I am parking my car and the right front upper control arm ball joint gives. The good new was, I was already in the parking spot and maybe only moved 2 feet with it busted. I call a tow truck to tow it a mile to the repair shop. He gets in the car turns the wheel TO THE RIGHT and moves it 10 feet to line up with the truck. The noise is so loud I yell to stop. Long story short, after he picks it up, there are 2 pcs of the CV Joint directly under it between the 2 front wheels.

If you don't mind looking at this 48 second video, it shows where the car was moved to, the parts on the ground and the damaged CV joint.


I think it's obvious he damaged the CV joint ( I am waiting for the damages from the garage) since the mess is under the spot he lifted it. Should the tow company pay for that damage?

Thank you for you comments.

Jeff

 

im sorry that happend to your car. yes, they should shoulder the damages done to your car but you know how these towing companies are. goodluck

i dont mean to hijack your thread, did your car show any signs that the ball joint are close to giving up? any rattles? shaking on the road? thanks

 

Yes assuming you told them the ball joint was busted it should not have been towed in that manner its basically being towed from the front which is busted. It should have been pulled cautiously onto a flatbed in my opinion.

 

There was a clunk every now and then over the passed few weeks and some intermittent "wobble" of the front wheels. I've been working alot the last month and only drive a couple miles to work so I kept putting it off. I meant to have it checked.

A friend of mine owns a tow truck accross the street from this guy. I went to my friend first, but he was at an auction. I'm going to ask him what he thinks on tuesday.

Thank you fot the comments.

 

accords should always be flat bedded not tail dragged. Especially when the front suspension has had a catostrophic failure like this. The driver should have known better, and the company should have trained him to spot this. If the wheel completely separated in tow your car could have been wrecked.

I always opt for a flatbed. Yes the company is liable. The video is good but proving that they caused the break by driving it is gonna be harder. They make wheel dollies for instances exactly like this. They should never have driven your car.

 

Looks to me like water was getting in that CV joint (grease looks like mud). So it was going to fail soon anyway. If you had taken better care of the car, this wouldn't have happened. The suspension and the CV joint were both probably making noise for a while now, and like you say "you've been putting it off". Pay for your own mess, IMO.