98 Explorer Broken Tie rod and rollover

[Sinbad007_98]

Recently our soon had an accident in our 1998 Ford Explorer. He lost control over the vehicle for no apparent reason on a straight section of highway traveling at about 40 MPH. When he lost control of the vehicle he tried to correct and the vehicle started fish tailing. The passenger side of the vehicle hit an embankment and then the vehicle rolled over onto the passenger side. It does not appear that the drivers side of the vehicle hit anything but, the tie rod on the drivers side is broken.

Since there was no apparent reason for my son to lose control of the vehicle and the left front of the vehicle did not hit anything, is it possible that the tie rod may have broken and caused the accident? Has anyone else had an experience such as this??

Thank you

 

[Bill Kemp]

I suppose anything is possible but I have never heard of that problem.
Is your son OK? How long has he been driving?

 

[JasonF]

It seems unlikely that the tie rod would fail while driving straight. It is under much higher loads while cornering, hitting curbs, offroading, etc. I would guess that it broke when the vehicle went out of control, perhaps from hitting something like the edge of the pavement, a curb, or maybe when the vehicle bounced off the embankment. Is it possible that maybe he had a blowout?

Jason

 

[boominXplorer]

if your caster is out bad enough and you hit a bump tie rods can break going strait

 

[wired_af]

if your caster is out bad enough and you hit a bump tie rods can break going strait

Its true, it was on Trucks! today.

 

[Sinbad007_98]

By the way, my son is fine. I appreciate your asking. He only received a little bump on his head when his head hit the drivers side window. He has been driving about a year and a half. From what I have seen, he seems to be a pretty good driver but, we aren't sure why he lost control over the vehicle. The only explanation I have is that 1) either the tie rod broke and caused him to lose control or 2) he dropped off on the right side of the road and didn't realize it causing him to lose control. The strange thing is that the left front did not appear to hit anything that would cause the tie rod to break in the accident. Only the left side hit the embankment.

 

[Sinbad007_98]

No. The tire did not blow out and it doesn't appear that the left side hit anything.

 

[97BlackX5.0]

how many miles did the truck have on it.... we had a 98 grand marqui and i drove it real hard.... we were driving it on a 700 mile trip and 20 miles from home we parked in a walmart parking lot and while we were backing out of the parking spot the tie rod end poppecd apart and wouldnt let the car go anywhere because the tires werent straight.... so it can happen at the weirdest time.... does the tire on that side have any irregular wear

 

[Sinbad007_98]

It had 97,000 miles on it and the tire hand no unusual wear.

 

[MONMIX]

EXACTLLY where on the tie rod is the break ?

Suspension can be a funkey area.
I recently did some extensive work on a Eclipse that had spun out in the rain and impacted a curb on the right front, but much of the damage had transfered to the left side of the car.

I was not there but I can merely assume it was either from the spin or from the recoil fromwhen it impacted the curb.
That being said, maybe the tie rod broke through the force impacting through the steering, maybe from when the truck rolled back down on all fours.

It is very intresting to me.
Let me know how this progresses.

 

[Texasplorer]

Maybe bad tires on a wet spot. Hey it can happen.

 

[james t]

A tie rod can break at any time. It will more than likely break during cornering, turning, etc, but it can fail "who knows when". I had one break on a high mileage Chevy truck years ago in the same scenerio you described..... about 40mph going straight inline down a road and didnt so much as hit a bump. Still, you may never know what caused the accident. The tie rod could have broken causing it, or it could have broke during the maneuver to gain control of the vehicle......

 

[Positive Vibes]

Can you say "Operator Error!".

 

[stubborn1]

I've actually seen a tie rod break on an Explorer from my office window.

About one year ago, I saw an Explorer go around a sharp corner at about 30 mph (10 mph too fast for the corner). I heard someone lock up the brakes and saw the passenger wheel wobbling left to right while the person brought the vehicle to a stop. Sure enough, the passenger side tie rod end had broken while she was going around the corner.