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Hi all, I’m looking for a little advice on parts that should be replaced for safety’s sake after a crash. I had an incident earlier this year and I’m using the winter off season to get the car back into shape, and I want to make sure that I don’t overlook any important parts that need to be replaced. Here are the details:
The car: A V8 powered ‘99 making 385whp, full cage, aero, running on 275 Hoosiers. It’s quick. I bought the car in 2016, the conversion was done before I bought it sometime around 2013. It was a high quality build, but some of the conversion parts are fairly old, as I’ve learned.
The crash: The weld on the steering rack mount on my V8R subframe broke in the middle of a turn and I went straight off into a tire barrier. My data recorder showed me going 55mph at the moment of the head-on impact. Thankfully, my seat/harness/HANS all worked well and I was unharmed. Since the crash occurred right before pit out, I was actually able to drive the car off the track back to the paddock. I was dripping some oil and water, but it wasn’t fatal and I was able to get it back to the trailer (and yes, I avoided spilling oil and water all over the track since I don’t want to be THAT guy). The main damage to the car was the front end - bumper, splitter, fender, headlights, hood, radiator, oil cooler, and a small bend in the frame in the engine bay.
The repair: I got the car straightened at the frame shop. I ordered a new subframe from V8R, a new radiator, and a new oil cooler. I got a replacement used hood and fender, I’m going to make a replacement plywood splitter, and I plan on ordering a new aero kit - by far the most expensive part of this repair!
My concerns: I’m replacing my harness and sending my NecksGen back for recertification. The ultrashield seat looks okay, but now is a good time to replace it since I wanted a full containment seat anyway. Perfect excuse to try out a new Sabelt X-Pad.
The steering rack was a brand new OEM manual rack that I installed in 2018. There seems to be no obvious damage done to it. The failure point was the steering rack mount on the driver’s side which broke as I turned right. The mount on the right side remained intact and the rack slid through the sleeve/clamp on right side mount, so as I turned the steering wheel right, the entire rack slid left and kept the wheels pointed straight. At the time, it just felt like a loss of grip in the front tires, I only figured out the cause later after going over everything. The rack still seems to function smoothly, but it may have been exposed to some significant forces during the impact in directions it wasn’t designed to handle those forces. Should I disassemble and inspect the whole thing or even just replace it with a new one?
I think I have a handle on replacing the obviously broken parts at this point, but I don’t want to miss something that could compromise my safety. Are there any other things I should be checking or just flat out replacing?
As far as the V8R subframe failure goes, that was something that never occurred to me as a possibility. I didn’t think to check the welds on my steering rack mounts before every event, and even if I did, I’m not sure I would have noticed whatever tiny crack may have been there. After talking with Shandelle at V8R, it seems that the V8R subframe on my car was likely over 10 years old. I understand that parts are going to fail over time when putting that much force on a Miata chassis, even the aftermarket parts. I’ve tried to be as attentive as possible lately, cycling out old parts. I just don’t don’t know what else to look for and any words of wisdom would be helpful. Thanks!
Pics of the carnage:
The failure point on the subframe steering rack mount:
But in all seriousness, I would definitely replace the front rack, OTREs, and ITREs. If the subframe moved in the car with the frame damage, I would consider a new steering shaft. Now might be a good time to think about the duty life of your front hubs and track wheels.
IIRC Keith Tanner had a steering rack mount failure on his V8R subframe many years ago as well, on the Targa car at Miatas@MRLS. (he caught it before it completely broke, so nothing catastophic). It sounds like this was a weak point on their earlier subframes that (hopefully) has been addressed.
The guy at the frame shop said that the cage was really well built and that it helped minimize the frame damage. The engine bay frame rail on the drivers side in front of the subframe mounting point was the only thing that needed serious attention, and that's now back in place.
Thanks for the tip on the steering shaft. At the time of the impact, the steering rack was already moving around, not sure if that would be better or worse in terms of stress on the steering shaft, but probably worthy of replacement anyway. Front hubs are getting cycled out. The wheels were new in 2019, was planning to keep those. I didn't see any cracks in the wheels and I figured with a head-on hit, the wheels weren't exposed to forces beyond what they were designed to absorb - am I wrong here?
Shandelle at V8R mentioned those older subframes had a different design for the steering rack mounts and were known failure points that had indeed been addressed in later versions. I now have a brand new full replacement subframe waiting to go on.
It was only terrifying about a tenth of a second before the hit, when I thought to myself, "Wow, I didn't take off very much speed before getting to this tire wa...". I honestly thought I'd be able to steer out of it since I didn't realize I had a steering failure - I initially thought it was a brake issue. I had just changed my rear pad compound since I had been fighting brake fade with another compound. It was my 3rd lap and things were feeling good, so I started to push it. I was aggressively turning into the corner, about a 90mph entry with trailbraking, and when the car didn't turn in much, I assumed it was understeer from the rear brakes not biting, so I just eased off, expecting to scrub off some speed in the corner, go a little wide of the apex and have the front end hook up and carry on. By the time I realized that wasn't going to happen, I was getting on to the grass and no amount of brakes were going to slow me down much before hitting the tire wall.
Shandelle at V8R mentioned those older subframes had a different design for the steering rack mounts and were known failure points that had indeed been addressed in later versions..
Am I the only one who finds this statement disturbing?
A company is aware of a major shortcoming on a product. There are safety issues attached to this problem.
They fix the problem on later models, but choose not to do anything about existing products with a flaw.
These companies keep customer records. These records should be used to inform them about such issues, not just upcoming sale events.
I am pretty sure there could have been a much simpler fix than repairing extensive crash damage on a dedicated track car.
Am I the only one who finds this statement disturbing?
A company is aware of a major shortcoming on a product. There are safety issues attached to this problem.
They fix the problem on later models, but choose not to do anything about existing products with a flaw.
These companies keep customer records. These records should be used to inform them about such issues, not just upcoming sale events.
I am pretty sure there could have been a much simpler fix than repairing extensive crash damage on a dedicated track car.
I feel the same sentiment. I was a bit shocked when I read that was the reason causing the car to go off track. Wild!
Am I the only one who finds this statement disturbing?
A company is aware of a major shortcoming on a product. There are safety issues attached to this problem.
They fix the problem on later models, but choose not to do anything about existing products with a flaw.
These companies keep customer records. These records should be used to inform them about such issues, not just upcoming sale events.
I am pretty sure there could have been a much simpler fix than repairing extensive crash damage on a dedicated track car.
Yeah, like some weld-on gussets they can send customers or something.
Mine were welded at a 90 degree angle. The mounts on the new version are flared slightly outwards.
I should correct myself - I went back through my old emails and Shandelle didn't say the rack mounts were a known point of failure. He said he hadn't seen a failure at that spot, but he identified it as one of their first generation subframes from over 10 years ago and that the updated version has a different mounting angle as mentioned above. I think I translated that in my mind to mean that he found that to be a weak point on the original and took steps to improve it.
01-01-2020, 01:17 PM
Items to replace after a crash
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