“Simply, then add lightness” was the philosophy of legendary Lotus founder Colin Chapman, but it’s rather unnerving when your vehicle decides to simplify and add lightness while you’re underway. [Ed note: if you only click one link today, that’s the one.] While parts aren’t supposed to fall off of vehicles while driving, if you happen to be piloting an abominable shitbox, it can happen.
I haven’t always owned good examples of vehicles, so I’ve lost several things while underway. A section of exhaust piping on my Ford Crown Victoria made a horrendous clunk as I ran over it, the undertray on my G35 was largely silent as it parted company with the rest of the car, and an indicator lens on the Crown Victoria barely made a whisper as the ancient sealant gave up on life, allowing the polycarbonate to be taken by the breeze. Believe it or not, I’ve had a part fall off of a brand-new vehicle while driving too. Many years ago, I was driving a GMC Acadia press car over some freeway expansion joints when one of the rear HVAC vents fell out of the ceiling.
The most puzzling case of parts-shedding I’ve encountered didn’t happen to me, but I’ll never forget witnessing it. Pulled over on the oncoming side of the road was a second-generation Hyundai Accent, and several meters behind the car, its fuel tank was resting in the road. Given the tenacity of filler necks and lines, one can only imagine how the hell the driver managed to do that.
So, have you ever had parts fall off of a vehicle while driving, and if so, what were they? How spectacular or stealthy was the departure? As ever, we’d love to hear your experiences with spontaneous lightweighting in the comments below. We can commiserate, because many of us have been there before.
(Photo credits: Hyundai)
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I’ve had an entire front wheel fall off after a lower ball joint failure.
My brother lost his entire drive shaft after the u joint failed catastrophically. Thing rammed into a pothole and vaulted the rear of his (over)loaded 3500 a couple feet into the air before pulling out of the rear diff. He watched the drive shaft roll across 3 lanes of traffic as he coasted to the next offramp (where he shrugged, put it into 4wd, and used the fronts to finish his work for the day).
Not parts itself but my key fob, I left it on the roof. My car can also read my phone as a key, I guess that’s how the problem started. First stop leaving the subdivision I heard a noise and see them flying in front of me lol
My first car, an ’85 CRX bought second-hand. Turning left at the traffic lights Christmas Eve and the entire left half shaft falls to the road. Get it home, get a new half shaft from my Honda parts guy, Dad and I put the car back together. I roll it out of the garage and it falls out again.
Turns out the front end collision it was in was much worse than the previous owner thought. All but one of the engine mount bolts broke, so the engine was barely hanging on. It shifted enough to let the half-shaft pull free. With the engine mount bolts replaced the car was happy until the transmission leaked all it’s fluid and ground the gears to bits. But that’s another story. ????
Kind of. I lost the front license plate/bracket of my ’94 Roadmaster wagon when I was rallycrossing it years ago. It didn’t just fall off though. I went off the course and stuck it in a dirt berm. Backed out, and finished the run. Couldn’t find the plate/bracket afterwards.
I showed back up to that rallycross spot over a year later with a ’98 Chevy (Geo) Metro to pound on, and one of the event workers had found the plate and bracket and had saved it for me, hoping I would show back up eventually.
A co worker showed me how to do a crazy back fire thing in work vans with carbs. Would shut off the engine at near 60 mph, then wait 4-5 seconds, click ignition back on, and the explosion of all the unburnt gas was unreal. Blow fire out the exhaust.
So soon after we had 2 vans that had somehow dropped their exhaust on the Interstate.
Off topic a bit here. But thinking about the stuff I have seen fly off of cars and trucks on the Interstate. Now that’s a rabbit hole. Damn OCD…
Oh sure. An exhaust system, multiple hubcaps, lots of rubber and chrome trim pieces, a windshield wiper. Not all at the same time or off of the same car, just a lifetime accumulation.
I once tore a plastic wheel cover/hubcap off an old car of mine by going through a decent sized puddle too fast. The central hub was still bolted on, but the rest of it had jaggedly torn away.
Had the Saab 900 driver side mirror glass disappear, did not notice when or how. So, suddenly the whole mirror was light grey, really bizarre, like some mystery fog out of a nightmares. Then tried to wipe it, and the surface was some kind of smooth rubbery adhesive.
a muffler
Motor Mount, this happened a few days after sliding into a guard rail at less than 15 MPH.
Only thing that springs to mind was a wheel centrecap from one of the BBS RZs on my last Miata. Heard something ping off, stopped, noticed it was missing, went back to the scene of the crime to search in the undergrowth for a while, couldn’t find it. Should’ve tried harder as the damn things were expensive, as it turned out.
I’ve had more than a few things fall off:
Stoplight burnout in the Samurai causes the exhaust to snap, then spear the ground when I try to pull into a driveway.
