Driving in winter... (mild 56K warning)

christian370z

My bet is that there are some bends in the suspension hardware such as the camber arms or toe control arm. That really stinks though, just one of the perils that need to be respected.

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c41006

Wish I could say the same

rebe945

but jeez for 1-2k a winter car looks good in retrospect.

370Z Purist

My best guess is that it would be the toe control arm. I got a good look at the camber arm and it looked fine. I wasn't going that fast and the stock camber arms are pretty beefy. But, like I said, nothing definitive yet.


My friend is selling a Forester for 3k. It's sounding like an excellent proposition right now.

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-Phil

"Since one of my brake light bulbs just went out, the forum told me that my piston rings are about to blow."

TreeSemdyZee

LOVE my Blizzaks. Drive past FWD cars all day long in the snow.

Jeffblue

I'm sure what happened was scary and i'm glad you're ok, it surely could have been a lot worse.

Your first mistake was not getting a proper winter setup if this is your only car. Your 2nd mistake was leaving your girlfriend's house when it was snowing, since you have summer tires.

I drive my Z in the snow with snow tires, and it gets annoying having idiots come up to me and say 'OMG thats such a bad car in snow, you should really be careful.' but really, its things like this that promote that stereotype that RWD cars are bad in snow and are dangerous. And even more so, its things like this that make my insurance rates high. accidents happen. but every time someone crashes a Z because they turned VDC off or decided to do something stupid, it makes our insurance rates go up.

the car didn't hydroplane. If you've ever walked on a hardwood floor with slippery socks... well thats about as much traction as you have with summer tires in snow. next time, stay over at your girlfriend's house, or just dont' cheap out and buy a proper winter setup if it's your only car.

any money you saved by not getting snow tires, you will spend on repairs.

m4a1mustang

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JB1

Or just get a set of wheels and winter tires for less then half. I got a set of wheels and Blizzaks at TireRack for about $1200 last winter. Perfect in the Chicago winter. But even Blizzaks won't save you if you switch of VDC...

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Jeffblue

wait hold on a second, why was VDC off?

JB1

I was wondering about that as well, but that's what the OP mentioned in his first post

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Jeffblue

i can understand people turning it off to go for a spirited summer drive, but like... to drive in snow....? maybe the tires were slipping so much that VDC wasn't even letting the car move.

ChrisSlicks

Check the camber arm link, it is designed to bend in case of impact with a curb.

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Mt Tam I am

OP, sorry about what happened.

Reading through the thread I can't quite believe how few have snow/winter tires. Being a California native, snow does not come to me, but I go to the snow. Back when I did go up to Lake Tahoe, in my 280Z, and ski in winter, I had another set of stock wheels with snow tires upon them that I'd change out. Granted, four trips in one season was a lot. Yes it cost extra to a college kid, but I did not have collision insurance, so I figured it was money well spent. So how come folks who live in snow can not see the value of snow/winter tires I saw?

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EazyD

+1 for ascii art!!

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370Z Purist

When leaving the suburb, it was off. Indeed it was way too slippery to move (this is that kind of snow that melts on the bottom layer and powdery top layer, the worst kind of snow, probably second worst only to black ice or similar). Once I got out of the neighborhood, though, I switched it back on.

Also, earlier I mentioned, the VDC off indicator and the slip indicator light was on after the impact. It was on otherwise.

Although it's foolish to say this now, I rarely, if ever, drive the 370Z out in snow. It just happened to snow when I was leaving. Should definitely take the advice of Jeffblue and either stay over or buy out some Blizzaks.

My friend and I lifted the car up on jacks and could not, for our lives, see anything clearly. One of the links seemed to have been moved, but it was really hard to tell, since we're not exactly trained in this sort of thing. It's so clearly misaligned but I couldn't see anything, he couldn't see anything.

Either way it has to go to a repair shop because this is out of our scope.

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-Phil

"Since one of my brake light bulbs just went out, the forum told me that my piston rings are about to blow."