jbrennen

iTrader: (1)

As I was pulling into park the car at work this morning, going about 5-10 MPH and turning into the parking spot, the car suddenly decelerated hard on its own -- it felt as if the brakes (or the parking brake) had engaged.

I immediately stopped the car and checked the parking brake to make sure it was in the disengaged position. I then tried 2 or 3 times to re-engage the clutch and creep forward in 1st gear, and each time I had the same feeling as if the brakes were engaged.

Then I tried reverse gear. The car seemed to successfully reverse -- I backed up about 10 feet. Since then everything feels normal with the car, including 1st gear and reverse -- but I haven't taken it above about 5 MPH or further than 30 feet.

The only thing I can guess is that something in the drivetrain slipped into a bad position and bound up in that position, but that driving in reverse got it unbound -- but that gives me no confidence that the car is fixed. It could slip into that bad position again, maybe next time at freeway speeds.

Any ideas what could cause this? Anybody had a similar issue? And if so, what was the cause?

Right now my primary suspicion is a wheel bearing that seized up but that unseized after running the car backward.

Thanks for any advice or help!
Jack

barneyb

Lsd

jbrennen

iTrader: (1)

Turned out to be a lug nut that went missing, followed by the lug stud backing out of its hole far enough to impact the inboard parts of the suspension and/or the steering knuckle.

I'm hoping it's just a new lug stud and a new lug nut and all should be well.

barneyb

If it stopped the car I wonder what it did to the hole.

jbrennen

iTrader: (1)

The hole didn't look significantly different than before when I replaced the stud this afternoon.

I'll check for wheel bearing issues over the next month or so, and also check that the lug nuts remain tight. I assume the lug nut was not properly tightened the last time I autocrossed the car in January. (That seems a long time ago, but I probably only put about 200 miles on the car each month.)