CX-5 Suspension control arm failure

[Lesley13]

Hi, I was recently travelling in a Mazda CX-5 2013, which has done 73K miles, when the suspension control arm suddenly detached, causing the steering to be lost and the wheel to cave in. The car has been regularly serviced, MOTd, and has had no accidents. Furthermore, it has not been driven on rough terrain.

The incident happened after travelling around 170 miles and there had been no signs of any suspension issues leading up to the incident. Thankfully the problem happened as the car was entering a car park. Had it occurred at speed, the consequences would most likely have caused fatalities.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or has suggestions to make? I'm still reeling from the trauma!

Thanks!

 

[edmaz]

... The car has been regularly serviced ....

Was ANY service done recently - let's say within the past month?

Did you not feel a great deal of shaking or heavy vibration in the last few miles before this incident took place? If not, then it must have been a sudden failure, such as the control arm itself breaking. Do you have pictures of the damage?

 

[yrwei52]

Hi, I was recently travelling in a Mazda CX-5 2013, which has done 73K miles, when the suspension control arm suddenly detached, causing the steering to be lost and the wheel to cave in. The car has been regularly serviced, MOTd, and has had no accidents. Furthermore, it has not been driven on rough terrain.

The incident happened after travelling around 170 miles and there had been no signs of any suspension issues leading up to the incident. Thankfully the problem happened as the car was entering a car park. Had it occurred at speed, the consequences would most likely have caused fatalities.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or has suggestions to make? I'm still reeling from the trauma!

Thanks!

Sorry to hear the incident, an incident I’d seen before but only happened on much older cars, not on an 8-year-old car with only 73K miles. Luckily for you it happened at slower speed and nobody got hurt.

I assume your front suspensions have never been serviced before at 73K miles, unless you had done some LCA bushing job from some TSBs. I believe the failure is from the ball joint on lower control arm. The nut on ball joint has cotton pin and it shouldn’t get loosed easily. The stud of the ball joint is very strong and it shouldn’t be broken easily either.

This kind of incident is very rare. If I were you I’d report this incident to NHTSA and BBB websites complaining this major safety issue. I then will contact Customer Experience Center, Mazda North American Operations and express your major safety concerns on the issue. Depending on whether or not if you want to go further, some lawyers may be interested in your case seeking for compensation from MNAO.

 

[Lesley13]

Hi

Thank you so much for the time you've taken to provide such a detailed reply with drawings.
I'm based in the UK although it may still be helpful to report the incident to Mazda. I've currently lost faith in the car. Although I was very lucky, someone else suffering the same serious problem may be less fortunate.

 

[Mazdiod2]

I'm curious about what exactly 'detached' and why? Is there heavy corrosion or rust? Did the metal fracture?

 

[Lesley13]

Hi

I understand that the failure was due to the front near side suspension strut lower ball joint separating from the lower wishbone. It is not known why this happened. The suspension on the other side looks fine.
The car passed an MOT and had no advisories.
It seems unclear whether there was any obvious corrosion or possible metal fatigue. It leaves me concerned about the manufactoring process.

 

[Mazdiod2]

I've heard ball joints can separate from wear. The ball gets too small and pops out of the socket. Or maybe the socket gets worn out.

They usually test the by prying on the joint with a large tool, to see if there is any excess movement indicating worn parts.

 

[edmaz]

... It leaves me concerned about the manufactoring process.

You didn't reply if there had been any prior recent work done on this vehicle, but I'll try asking one more time. You can't blame the automaker or parts manufacturer for what happened to your vehicle until human error by a shop has been eliminated as a possibility,

 

[Lesley13]

You didn't reply if there had been any prior recent work done on this vehicle, but I'll try asking one more time. You can't blame the automaker or parts manufacturer for what happened to your vehicle until human error by a shop has been eliminated as a possibility,

There has been no recent work done on this vehicle. The last time it went to a garage was when it was MOTd.

 

[edmaz]

There has been no recent work done on this vehicle. The last time it went to a garage was when it was MOTd.

