safety item if it came with it from the factory you probably should have it IMO

 

[Escapepilot]

NC requires a safety inspection that is one of the items checked. I had an older hand me down Dodge Dakota fail a couple of years ago due to e-brake not holding in reverse.

 

[The_Roadie]