Holy Snappin' Mac pearson Struts Batman
Discussion
I thought you might be interested to know...
My HSV Malloo R8, purchased Dec.2003 was involved in an accident with a bus in july '04 .The two vehicles clipped front wheels very lightly & then collided very heavily after my front right wheel & strut assembly snapped off my car leaving it incapable of completing the left hand curve I was negotiating.
When the repairer pointed out that he had "never seen a strut snap like that" I took it to a metallurgist who pointed out four heat penetration marks clocked at 90 degree spacing around the shaft at the point that it snapped. His assumption was that a piston or valve was welded to the shaft as part of manufacturing as there was clear evidence of a machine like spot-weld (including clearly visible blue marks) at the point where the shaft snapped "like a piece of glass"
Subsequently I sent the parts to Holden for their engineers to investigate. Six months later they have finally replied to say...
"The material & manufacture of the strut rod complied to the specification"
No explanation was given for the blue heat penetration marks even though Monroe Wylie Aust. have stated to me that no welding procedure is carried out on the strut as this would weaken the shaft that they test (by batch) to bend to 90 degrees or the batch is rejected.
MY STRUT SNAPPED AT APPROXIMATELY 2 DEGREES!!!
Obviously I was very lucky to not be injured in this accident as air-bags and seat belt pre-tensioners were all deployed but the next HSV owner or for that matter anyone driving a car with OEM or after-market Monroe Wylie shock absorbers fitted could be at serious risk from catastrophic suspension failure. There are possibly already other examples of this fault... Has anyone else had this experience with Monroe Wylie product? I would be very interested to here from them as I am forced to launch legal action against HSV,Holden & Monroe Wylie because they don't want to admit liability for this as it would obviously cause a very expensive recall of all vehicles possibly affected.
My HSV Malloo R8, purchased Dec.2003 was involved in an accident with a bus in july '04 .The two vehicles clipped front wheels very lightly & then collided very heavily after my front right wheel & strut assembly snapped off my car leaving it incapable of completing the left hand curve I was negotiating.
When the repairer pointed out that he had "never seen a strut snap like that" I took it to a metallurgist who pointed out four heat penetration marks clocked at 90 degree spacing around the shaft at the point that it snapped. His assumption was that a piston or valve was welded to the shaft as part of manufacturing as there was clear evidence of a machine like spot-weld (including clearly visible blue marks) at the point where the shaft snapped "like a piece of glass"
Subsequently I sent the parts to Holden for their engineers to investigate. Six months later they have finally replied to say...
"The material & manufacture of the strut rod complied to the specification"
No explanation was given for the blue heat penetration marks even though Monroe Wylie Aust. have stated to me that no welding procedure is carried out on the strut as this would weaken the shaft that they test (by batch) to bend to 90 degrees or the batch is rejected.
MY STRUT SNAPPED AT APPROXIMATELY 2 DEGREES!!!
Obviously I was very lucky to not be injured in this accident as air-bags and seat belt pre-tensioners were all deployed but the next HSV owner or for that matter anyone driving a car with OEM or after-market Monroe Wylie shock absorbers fitted could be at serious risk from catastrophic suspension failure. There are possibly already other examples of this fault... Has anyone else had this experience with Monroe Wylie product? I would be very interested to here from them as I am forced to launch legal action against HSV,Holden & Monroe Wylie because they don't want to admit liability for this as it would obviously cause a very expensive recall of all vehicles possibly affected.
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