Slid into a curb..

oic12 · Apr 11, 2009, 05:56 PM

I was misbehaving in the rain last Thurs. and managed to slide my 2006 MR sideways into a curb. The left rear wheel took a pretty substantial hit, but surprisingly enough – I don’t think it’s bent. The curb appears to have just caught the edge of the rim and the tire took a good portion of the impact - I had to deflate the tire to clean out the curb pieces that got crammed in there.

Now have a few unpleasant developments; the car no longer tracks perfect - it pulls slightly to the right - and on right turns I hear a slight grinding coming from what I think is the left rear..

So the question is what have I done? Can an alignment possibly cure the tracking issue - or is this wishful thinking? Maybe a wheel bearing/hub causing the grinding??

Any constructive advice appreciated!

wizzo 8 · Apr 11, 2009, 06:01 PM

You probably have a bent lower control arm and possibly spindle.

oic12 · Apr 11, 2009, 06:18 PM

Wizzo - thanks for the info - I'll disassemble to see what's going on with the grinding - but for the lower control arm/spindle geometries - is trying to have it aligned even an option?

MadCrix · Apr 23, 2009, 08:17 AM

alignment shop will tell u exactly whats bad if u bent anything

Skylineracer · Apr 23, 2009, 08:26 AM

if its bent in the back i think u have to just replace parts and chk for damage at where they bolt up

churbo · Apr 23, 2009, 08:47 AM

Anytime you take a hit like that you need to replace your hub. It might not be grinding at the moment but it will start shortly. You can usually tell what's bent by looking and comparing it to the other side. I'd replace what's bent then take it to an alignment shop and have it aligned. I used to do crash jobs like that on Lexus's all the time. Colorado+people over confident in 4WD/AWD=$$ for me. Good Luck. Post up some pics if you want some help diagnosing

MadCrix · Apr 23, 2009, 09:15 AM

yup simply jacking car up adn lookign underneath at teh both sides will tell u clearly if u bent anything

yahu · Apr 23, 2009, 09:32 AM

I did something like this last year. There were 4 of us at a 4-way and no one would go so I got impatient and poked it a little too much and proceeded to slide into the opposite curb with my right rear. Nasty damage to my rim but had a local shop fix the rim (they had to weld material since it was banged in so bad) and do an alignment and thankfully that was the only damage.

point&shoot · May 12, 2009, 03:04 PM

I did the same thing (but the right rear wheel) when I first got my Evo and didn't know how to drive it.

My damage included smashing one of the vanes on the axle into the abs sensor that uses the vanes to detect axle rotation speed. Destroyed the abs sensor and broke one or more vanes. New axle + new abs sensor.

There is also a sub-frame that the lower arm bolts into. It's held to the frame by about 8 bolts. It can be shifted to the left or right by an impact. Once that happens, you'll never be able to get enough camber on the side that took the hit. You have to loosen the bolts and bang the sub-frame with a rubber mallet towards the side where you hit the curb, then tighten it back up.

I doubt you bent a suspension link. Those things are stronger than a lot of other stuff you would damage first, like the wheel bearings. What you probably did is rotate the camber adjustment bolt and lose all your camber. You may also have damaged the off center washer that goes in a pair of slots and is how you adjust your camber. You can see this set up by looking under the rear bumper. You should probably replace the camber-adjustment bolt (the off-center washer is an integral part of the bolt). It's cheap and easy. They get stripped anyway, by alignment shops overtorqueing them, since the are shaved flat on one side, to fit in the D-shaped hole in the off-center washer.

Speaking of the wheel bearings, I had to replace mine in the wheel that took the hit about 1 year after that. There were no symptoms of bearing damage at the time, but the hit shortened the life of the bearings. All my other wheel bearings are original after 6 years.

Hope this helps.

Mike

tscompusa · May 16, 2009, 12:47 PM

I just posted a thread regarding grinding from left rear. Pull the wheel off and the dust cover and check everything out. The grind I had was occuring from one of the ebrake springs unsprung. just a thought.