“Custom” adjustable Sway bar end links on the race car, which were rally just threaded rod, spacers and sphercial links came apart at 45 or so on the highway, twice. After the second time I Went back to stock.
Lightweight underdrive water pump pulley fell off on the race car while driving, then ate itself when I tightened it too much. wound up with a whole new pump and back to stock.
I’ve lost multiple baseball caps in both the Samurai and Wrangler.
I was the passenger in an 80s Camaro that lost it’s t-top a sudden blast of wind drowning out Ted Nugent and it was gone. Personally I lost a trailer hitch ball somehow and I don’t want to know what happened or where
Oh heck yeah, in early 1994 my car died and a coworker sold me a 1981 Datsun 200SX coupe for $500. Easily the most fun I’ve ever had with $500 but anyways I did have a couple of parts fall off of that car.
First: One day driving from Houston to Nacogdoches, TX (Nacogdoches is an old Native American name that means “Nothing to do”) with a passenger I didn’t really know (friend of a friend who needed a ride) and I hear a rattling sound. A little while later I come to a stop and the rattling goes away, in fact, every time I hit the brakes it would silence. Pull over and discover that the clip and 2 retaining pins for the left-rear brake pads are MIA. Luckily the pads are still in there but they’re rattling all over the place. There’s not a ready supply of old Datsun parts in the middle of the East Texas woodlands on a Sunday afternoon but I grew up watching MacGyver and started digging through the trunk. Luckily this turned up an old coat hanger that I ran through the pads and caliper where the pins used to be and twisted it up nice and securely. I’m sure I event smacked it and stated that it wasn’t going anywhere. Well, do you remember that “friend of a friend” who didn’t really know me? She was freaking her shit out right there on the side of Hwy 59 about not riding in a car with brakes held together with an old coat hanger. I assured her that we still had 3 good brakes left on the car and she got back in the car but she never rode with me again and our mutual friend asked me what the hell I did to upset her. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The 2nd time that car attempted to “add lightness” was far more eventful and luckily I was by myself. Again I’m zooming down a freeway, Hwy 73 this time, and I hear something dragging along the ground so I pull over on the shoulder and peek under the rear of the car thinking it was the exhaust but I didn’t see anything. I figured it was nothing and took off again. Soon I was back up to 70ish MPH (speedo was broke) and just cresting an overpass when the car SUDDENLY WENT LEFT!!! followed by SUDDENLY GOING RIGHT!!! I managed to get it all whoad up and pulled over on the shoulder again and this time performed a more thorough inspection. Turns out the passenger-side outer tie rod had come part. The pin was still stuck in the steering knuckle but the balljoint bit had come separated and that dragging sound I heard earlier was the tie rod bouncing off the highway. So, fresh out of coat hangers drove home slowly having to get out and kick the passenger wheel left or right or back straight when I made a turn.
I also had a 1978 MGB that liked to participate in adding lightness. One day while driving over a rather steep bridge in SE TX the car suddenly jerked to the right and started climbing the retaining wall!!! My passenger swore all he saw from his side was the water 177′ below. We got it to the bottom and got out to see what happened. Turns out the front passenger tire tread had separated and wrapped around the suspension. In the process it knocked the badge off that side of the car and the chrome ring from around the headlight. We actually walked back up the “shoulder” of that bridge to recover the headlight ring. We then threw the tire tread in the trunk and drove slowly on the inner-liner into town to the first tire shop where we admitted to “having some trouble on The Bridge”.
I’ve told this story before but a friend of mine had a Dodge Dynasty which he stuffed with two 12 inch subwoofers, and every time the bass hit interior trim would fall off.
As for things falling off cars I was driving, I was in a Dodge D600 grain truck. When I was about to drive my dad home it wouldn’t start, the battery was dead. We weren’t too far from home so we just walked in frustration. When he went back to boost it he discovered the battery holder had failed and the battery fell into the steering rack, which had proceeded to bore a hole into the battery.
I think the plastic wood on the passenger door of my aunt’s ’88 Dynasty was loose by ’89
Had my dad’s 01 Ram 1500 while my car was down. Coming home from work through a busy intersection. Rust took the muffler back to the earth. Ran to throw it in the bed, then drove 40 minutes back in a straight piped 5.9 Magnum V8. Didn’t sound great, but my tinnitus loved it!
I had an ’87 Isuzu P’up from 1987-1995. In 1994, while making a right turn from the parking lot at work on lunch break, the muffler fell off and rolled into the gutter. The only reason I noticed it was I heard it hit the road. Apparently the rain dripping between the cab and the bed had caused the exhaust pipe to rust through ahead of the muffler, so when I took that corner, it disconnected from the hanger at the back.
