what a trip

[smoore]

on my way to Tennesee to visit some family i figured i'd drive the nsx had no problems and thought it would be better to take this than the lotus.
first after getting 5 hours on the road a pull over to get gas and the clutch pedal hits the floor with no pressure oh fu<" anyway after spending time getting tools etc i find out on the side of the intersate that master cylinder is leaking i bleed the system to a couple of times on the way up to get me were i need to be and had a new slave cylinder and master cylinder overnighted to the local dealer in Knoxville, TN after getting that installed the car feels better but it felt like they didn't bleed it as good as they could have. (the dealer hadn't seen an nsx for 3 weeks and only service 2 in that area)
anyway all seems better and i figure i'll baby it till i'm home.
1 1/2 days later (my last day) i go down a hill and come to a stop at the light when the light turned i proceeded and the car hit gravel and spun up really quick there was a big bang from under the car like i just ran over a brick but the clutch appeared o.k. until i gotr to the next light.
when i put the car in gear and proceed the clutch has a major chatter and when releaing the clutch its never smooth it jolts forward alittle with the motion of the car from a roll it is minimal.
however i knew something was up with the clutch/tranny area but didn't know what.
at highway speeds if i hit the gas and let off the car now had a hard left pull but onl;y when i hit the gas and let off other than that it drove straight.
so i get all my stuff from the hotle a decided to leave early and find out that looking under the car i couldn't see anythiny wrony other than my rear passanger tire was wearing really quick on the inner side wall this tire had plenty of tread on it and now is showwing metal on the extreme inner tire almost the entire sidewall was wearing down.
to cut along story short i had to change both rear tires around to make it back through Atlanta, GA and then the wearing was so bad it went through my first rear tire then i swithed them around before it blew. it then blew the second tire out and then the spare i had. i had to pay $300 to get a flat bed to take my car home from Valdosta, GA to Tampa, FL
what a trip

so with this all said does anyone know what went wrong with having said these thing?
1. i did replace the master and slave sylinder
2. the car has a hard pull to the left when hitting the gas and letting off
3. the car is rapidly wearing tires on the passanger side inner rear tires (and i mean rapidly)
4. evrything under the car looks normal nothing looks bent to my knowledge

thanks
stuart


[This message has been edited by smoore (edited 01 December 2002).]

 

[TyraNSX]

Sounds like maybe the CV or drive shaft on that side let go. Maybe something in the suspension snapped to make the tire so far negative camber. Try crawling under to take a look. Good luck.

 

[sjs]

Rough trip!

Well, you have at least two problems there, the clutch is one and the tire/pull is another. It sounds like something on the suspension slipped or broke. Stoop down about 20ft behind the car and look at the tires. You will probably see excessive negative camber (top of tire leaning in compared to the bottom) on the right side, although that may not show with the car sitting still. (They should lean in slightly, but equally on both sides) Either way, it sounds like the eccentric "cam" on the right rear suspension came loose and shifts to full negative under load, snapping back when you lift off. Hopefully that's it as it is a very simple fix. Less appealing is the possibility that something in the suspension broke, such as the bolt through that same cam, a ball joint, or control arm mount. Any of these should be simple for a good tech to identify once it's in the air.


[This message has been edited by sjs (edited 01 December 2002).]

 

[steveny]

Is it possible that when the car was serviced it was lifted improperly and something got bent?

 

[smoore]

i don't no how they handeled the lifting of the car as i was out having lunch. my only thing is that the hard pulling and the cluncking noise fron engaging the clutch started at the same time so i'm trying to think what would result into both things.

 

[sjs]

Well, I reread the original post. Perhaps I took it too literally when you said the clutch has a major chatter etc. Is it possible that you assume the clutch is the source because of the earlier problems? Perhaps the clutch is fine but the chattering etc. is coming from a drive shaft when you load/unload it with the clutch. This would be what TyraNSX mentioned about CV joints. You didn't say anything about noise or vibration when driving steady speed. If a CV joint is that bad I would expect it to be noisy and vibrating at anything above a crawl.

But I'm still trying to picture how that can wear the tire as described since the control arms and toe adjustment rod would still keep things aligned. Perhaps the shaft binding forces the camber adjustment to shift on the eccentric cam. Seems a bit of a stretch. (no pun intended)

Did you have an alignment or other service tot hat corner recently?

 

[smoore]

no infact the car ironicly had a apointment to get it alligned before the trip but didn't make it and although the camber was of it wasn't that bad where a 50% tread tire would only last 2 hours on the interstate doing 75 mph
although it had a slave and master cylender i too think it has to do with the drive shaft or axle or something along those line
just didn't know if anyone has had a similar problem

[This message has been edited by smoore (edited 01 December 2002).]

 

[sjs]

Just to clarify, my question about whether it was recently aligned was because then it may have been that they failed to tighten the camber adjustment on that side and it's slipping to max under load.

When "the car hit gravel and spun up really quick there was a big bang from under the car like i just ran over a brick", did the tires spin the very suddenly get traction when you got out of the gravel? The sudden change from spinning fast to very slow that way can break things and is common in the winter when people spin tires in the snow then suddenly hit a dry spot. Bang!, broken diff or U-joint. Seems less likely on the NSX CV joint but if already weak then who knows.

 

[smoore]

it was kinda hard to discribe but the was never a time the tires we're spinning even in the loose gravel
i guess i'll find out on Monday