car just lost a wheel outside my house!

[agent_zed]

Was finally getting to work on my 2b today as i've been meaning to drop the diff and replace the seals to fix a leak that mot won't like. Didn't actually see it happen as i was under my car at the time but heard a loud bang/scrapping noise on the road outside my house. I figured a car had lost it's trailer or something. walked out my gate to find a vw passat estate looking low on the back with a bunch of scrape marks on the road. 

Checked the lady was ok and we walked around the other side to find no only was the wheel off but it was still attached to the hub... brakes and all. The weld had broken all around the hub mount to the trailing arm, looked to have rusted through.

She had come down from north wales on the motorway earlier today so was pretty damn lucky to have it happen going up a hill in a 40 zone on a wide road and not at 70mph on a motorway!!!

it's got an mot til jan 2020 so must not have been obvious at test time. I guess if you have a 51 reg passat estate i'd check and double check the rear trailing arms?!

 

[phaeton]

Daughters 54 plate Golf did similar bottom wishbone let go, luckily the wheel still stayed attached just pointed out at a strange angle