Ok, so there has either been no front brake work done on your vehicle, or else front brakes were done, but quite a while ago?

 

[Lesley13]

Ok, so there has either been no front brake work done on your vehicle, or else front brakes were done, but quite a while ago?

Brakes are fine

 

[edmaz]

Brakes are fine

I'm not asking what condition they're in, but rather if front brake parts were ever replaced. Although it might seem to you that I'm just being picayune and annoying here, that's not the case. Anything done to the front end, including brake part replacements, introduces the possibility that someone made a mistake which resulted in damage (such as to the ball joint boot). Questions like this are exactly what a professional would want to know, if he/she were investigating your case.

 

[Lesley13]

I'm not asking what condition they're in, but rather if front brake parts were ever replaced. Although it might seem to you that I'm just being picayune and annoying here, that's not the case. Anything done to the front end, including brake part replacements, introduces the possibility that someone made a mistake which resulted in damage (such as to the ball joint boot). Questions like this are exactly what a professional would want to know, if he/she were investigating your case.

The brake parts were replaced in the past before we purchased the car. This was done during a service.
The present mechanic commented that the ball joint boot was still attached.

 

[edmaz]

The brake parts were replaced in the past before we purchased the car. This was done during a service.
The present mechanic commented that the ball joint boot was still attached.

That's the information I was looking for - thank you. So being a subsequent owner, you wouldn't know the full history of your vehicle. And that means there must exist at least the possibility of prior damage being done, either by a shop or the previous owner, that you wouldn't be aware of. I'm no Mazda fanboy trying to defend the automaker, and am only attempting to offer an independent viewpoint that this can't be unconditionally classified as a manufacturing defect.

If you contact Mazda with your story, they might very well be interested (concerned?) enough to send someone to take a look at the damage on your vehicle. With impact damage from the wheel collapse, IDK if anyone can make a definitive call at this point, but it would be good if they would at least be willing to take a look at it.

The only thing that really matters with this is that no one was injured

 

[Lesley13]

That's the information I was looking for - thank you. So being a subsequent owner, you wouldn't know the full history of your vehicle. And that means there must exist at least the possibility of prior damage being done, either by a shop or the previous owner, that you wouldn't be aware of. I'm no Mazda fanboy trying to defend the automaker, and am only attempting to offer an independent viewpoint that this can't be unconditionally classified as a manufacturing defect.

If you contact Mazda with your story, they might very well be interested (concerned?) enough to send someone to take a look at the damage on your vehicle. With impact damage from the wheel collapse, IDK if anyone can make a definitive call at this point, but it would be good if they would at least be willing to take a look at it.

The only thing that really matters with this is that no one was injured

Many thanks for your perspective on things. You’ve been very helpful. We’ll continue to think things through before deciding what to do next. As you say, the important thing is that no one was hurt.

 

[MyFirstMazda]

That is unusual for any car. Usually one would feel suspension issues and their tire would wear badly long before the ball joint would separate and the wheel buckle over. That must have been very scary.

 

[Lesley13]

Thank you 'MyFirstMazda' for your perspective. It was, indeed, very scary.

 

[madar]

The vehicle could've been subjected to a lot of driving on rough roads before or maybe a strut wore out and maybe developed a leak causing excessive movement on the suspension, lots of reasons for a ball joint to wear out prematurely.

 

[Mazdiod2]

The rubber boot was still attached, but did it still seal out the elements?

A torn boot could be a problem.

 

[Buzzman12]

There has been no recent work done on this vehicle. The last time it went to a garage was when it was MOTd.

There still needs to be some clarification on time lines here. You bought it used, that we know. You mentioned it was MOT'd, but you have not given us any time line.
When did you buy it (how long have you owned it, really)?. How many miles have you driven since ownership, or more specifically, how many miles on it when you bought it?

Do you have any prior service history, with mileage points, like at what mileage was the brake work done?

Sounds like this might have been a pre-existing condition, and you were just unlucky it happened to you and not the previous owner.

More details, please. Thx.