Catistrophic failure new challenger

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Wed Jun 25, 14 5:14 pm

I saw this on a modern challenger forum, this seems very unusual,but here is what he wrote

"Hello folks,

So I've been happy as can be with my 2010 R/T. It's been a great ride and lots of fun... until this past Wednesday.

I was coming home from a very long road trip and while I was merging from one highway onto another I looked over my shoulder to merge into traffic then I heard a single, loud pop from the rear of the car. Scared the crap out of me. I had no idea what happened, didn't feel a whole lot else. So I cruised down the highway to the nearest exit and pulled into a gas station. I felt a very slight wobble in the steering wheel at the top of the off-ramp. I got out and looked under the car expecting to see something ugly. To my surprise, I didn't really see anything. I didn't see any fluids leaking, nothing sagging that I noticed. I checked the tires for anything abnormal. No punctures, checked lug nuts, nothing loose. So after a pretty good look-over and i didn't hear any noises with the engine running I decided I would drive some more and pull over if anything seemed amiss. I got back onto the highway and everything seemed well enough... until i got maybe 1/2 mile down the road. There was a boom from the rear followed by some absolutely horrible grinding noises. I took manual control of the transmission and tried to switch into a different gear and started to slow down and get out of traffic. Then it happened. Big boom and hundreds of pieces in my rear view mirror. Limped over into the grass, got out to look under the car, then a semi-truck hurls a very large bolt at me (from my transmission I assume) and blasts the top of my hand and splits me open and I was sure it broke my hand. What a day...

What I've learned in hindsight (not 100% knowledgeable in car setups). The first pop I believe was the bearing holding one side of the rear suspension cradle up. The 2nd pop was the other side cradle bearing which dropped that cradle down and broke the rear axle, which created a pitched up drive bar into the transmission hub which sheared out all the gears and created a shrapnel grenade. This blew everything out and down which grinded my exhaust into the pavement. Who knows what other damage may have occurred.

The car is almost 4 1/2 years old and 35K miles. Never raced and never treated poorly. Never driven in the snow/salt. Just state inspected a month ago. Chrysler is refusing this as a warranty issue. Having the insurance come out to look at it this week to determine if an impact occurred that caused the failure. If that falls through I have comprehensive Zurich coverage. Between the two of them I'm praying that one of them will cover it. I'm sure I won't be able to afford the repairs. I'm incredibly disappointed that something like this failed in a car with such low miles and the manufacture shrugs off the responsibility.

Some pictures to help anybody identify a potential failure point.

I'm curious if any of you have seen any other occurrences of this type of failure? (I went through the searches also)
Possibly looking to build a case if this has happened to many others as well."

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Wed Jun 25, 14 5:52 pm

i would say it happened the other way around. transmission failed and the resulting lockup ripped the bushes from the mountings. i can't see how one mount could go before the other one.

still not good whatever the cause.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Wed Jun 25, 14 7:41 pm

Bozwell wrote:i would say it happened the other way around. transmission failed and the resulting lockup ripped the bushes from the mountings. i can't see how one mount could go before the other one.

still not good whatever the cause.

I was thinking the same thing.

JinxJay · Post by **JinxJay** » Wed Jun 25, 14 9:37 pm

without seeing it in the flesh i'm not sure what or how parts failed,

i'd be posting this on one of the big yank forums like challenger talk, as its not something i've seen fail like that before

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Thu Jun 26, 14 2:18 pm

More info they guy thinks it might have sustained damage from the initial transport of the vehicle, perhaps the way it was tied town on the hauler,

I kind of think like you guys the trans locked up

Here is his latest news

Default
"I received some additional photos taken by the insurance showing some more of the damage to help put pieces of the puzzle together.

Latest update I have received is that the insurance is not to touch the vehicle anymore until further notice as per Chrysler. They are sending out a regional team to investigate now. Things seems to be moving in a more positive direction. "

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Thu Jun 26, 14 3:25 pm

Hope you have had a good look at those cradle bushes under your own car Drew?

Actually if you are anything like me I would have been looking at mine within 10 mins after seeing those photos.

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Thu Jun 26, 14 3:35 pm

Dave wrote:Hope you have had a good look at those cradle bushes under your own car Drew?

Actually if you are anything like me I would have been looking at mine within 10 mins after seeing those photos.

Hell yea I was under there, and now I want to put it on a lift soon

This is an unusual case.maybe a fatigued badly made part caused this, I cant see any bad parts on my car so far

fingers crossed

V8 Sam · Post by **V8 Sam** » Thu Jun 26, 14 3:53 pm

it even sheered the prop too?

JinxJay · Post by **JinxJay** » Thu Jun 26, 14 7:09 pm

V8 Sam wrote:it even sheered the prop too?

because of the IRS, no need for real UJ's, so it has a CV at one end and a rubber donut at the other,

if the subframe fell apart the angle could have bben enough to lock the joint caqusing major damage to prop and box,

or box failed and the lock up pulled the sub frame out,

again a hard call without seeing it,

Wolfman · Post by **Wolfman** » Wed Jul 02, 14 8:25 pm

I have seen something similar on vectra ' C's the front subframe pulls right through the front mounts Vauxhalls do a special mod in the way of a large washer