Steering Failure?

[sophs51]

I was driving my 1995 Ford Fiesta in February, went round a slight bend (not a corner) in the road, and my steering just went. Put my foot on the brakes and the car skidded, we were heading for a ditch so I heavily yanked the steering wheel to the otherside, we span in the road and went into the opposite ditch. I would really like to know why this could have happened, and what caused it. Engine was warmed up, it was a dry morning, no frost left, and as we came out of the bend at about 45 mph, i adjusted the steering wheel, but it didnt do anything. fortunately we were ok. What could this have been?

[thebhoy]

diesel on the road? same happened to my gf last year but she flipped the car!!!!

[sophs51]

No wasnt that, was just a quiet country road, nothing on the road surface. Thanks for replying though.

[thebhoy]

dunno then must be one of those things then i guess, glad ur all ok tho

[Toureman]

Are you still driving the car now with no problems?

[sophs51]

Well no!

The car flipped into a ditch and a large tree stump went completely through the back of the car, it was completely wrote off!

[jake-the-peg]

Number of possibilities but difficult to pin them down without examinig the car of having been driving.

Firstly and most obviously a front tyre puncture but at 45 miles an hour it's not likely to have been so catastrophic. More likely is a failure of one of the front suspension components possibly producing a sudden lurch causing you to stear against it and slam on the anchors - result a spin into the ditch.

Never mind you're OK which is the main thing, at the end of the day it's just a piece of tin you didn't hurt yourself or anybody else dust yourself off and get back driving as soon as possible before you start to develop a complex about it.

These things are pretty rare.

[sophs51]

Im planning to, just wanted to know if it would be likely to happen again, but your answer reassures me a bit, thanks.

[Toureman]

As you went backwards into a tree the steering is unlikely to have been damaged in the impact get someone who is an experienced mechanic to inspect the steering parts to see if something fell apart before the impact.

Also they could inspect the state of the tyres.