Just had a phone call from my son-in-law. Went out to his X reg Fabia 1.4 8V this morning, drove off and found that the steering was all over the place. The front wheel was at a crazy angle.

Got it into a garage who found that a wishbone has sheared. :eek:

The car was driving OK the night before, hasn't hit any kerbs or pot holes. no damage to the wheel. He had 2 new front springs for the MOT 3 months ago.

He is counting himself lucky that it didn't happen at high speed!

Any ideas how this can happen?

Just one thought! Where he lives there is a lot of speed bumps - a mix of those that go right across the road and those that you can straddle. He always takes them pretty slowly but could this be the cause?

Speed bumps definately aren't going to help but for it to actually sheer the wishbone is extreme. Has it ever been in an accident?

Strange - just really glad that as you said it didn't happen at any sort of road speed....

Metal fatigue perhaps? Some bolts done up too tight when the springs were changed?

On the plus side - I'd imagine he gets to make a wish...

Never heard of this happening on a Fabia wishbone, but have seen it on older Ford Escorts a few times. I would be very surprised if it was the actual wishbone that broke, more likely would be the bottom balljoint. Can happen if old bolts are re-used after suspension work.

Would really like to see a picture of the broken part if possible.

I replaced the two front wishbones on my car recently (one was bent but I replaced the second one just in case...) and have to say they look incredibly well made and strong (the bent one had bent around the hexagonal thing that slots in to the front console bushes) and I think it would take a hell of a lot to crack a wishbone. Could it possibly have been a manufacturing defect on that particular part?

He just got the car back

Turns out it was bolts that had sheared not the wishbone.

Looks like you could have hit the nail (or bolt!) on the head, MoggyTech - must have used old bolts when they replaced the springs.

If its the main wishbone bolt then they wouldnt have needed to touch that whel changing springs. Thats only removed when doing console bushes and/or wishbones.

He just got the car back

Turns out it was bolts that had sheared not the wishbone.

Looks like you could have hit the nail (or bolt!) on the head, MoggyTech - must have used old bolts when they replaced the springs.

That's good to hear, as the thought of a wishbone actually breaking doesn't bare thinking about. Safe bet it will have been the three balljoint bolts. What tends to happen if old bolts are re-used, is one snaps and you don't notice anything untoward. That puts more strain on the remaining two bolts, and when the second one fails, the third one usually goes at the same time. Glad it happened at low speed, could have been nasty on a motorway.