View Full Version : ANOTHER wreck...
Ok... this is a bunch of horse crap... but um.. yeah... on my way in to work this morning, i had yet ANOTHER wreck in the Cougar...
I was going through a turn, when the car stopped responding all together... i didnt hear anything pop or break, but that's because i had my radio on a medium level... i pulled the wheel to the left and the car kept going straight... into a ditch... and the more and more i pulled the wheel to the left, the car just got sideways in the ditch... when it was nearly completely sideways... i swiped out a speedlimit sign... causing the car to get back onto the road... at that point i was heading straight for the other ditch, headed towards a concrete manhole... so i jerked the car back to the right, causing it to do a 180 in the middle of the road... from there i struggled to get it onto the side of the road...
pictures are included, showing what happened to the back wheel, and what i believe caused the accident to begin with... the officer on scene wrote the report up as faulty equipment, so now it's on to the insurance company... let's see how my insurance company and FoMoCo deal with THIS one!!!!
btw.. unfortunately.. i'm going to try my best to get out of this car... while i love the cougar... i can't deal with this kind of stuff happening to me... if i CAN get out of it, it'll be back to a truck for me!
http://www.fastcougar.com/forums/attachments/ccc31.jpg
http://www.fastcougar.com/forums/attachments/ccc32.jpg
http://www.fastcougar.com/forums/attachments/ccc33.jpg
http://www.fastcougar.com/forums/attachments/ccc34.jpg
Crispy
02-28-2002, 03:26 PM
Hmm..... never heard of anything like that happening before... wicked wack mang!
custom_images/emoticons/shocked.gif...I cant believe this! that the hell is that?
Dmecca19
02-28-2002, 04:00 PM
omg, thats crazy. if that happened to me, the second i realized the car wasnt responding i wouldve
1) rolled down my window
2) jumped out the window into a dive looking cool
3) watch my cougar crash and start crying.
your taking it alot better than i would be if that happened to me today. that really sucks. sorry to hear the bad news.
edit: on second thought after reading this, i guess it would be easier to just open the door. eh, i wanna go out fancy though
ATLCOUGAR
02-28-2002, 04:09 PM
Man what the hell!!!!! The cougars are trying to kill us!!!
It should be coverd under warranty and FMC should have to pay for the damage.
Call me about the truck if you are serious. I can get you the deal at Hennesy Mazda....
HaleC2
02-28-2002, 05:29 PM
Chris that sucks dude. Remember what happened to me in my cougar tho? Nearly the same thing.. even the part about the ditches (Damn dirty ditches!).
How fast were you going? I shoulda just called the cops for a report after mine.. this may be something happening to a lot of cougars. :cry:
FastCougar
02-28-2002, 07:09 PM
I don't think that's the cause, but a result of the crash. A broken trailing arm would still allow you to steer the car somewhat and you would have definitely heard that break ... you would have felt it! Describe what you mean by "stopped responding all together" ... where you steering the car through a corner and then wham ... no longer able to steer, or did the power shut off? I'm kinda confused.
Lalee
02-28-2002, 07:29 PM
Chris i'm sooooo very sorry i can't believe that happened your car is so pretty to and if you get rid of the cougar who else will be in W.R. in C.O.O.G.A!!!!:(
phatcougar
02-28-2002, 08:18 PM
Dang Chris!!! I thought guys were suspose to be better drivers than girls??? :) JK!! Anyways, Glad u are ok and hope you still come to CougarFest wether u have the Couga or not.. I'd still like to meet ya..!! :)
HaleC2
03-01-2002, 12:05 AM
I don't think that's the cause, but a result of the crash. A broken trailing arm would still allow you to steer the car somewhat and you would have definitely heard that break ... you would have felt it! Describe what you mean by "stopped responding all together" ... where you steering the car through a corner and then wham ... no longer able to steer, or did the power shut off? I'm kinda confused.
I didn't mean the trailing arm being faulty. ; ) Mine isn't broken. Don't know about Chris but what happened to me is I was about to go through a turn and it almost felt like the steering wheel just wasn't connected to anything or something. The car didn't go in the direction I turned at all.. but when I jerked to compensate it did. I also went fishtailed off towards a ditch.. overcompensated into another ditch. : P
If that's what Chris had... :disgust:
ATLCOUGAR
03-01-2002, 12:23 AM
And here I am looking at a new cougar......We just might look at the Protege 5
I don't think that's the cause, but a result of the crash. A broken trailing arm would still allow you to steer the car somewhat and you would have definitely heard that break ... you would have felt it! Describe what you mean by "stopped responding all together" ... where you steering the car through a corner and then wham ... no longer able to steer, or did the power shut off? I'm kinda confused.