I picked up my lunch, and when I returned, I picked up the muffler and put it in the bed. I drove without a muffler for 3+ months before finally getting a new one installed due to the inspection expiring.
Wow…an Isuzu P’up. That is quite the autopian vehicle. I think it was also sold as the Chevy LUV at one point, right?
Power steering pump pulley on my Mustang. I’d just pulled out of a gas station one evening, merging onto a fast moving stretch of road when suddenly heard this odd hollow sound, like a glass bottle bouncing on the road near me.
My split second reaction was “huh, did I run over something, I didn’t see anything!?” The dash then lit up like crazy, and as I turned off and she slowed way down, wow it became a workout to turn that wheel.
After opening the hood and seeing what was obviously missing, I called for a tow. As I was waiting, I walked down the road a little to see if I could find it, but nope.
It had sheered completely off.
While doing snow-donuts in my 62 Scout the rear suddenly dropped down into what I assumed was a huge hole. As I looked to my left I saw what I also assumed was my spare bouncing across the snow.
It took about 10 seconds to realize, good news, I still had my spare!
What I DID NOT have was my left rear wheel, brake drum and axle.
So there I was, driving my 1996 Buick Roadmaster sedan on a stretch of road here referred to as Rollercoaster Bridge. It’s a long elevated roadway that for whatever reason is just a long series of humps.
I’m bouncing over these humps at about 70mph, when the glue holding the back side of the Special Edition hood ornament emblem failed. I just happened to be looking right at it when it occurred, so I got to witness it suddenly get a lot larger, then hit the windshield right in front of me like it was aiming for me. It made a resounding WHACK, and then flew off to wherever.
Another time, I was driving my 2008 Pontiac G6 GT convertible to a soccer tournament. I was crossing the Arkansas River on the turnpike bridge. Oklahoma is known for the winds sweeping down the plain, but that day, they were in rare form.
I was in something like a 70mph crosswind, and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see the wind rip the cap off the small factory spoiler on my trunk and fling it into the river below.
Bridges in Oklahoma are apparently the bane of my existence.
I have a British car. Of course I have.
I was on my way to the All-British Field Meet one year, car all polished up and looking great, just merging onto freeway traffic, when I heard a clunk and felt something hit the bottom of the car. Everything felt fine, so I continued onward.
I took my off-ramp, stepped on the brakes, and the left front wheel locked up. It freed again when I let off the brakes, but grabbed again if I so much as looked at the pedal. I got off the exit ok, coasted gingerly into a parking spot, and took a look.
The clunk was one brake caliper retaining bolt making its way to freedom. Not knowing the area, or who might have a bolt the right size, and being unwilling to leave my pride and joy in some random Rite-Aid lot, I limped it home on side streets using the E-brake to stop.
While I had it in the air fixing the brakes, I checked other fasteners… three of the four driveshaft flange bolts were finger-tight. Yikes.
I now make it a habit of checking bolt torques as part of regular maintenance. Nothing else has come loose, so I can only assume the last person to work on the car before me was an idiot.
I had that happen on my XC60, I lost the upper bolt on one of the front calipers, I swapped the bottom bolt up so that applying the brakes would pull the caliper tighter onto the mount and drove it 300km home- it was the Sunday of a long weekend and nobody had the right sized bolt that I could find
I suspect a lot of answers here will involve the exhaust. and mine was the back box of my Vauxhall Cavalier (Opel Vectra A) come off one night. It made some impressive sparking on the ground.
I also had a loaner Ford Sierra where the rear view mirror feel off going over a bump.
The Geo Prism LSi lost parts nearly everywhere I drove. I lost chunks of the exhaust all the time (until I replaced it entirely). Lost a wheel cover. A side view mirror that I had temporarily taped back onto the car. A few molding pieces. I assume the passenger side rear door handle? It was suddenly gone one day.
Not sure I’ve had anything fall off, but my first car, a ’65 Dart wagon, had so much lightness added the passenger’s feet got wet when driving through puddles.
I haven’t, only when stationary (my sway bar links on the ol’ Dakota, that junker).
A buddy of mine has had a coil spring break on him while driving, just after hitting a pothole. I should know, I was riding shotgun. I was the lightest of 3 guys (and I’m at least 250 pounds when barely healthy) in like a 2010 Soul, and we were going like 25mph?
It was pretty funny,
– an exhaust off a motorcycle
– the overhead bin in the Sentra, that hung by the wires to blind all my vision to the right
– any/all sort of undercladding on the Z4, though I have no idea where or when
– the damn stupid lens of the damn stupid trunk mounted brake light on the Z4. I actually felt (heard?) it let go and watched it crushed immediately. It was heavy traffic, nothing to be done.