I was driving along yesterday in my 98 Blazer and something in the left front broke, I originally thought it was a flat tire, but when I looked out I saw that the tire was intact, and the wheel was still attached, but it had broken inward at the top. Check out the picture. Anyone have any idea what might be broken and how much something like this should cost to fix?

Thanks a lot.

 

My initial guess is the control arm cratered. Did that job recently on a buddy's civic, I think the control arm was around 2 or 3 hundred dollars.

Can you jack up the car and take a picture with the wheel off?

 

Lower ball joint may have fully failed, if so may need a new lower control arm and likely a replacement knuckle. RockAuto has a very good price on a lower control arm with a ball joint pre-installed. Your knuckle may have damage from the ball joint failure.

 

Ball joint failure... not too uncommon.

 

My son was driving home from work in his 1999 blazer and thought he had flat tire was able to pull into a parking lot and discovered the left front tire was not flat but pushed out. Will have to have it towed. Wonder if it is axle (which would be 2nd time) or control arm. If control arm whats an estimate to repair. It is fully loaded, has had good upkeep but not sure if should continue to repair the car and if it is safe. I dont want to think what would have happened if he was on the freeway.

Is this common? For this vehicle to have this happen twice in 5 years seems VERY unusual and definitely NOT SAFE.

 

I have seen that before. My bet is the upper ball joint broke. Not sure what a shop will charge but I have replaced them in about 45 minutes.
Hopefully it did not do additional damage such as pulling the brake line apart.
Not likely that the control arm is damaged.

 

Yeah. I second upper ball joint. If it were the lower, the wheel would be pulling out instead of the top falling in. Yep common problem and not a hard or expensive fix, in and of itself if there isn't any collateral damage.

 

It isn't really common for a "stock" S-series... Mostly happens on lifted trucks with ball joints at extreme angles. Just be sure to go with a good brand such as "MOOG".

 

ball joint x like 10 lol

i had a shop do mine due to i didn't have the time and it was 1200 to do both upper and lower on both sides.

 

HMMM. I beg to differ on this one. There are numerous posts of this happening. I am one. I had to redo all my ball joints when i got the truck in Feb 2009. By June of this year the right upper was gone again. The others seem to be doing fine.