[Sankar]

Rear suspension of our i10 collapsed last night. Dad was driving home and he heard some unusual noises and suddenly the car sat down alongwith lot of grinding noises. Upon investigating he found the wheel in a weird angle. He made it home with the car in that condition, it was raining and he had almost reached so drove it home. Below attached are some really iffy quality pics shot last night with my dumbphone without a flash. I have taken few better pics with my EPL1 which i will upload in the evening.





Has anybody ever seen anything like this? Upon investigating i saw that the torsion beam was cracked and thats how the suspension collapsed. But how did the torsion beam crack? The car was not driven roughly, its driven by my dad and apart from the regular potholes and rough roads it has not seen any extreme action. The crack was not fresh, it was rusted which shows it had cracked long ago. The suspension gave up when the crack progressed and reached its breaking point.

Anyway all this happened when he was alone in the car and was driving slow. Thank god it didn't happen when the car was loaded and doing some good speeds which could've been a lot worse for both man and machine.

All this makes me ask this: Is a torsion/twist beam rear suspension less tougher than a 3 link suspension found in lesser hatchbacks - Astar, Alto, Santro, M800 etc? Both trailing arms sides are only connected by a C section beam, which is designed to flex, unlike a solid axle in a 3 link setup like in the vehicles mentioned above. More comfort but less strength?

[download2live]

Looks bad. This is first time I am seeing something like this. Better res pictures will help a lot.

If the crack was there before hand itself then it should have been caught during the servicing time.

Hoping against the hope that repair costs won't be hefty.

[mac187]

This is unimaginable. I have never heard of a car's suspension cracking, how ever old it maybe. Lucky that this didnt happen at high speeds.

Most likely that the suspension would have cracked due to rust and stress. Ensure that you are present when then check the car and take pictures of the torsion beam when you take it to A.S.S.

Pictures will hold the key as they will give you proof that it broken after taking alot of stress. Vital piece of evidence to get it changed for free.

Keep us posted.

[ghodlur]

Thats bad. Suggest you to post some good pics so that the area of crack is clear. Did you or your dad during recent driving hear a loud thud coming from under body? May be something should have been hit hard enough for the crack to develop which must have worsened and caused the collapse. If its rust then this is a serious quality issue, suggest to write to Hyundai.
Better show it ASAP to Hyundai service and claim insurance if the repair amount is too heavy. Do keep us updated.

[Sankar]

Hi guys, i will post better pics in the evening. Can't upload from office.

There was no loud thunk or noise just prior to the collapse and this happened within city limits so roads are well surfaced and relatively better off.Dad had mentioned that there was an occasional clanging noise, which he had thought to be some loose heat-shield or something. The reason why he couldn't get this inspected was due to my Aunt's sudden demise on Aug 27th.

Anyway the wheels are perfectly okay without any bends or cracks which means that the car had not suffered from any huge impact. Looks like a material defect.

[jkdas]

See if the car had met with accident ( if you had left the car for 2-3 days with a.s.s.) since they can conceal it!

[junkishya]

Have seen this a couple of times in Indicas (Indicab) rear suspension.
Have seen atleast 7-8 cases of Indicas abandoned on the side of road with the front wheel at a very wierd angle !!

[Sankar]

This clearly looks like a material defect! The underbody of the vehicle had not hit anywhere, even the broken beam has not hit anywhere. Contacted the service centre and they removed the bumper and the taillamps to make it ready for towing. It'll be towed away later this evening.

Here are the photos, took a few more when i came home after bumper removal. Take a good look at the crack, its not fresh. Also notice the lack of any impact damage on the torsion beam, fuel tank and underbody.

Left wheel. Lots of negative camber.

Right wheel.

From the rear.

See the crack?

Underbody. Clean.

Ready for towing. Awaiting service Vehicle. Jack placed on the left side.

Crack

From the right side.

Fuel tank no damage. Jack.

Close up of crack. Rusted at some places and dirty.

Fuel tank and beam, again no damage.

Another close up of the crack.

