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I am so glad you found out the easy way. It certainly could have gone much worse.

I luckily noticed a badly cracked front rotor at an HPDE event while investigating a completely different issue.

I think, as a corollary to this, on the track, if you notice anything the least bit out of the ordinary (noise, creaks, strange feeling in your seat, or even that spidey sense that arises from time to time), it's time to hold out the fist, pit, and look things over. This is especially true for brakes, rotors, and fluids. There is nothing worse than an equipment failure on the track (other than your car catching fire) resulting in loss of control.

I am still quite the neophyte out there even though I'm running in the advanced groups, and I've learned the hard way. Know where you're at (140 mph), know your limits (you're a step away from the edge), know your equipment.
 
steveespo said:
Today
I learned a couple good lessons about post event teardown and system checks. I got the car out today with plans to take the wheels off and start install on my Steeda UCA with spherical link. Also have to change front and rear rotors, rear pads and overall check the car out prior to 10/24 event. When jacking the drivers side I noticed the front wheel wasn't lifting off the ground, WTF? Turns out the top strut nut came off and the entire strut dropped out of the tower! Threads on the strut shaft were worn, ruining the strut. I have a spare after blowing the seal in my first pair so I got that out and began the swap. When removing the MM camber plate nuts I noticed they were real tight, I had taken the car to my tire shop for alignment and apparently they could care less about 23 ft/lbs torque spec I gave them. Got it off and took the plates out to mount up the replacement strut, no real issue. Went to remove the nuts on the passenger side to take the strut tower brace off and found that thy stripped the studs completely on this side, now I am pissed and have to order replacement parts from Maximum Motorsports. I now suspect that the tech they assigned did not know how to adjust the plates even though I went over it with the Boss and the other tech and he loosened the strut nut and couldn't get that torqued properly and then over compensated by torquing the 8mm studs on the camber plates to 75 ft/lbs.
Not really happy and have proven to myself once again that I should trust one mechanic with my life and that is me.

Morals of this story are watch anyone who is servicing your car if you track it, and check all suspension bolts and nuts and ball joints etc. prior to EVERY track event.
I suspect the strut came loose on the Sunday at Summit Point when my lap times were suddenly off by 4 seconds and I was terribly loose on corner exit. Thought it was the tires, luckily I didn't lose the car or worse.
Steve
What dampers were you using Steve? I had the same issue about two years ago on the Tokico Ds. The strut nut isn't a locking style and the tech didn't use any Loctite. Same result, tore the threads right off the top of the strut and fouled up the MM camber plate hardware. I now have my mechanic do a complete bolt check and paint mark all suspension bolts before events and voila no more issues. That's been the only real problem bolt although I did have my Whiteline watts link diff cover bolts loosen up on me at RA earlier this year. Did a post session scan in the paddock and saw diff fluid dripping out from the bottom of the cover. Borrowed a hex driver from JScheier and tightened up all the bolts and fortunately the RTV was hot enough that it sealed to get me through the rest of the event. Apparently there's a lot of torque on that diff cover with a Watts link ;)
 
steveespo said:
Not really happy and have proven to myself once again that I should trust one mechanic with my life and that is me.

FTW.

Glad you found it before it turned into an on-track incident. I was going to anyway, but when I change into my track tires this weekend, its getting the full nut and bolt treatment. Paint pen is ready to mark all of them after re-torque. Should be easy to ID a loose one after that.
 

drano38

Wayne
1,130
318
I've got witness marks on most of my suspension bolts--the sway bars have witness mark paint, and some a simple red Sharpie marker, but those held up for over a year on the Whiteline Watts link. Guess I need to add marks to other fasteners.

As a pilot, an old saying is if an air traffic controller makes a mistake, he gets fired, and I get killed. Same for other critical careers. (not implying air traffic controllers are bad--but we all make mistakes).
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,529
5,245
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
As a pilot, an old saying is if an air traffic controller makes a mistake, he gets fired, and I get killed. Same for other critical careers. (not implying air traffic controllers are bad--but we all make mistakes).
[/quote]

The other saying:

FARs are written blood.

Sadly it's true.
 

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