Ok so I dont know if its only me or if others have had this problem as well. After going to a autocross event last weekend I was headed home and the 04 lancer started to make a thump noise like it had a flat tire. I of course pulled over to check and could find nothing wrong. Drove for a lil bit further listening to the noise the whole time and finally decided to call a friend with a truck and trailer for a tow the rest of the way home. Got home and couldnt find anything wrong so I called the dealership and took the car in for an appointment this morning. After much looking they found the problem, it was the hub assembly had started to fall apart and the whole thing was wobbling after it got over 30mph. Now I dont know if I am the only one with this problem cause they wouldnt tell me if they had seen it before, but anybody who regularly abuses their car on the track or road might want to check this out. Hopefully Im the only one with this problem cause its going to suck to get it fixed.
It can happen, but I haven't heard of it being a common occurrence. Yes, if you beat your vehicle, you must give it more attention than if it was just driven 'normally'. Failure of the hub (I am interested in which one), can be caused by a number of things. Did you but the car new? Have you ever gone over a curb or speed bump a little to fast? Has all of the required maintenance been done? Overall, if you don't tell them that you were racing the car, it should be covered under the warranty (if its not over 100K). But it is a bummer that it happened.