Left rear wheel scraping the pipe to the fuel tank from the flap.



@Jk: We never had to leave the car at the service centre for more than a day so far, and the last servicing was done on April. There is no accident damage.

@junkishya: The early Indica's had a multilink rear setup and i have seen some lying on the road after a suspension failure. And most were taxis or call centre cabs. But i haven't seen a torsion beam/twist beam rear suspension fail till now. This is the first!

[Jaggu]

Looks like a part failure a serious one at that. Dont think its got anything to do with impact at the subframe. What is that leak at the wheel and at the spare wheel well area?

[ghodlur]

OMG, the crack is quite a huge one. Can see rusting in many other places too, wasn't the under body anti rust coating done for the vehicle. How come the Hyundai workshop missed the rusting checks during the service, should have brought it to your notice or was it?

BTW where is the vehicle now, at the workshop? What's the workshop's take on the damage?

[Mpower]

V.v unusual failure. I've seen cars used more severe conditions without any such problems.

[dhawcash]

Surprising. the C- section has cracked at both ends of the 'C' at an almost even plane. and that is more than 2mm thick metal! not easy to crack that. must be a material defect. and it is a bit rusty, but is that much rust really enough to crack 2mm thick metal?

PS: can you post a close up view of the crack ( possibly taken in macro mode)

[SS-Traveller]

Wow! This is amazing!

About to post the one-liner above, but I guess I ought to explain that I've seen enough broken suspension components in a variety of cars, but a rear suspension torsion beam cracking like this is VERY surprising.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Looks like a part failure a serious one at that. Dont think its got anything to do with impact at the subframe. What is that leak at the wheel and at the spare wheel well area?

I don't know what that black thingy at the wheel is, it might be the scraping from the fuel pipe. The leak you see at the spare wheel well might be just water as it's been raining well since the last few days. Thank god for that, it was getting hotter!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

OMG, the crack is quite a huge one. Can see rusting in many other places too, wasn't the under body anti rust coating done for the vehicle. How come the Hyundai workshop missed the rusting checks during the service, should have brought it to your notice or was it?

BTW where is the vehicle now, at the workshop? What's the workshop's take on the damage?

Underbody coating was done, they even gave the 3M warranty slip. If it hadn't been for this crack i would've never saw the lack of coating in many places! I think this is how they fool the customers, spray the wheel well with antirust coating and few other places so that when the customer takes a casual peep it looks properly done. I due to my medical condition is not able to get that low to inspect. Servicing was never proper, they try to peddle other stuff like teflon coating, polishing, etc etc and don't do the actual servicing properly. They towed it away late at night and will have to go to the workshop tomorrow for damage assessment.

Originally Posted by Mpower

V.v unusual failure. I've seen cars used more severe conditions without any such problems.

True. The car had not done anything extreme for this to happen.

Originally Posted by dhawcash

Surprising. the C- section has cracked at both ends of the 'C' at an almost even plane. and that is more than 2mm thick metal! not easy to crack that. must be a material defect. and it is a bit rusty, but is that much rust really enough to crack 2mm thick metal?

PS: can you post a close up view of the crack ( possibly taken in macro mode)

I don't think it cracked due to rust, might be some material defect. Stress crack? Its quite thick for a little surface rust to affect even if it was that rusty. The places that might look rusty might actually be dirt, it has been raining here since a few days.

Tomorrow I'll try to manage a better pic of the crack if they lift the car up. Couldn't get close enough under it to take a close up.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Wow! This is amazing!

About to post the one-liner above, but I guess I ought to explain that I've seen enough broken suspension components in a variety of cars, but a rear suspension torsion beam cracking like this is VERY surprising.

Lol truly amazing indeed. Especially for a sedately driven car which has run less than 15,000 kilometres (i guess its around 13xxxx something).

[souravc]

Its a tear of a suspension bar which shows that its not due to rust or corrosion . There must have had been a manufacturing defect in that bar . The area of failure - left side rear - which was possibly bearing the least weight ( since you mentioned that your dad was driving it alone ) further proves that the material was defective.