Saturday I was driving down a city street going 40mph & the front driver's-side tire basically came out of the axle & bent-up under my Hummer. I am a young single mom & don't know much about vehicles at all. All I know is that I love the way the Hummers look. I have always dreamed off owning one & I finally bought a used one in October of 2007. I haven't had any problems & I love it...up until this weekend! I do not go off-roading in this vehicle & from all apparent inspections by my friends before I bought it, it doesn't look like the previous owner went off-roading either. Irregardless, I don't think that the wheel should come off like that.
The Service Department where I am getting it fixed (the dealership that I bought it from) told me that it appears the bolt on the A-arm came off & nobody can tell me why or maybe how long it was off. Then when I hit a dip in the road & the weight was lifted off of the axle, basically the wheel pulled out of the axle. The sway arm the bent up under my my front bumper & I jumped & skidded to a stop.
They told me they have never seen anything like this before & have no explanation for why this would happen. They also said that if I had been going faster it probably would have flipped me. I had just been going 70mph about 3 minutes before I turned onto this slower street. As you can imagine, I am a little freaked out to drive this vehicle again! Especially with my daughter on the interstate...which I have to drive everyday.
Do any of you guys know any history of a recurring problem of this type? I have seen a few post & articles scattered accross the internet but not any solutions or recalls.
Any information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I attached a picture.

Thanks!

 

WOW thats bad, it looks to me to be a bottom ball joint failure ?
I have never come accross that in Australia

 

i think you get the prize for the ,,,ONE,,,thing that has not been mentioned 100 times here!!,not even once b4 in my 18 mo here has this come up!!

we would love to see the bolt that came out,like which one. be great to watch for when changing oil. if its weird once it could happen 10 more times this month!

fwiw, i think id still rather have it happen a hummer than sumpin else!

hey,,with a name like sarah you could become president,,who knows

 

I hope the dealership or GM is paying the bill! Glad you did not get hurt.

 

Wow that is scary! Glad you're ok. I haven't seen that on a newer car before.

 

the bolt might have been flawed and weak and sheared off when you hit the dip. my friends jeep had a ball joint bolt shear off after hitting a decent sized pothole and stripped 2 lugs on his front drivers tire

 

WOW...

So glad your okay. I have never seen anything like that around here. Sorry I can't be of any help. I hope they can figure out exactly what happened and can fix you up. I agree with what Doc said Be glad you were in a Hummer and not a ford explorer or something.


Best of luck in this situation.

 

Holy crap! How could such a thing happen??? That's pretty scary, luckily you're okay!! Careful young lady!

 

I'm so glad you are OK
That truly is amazing
I have never seen or heard of a failure like that
Please keep us up to date on how GM plans to take care of this
I'm sure this has shaken your confidence in these vehicle, but this has to be
a one in a million occurrence

 

Yes, I am very thankful I'm okay too! The ball joints were fine. They were inspected by the dealership's mechanics & a friend of mine as well & they all agreed they looked great. And the vehicle hadn't been making any noise before this happened.

After a fight with the dealership & threatening to sue them (I bought the extended warranty not even 60 days before this happened) they are fixing it for me at no cost.
It is supposed to be ready Monday & I am taking it immediately to another mechanic & having him inspect the axles, ball joints, lugs, bolts, etc. I think a third opinion is in order in this case.

So, you guys think that the articles I found on the internet regarding literally "wheels falling off" of 2003 & 2004 H2's...probably have nothing to do with this case? According to the articles it appears that the earlier models wheels actually came off of the Hummer. In my case the wheel pulled out of the axle, but remained attached by the sway arm.

Who knew I could be one-in-a-million girl? lol

Thanks again for all the input!

Sarah