What? Did you say the wheel came of the car completely ?!
Exclaimed Mrs. Richard in disbelief
How a Surprise Party was ruined because of an oversight
Dr. Richard was a clinical psychologist who had been working in the field for many years.
He had been helping many patients recover from all types of mental illnesses.
He had seen adults, children, veterans, firemen, police, EMTs, lawyers, doctors—you name it.
Because of his diverse range of patients, he was pretty well known in his community.
After 40 years of service in this industry, the time of his retirement had finally come.
Now, on the last day, he was very happy and also a bit sad to see his old life go by.
But he packed his things, and as soon as the clock struck 5, he got in his vehicle and headed off to his home.
On the way back, he was thinking about how he enjoyed the time he spent here and wondered what to do when he got home, since there was no work from tomorrow onwards.
Dr. Richard’s home was not far, but due to the traffic, it always took him a lot of time.
On the way, there were several stops due to the usual traffic but nothing major.
But when he took a right turn, he felt his car suddenly dip down and started scraping horrendously.
Fortunately he wasn’t going too fast so he stopped the car and got out to inspect the matter.
He found that his right front wheel had separated from the car!
“How does something like this even happen?” he wondered.
I’ll tell you, this happened because he had been driving the same car on the same busy roads for over 20 years.
A road that is filled with constant braking and acceleration of a vehicle.
Naturally, the small but periodic stress wore out the ball joints, and they finally gave out, causing the entire wheel to separate.
The good doctor got out of this safely, and no pedestrian was hurt either, but the damage could have been way worse, had he been going fast.
He phoned his wife and told her about the incident.
He had to get his vehicle towed, of course, and he was also late for the surprise retirement party at home planned by his family and neighbors.
But if we analyze the situation, we understand that his car had been making a small clicking noise near the front left suspension which over time turned into a clunk noise.
But Dr. Richard had been ignoring it for over 3 years at least.
Naturally, the ball joint had to give out at some point, and what a coincidence that it did so on the day of his retirement.
Now, the doctor’s case was an extreme one since ball joints only make sounds when they are at the end of their life.
However, one will not be able to know the condition of the ball joints just by sound alone.
They must be inspected by a professional to ensure their road safety.
Ideally, you should get your ball joints replaced every 100,000 miles, if you drive on mostly smooth roads.
If your daily route consists of heavy traffic, filled with periodic braking, then you should get them replaced at about 85,000 miles.
If your everyday route consists of bumpy roads with potholes and other imperfections, then you should get them replaced even earlier.