O/S Wear

[DaveV8s]

Its quite interesting to see how many threads on here where the trailing arm has gone on the O/S. Like mine as I discovered the other day, the N/S doesn't seem too bad, I also noticed that the O/S front top wishbone has surface rust when the opposite side of the car looks perfectly good. Am I missing something here as I thought there would be more wear on the curb side from standing water mud etc?

[GreenV8S]

Normally I'd agree. Perhaps a previous owner took the car car somewhere that damaged the chassis protection on the offside? (Or perhaps the N/S failed so quickly they've already been replaced?)

[Barkychoc]

I do believe for some unexplainable reason its always the offside trailing arm that goes first.

Anyone thats had one trailing arm go which one was it?

[ChrisGadd]

Is it possible the car was parked on the road by a previous owner and the OS gets blasted by passing traffic ?

[Gerald-TVR]

When I had the trailing arms checked/repaired from the S2 I broke only the O/S needed repair the N/S was fine

Co-er spookey onviously the factory used lower grade material for the O/S arm!!

[ketvrin]

Yep... my o/s was goosed but the n/s was solid

K

[orange_dodo]

My O/S wishbone is rusty but my N/S is only just losing its powder coat so I have the same thing going on. Trailing arms are good to the touch (ie no holes) but I need to get the wheel off and have a good poke. O/S one will be getting the most attention!

Could be that the O/S is exposed to more spray from other vehicles when on the road in the wet?

[Jed-S]

orange_dodo said:

Could be that the O/S is exposed to more spray from other vehicles when on the road in the wet?

Close - the offside is exposed to the spray from the nearside of your own car. When you think about it, most pot holes and puddles are on the nearside and as you run through them you push the water sideways. This then gets sprayed into the open tubes of the offside trailing arm where it feeds the tin worm.

[mep12345]

when I bought my car O/S was new, nearside sound and original

[phillpot]

Mine came off for sand blasting earlier this year, NS was fine, OS minor repair required

When you see just how much spray any car throws up on a wet road its hard to imagine one side getting less of a soaking than the other ?

[spivvy]

Add me to the list of O/S damage

[orange_dodo]

I wonder if this is the same on other TVRs rather than just the S.

Perhapse all the puddles on the N/S washes off the road crap/salt and keeps it in better nick

[ketvrin]

As they rot from the inside, maybe the aswer lies with the angle of the offside trailing arm when the car is parked (usually with the nearside down in the gutter...) ? there must be a more scientific answer than we have collectively come up with so far ?

K

[tubbystu]

Off side loading is normally higher due to driver only occupancy ? Or driver being heavier than passenger - which is certainly true in my case

Perhaps if any of our continental brethren could confirm that their off side (ie our nearside) are the ones that fail first.