Woke up at 3am on Saturday and headed out at 4am to Streets of Willow in California (thats a track for anyone who doesn't know). Its about 3hrs away from Vegas. Everything was fine, and we got there and started to setup. I had ran 3 good sessions, though the 3rd was short due to someone going off track. Started the 4th good, and coming into a right corner I hear a popping sound and bam I have NO steering. The wheels go straight and I hit the brake and go straight off track.

The steering wheel was spinning freely, air bag light was flashing and so was SLIP. I was thinking to myself WHAT THE FVCK? I had an idea what was wrong since I recently installed some new return lines and my friend had to disconnect the universal joint from the steering shaft to get in to the turbos. I was thinking that broke, or it came out of the joint.

The car had to sit off the track until 5PM until they could get an actual tow truck out there to tow it. Once we got it off I found the following..



I tried fixing it but the steering shaft had gone up into the car and would not come out. I believe it seized due to the turbo heat

Anyway, GeoBau drove all the way out to Cali to pick me and my friend up and I got back to Vegas at 330am. At 4am I had to go back out with a bunch of friends who were doing a track day on Sunday. I was so fvckin tired its not even funny. I left the car in Cali with hopes it could be drivable back to Vegas. Basically got 4 hours of sleep all weekend. After some time, terrasmak is his name on here, fixed it so I could at least drive it home but the steering wheel wasn't centered. Had to drive 4ish hours with it like this...



Got it to Nissan yesterday and I need a new steering shaft, the cable inside the steering wheel, and a new u-joint. Gonna make sure we heat shield the shaft this time so to hopefully prevent it from seizing again.

Fvcking car problems

 

Hey, I look at it as an 8-hour drive to get McDonald's.

 

Thanks for being the only one to respond to my thread lol

 

Sorry to hear you busted your car so far from home, J, and glad you weren't hurt.

 

Hey look at the bright side, you didn't hit anyone else or slam into a wall. Those kind of mechanical failures are lethal.

How much are the repairs going to run you?

 

True, there were no walls on the track though so I didn't really think about that. I'm just glad I was able to get it home without it coming apart on the highway. THAT would've sucked.

I don't know yet..still waiting on a phone call from my mechanic. Hopefully not too bad.

 

I am still surprised that this failed due to heat.

 

My first thought was this would have been a good weekend to stay home. But when you think about it, better to fail where it did by yourself then on the freeway with a hundred others.

 

Sucks to hear but at least you weren't hurt, I can't see it being heat or this issue would be more common on turbo G/Zs. I would say its likely an install error if you just had it apart

 

It coming apart could very well of been an install error, but the actual lower steering shaft not moving up or down is not an install error. That had nothing to do with the install, so the only thing it can be would be heat from the turbos. Most people probably don't know about it because they don't take theirs apart very often, or they don't track their cars. This was my 4th track day and I can tell you the car gets hot. Coolant temps get to 260, and my test pipes look like an HKS exhaust tip.

 

I bet you the bolt wasn't tight on that U-joint knuckle. I've taken that off a couple times. It probably just wasn't torqued down all the way and with all the aggressive driving and extra heat from the track it probably wiggled out. Tells you that you were going pretty crazy for it to do that though.

 

I kind of thought you meant that, It came out possibly due to install and seized due to heat, I am picking up what your putting down Let us know when you find out more.
I think i would be screwed if this happened to me I have custom 3.5" down pipes that are notched and kind of wrap around the steering shaft.

 

lol..sorry if I wasn't clear enough

Found out on Friday I need a new steering angle sensor, which is about $620 . Total bill with everything will be about $1500 including a new alignment. I'm trying to find some used parts but so far I haven't found anything. If anyone knows anyone selling steering components let me know.

 

Sorry to hear all this bad news, especially as you have the smoking issue also.

I just found out that I bent my lower control arm from my accident a month back, my bills looking like 500 with parts, alignment and labor