ok mine happened a LOT like Jon's... I was going into the turn... and as I turned the wheel, it just kept going straight... so i turned the wheel more... as at this point i'm now going into the grass... it's turning a little... but not much... and i can feel the back end getting really really loose on me... so i turn it with all my might... as far as i can jerk it... and the whole back end spins around, in the grass... i collide with the sign... which sends me back out onto the blacktop... and at that point i'm headed straight for the other ditch... and straight for that concrete manhole... so i jerk the wheel as far right as i can in hopes of keeping it out of the other ditch... and the car responds well at this point, causing it to do a 180... most likely on two wheels, and comes to a stop in the middle of the road... the shop took a look at the car and said that the suspension damage IS a result of the crash with the sign, not happening before the loss of control... sooo... what caused the steering to not respond in the first case?? and allows it to work fine now??? since Jon had the same thing happen to him... has anyone else heard of this happening before?? there were no patches of sand, ice, or anything slippery in the roadway... and in all likelyhood, IF the car had responded with the first little turn, the car wouldn't have gotten sideways and hit the sign... where the accident happened is ONLY about 125yds from the end of the road... from when i had just turned onto the road... my max speed could have been no more than 30 mph... (my mom tested this this afternoon, as she gunned it from the turn to where i lost control... and she has a v6 lexus...) the car IS under warranty, however because i just had that accident back in december, my father is making me pay for it all out of pocket and NOT report it to the insurance company... total estimates: $800 in suspension damage, $1950 in body damage... yeah... that's almost $2800 MORE in damage to my car... i'm getting the suspension back in order for about $450 (using a used suspension off of a front-end wrecked coug from a salvage yard...) and then i have to save up money to get the body fixed... which means i have to drive it with the damage for about 2 months... UGH!!!!
Chris:
Provided everything you've said is true, I would think this is a more serious problem with the car than we may be led to believe. The last thing any of us need is for the steering column to strip whiel going through a turn.
Here's my hypothesis:
The steering column is toothed, just like splines on your axle shaft. It fits into a receiver on the rack. If these splines sheered off or were partially worn off, the result would be the feeling as if the steering wheel wasn't connected to the ground. Another thing it could be is something in the rack itself. I would find it incredibly hard to believe you had two tierod failures simultaneously, so I leave those out of the equation. If you had tierod failures, your front wheels would be pointed at each other... custom_images/emoticons/shocked.gif
Trevor- I don't believe this is a power steering pump issue or other "power loss" problem. If the pump went out, and you were going sufficiently fast in a straight line, it would be incredibly difficult to turn the wheel AT ALL. What Chris is talking about was turning the wheel but having the car still go straight. Is this correct, Chris?
Chris and Jon: What are the build dates for both your cars? Maybe this is a factory problem or a bad batch of parts.
Edit: Chris- Your father should not at all blame you for this if what you've said is true. There was no way any driver can avoid an accident if the steering fails, which is what it sounds like happened.
Estiem
03-01-2002, 12:55 PM
oh wow... that's messed up.
i wonder what Ford would do if we ALLLLLLL showed up to get our money back. :biggrin: almost like... cougarfest... but instead of celebrating our cars, we destroyed them all.
i think this is our cars way of retaliating against it's own demise.
Lalee
03-01-2002, 06:38 PM
I have a 99 coug and i got one of those battery cable recall's in the mail about 1-2 months ago what was all that about i got it changed but i was just curious why i did....
ATLCOUGAR
03-01-2002, 10:23 PM
oh wow... that's messed up.
i wonder what Ford would do if we ALLLLLLL showed up to get our money back. :biggrin: almost like... cougarfest... but instead of celebrating our cars, we destroyed them all.
i think this is our cars way of retaliating against it's own demise.
Yes you have point there.....
I wonder what the hell they would do??? Dispatch the National Guard???
Fairy
03-02-2002, 06:42 PM
I am soooooo sorry Chris, dude i got so freaked out to get into my car, plus i bought mine used and i don't believe if there's a recall on anything they won't send me anything, does anyone know if i can be put on a list or something to get notified of recalls?!?! but i'm ok now, i got in my car and drove my butt to and from work this morning...well ttyl
fairy:)
CatMan
03-03-2002, 03:12 AM
I'm really sorry to hear about that Chris. Glad you're okay though. You shoudn't have to pay for the damages. If the crash was caused by faulty equipment, then either Ford should pay for any repairs necessary or you can still report it to insurance without you rates going up at all. I'm not sure about that though, so you might want to call and ask first. Either way, Isay that unless you directly caused the crash, why should you have to pay to have it fixed?