damage to car.... help, kind of long.. would appreciate help though
01-01-2001, 07:53 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 223
ok guys..
Scenario: icy condition on highway exit
What happened:
as i exited the high way.. my rear started to slide out to the left.. my "instinctively.. usualy good driving skills" told me to steer towards the slide to starighten out.. did so.. straightened out, but had enough momentum, and slippery condition, to now have my rear slide to the right.. again i tried to correct.. while applying brake to try to come to a smooth stop... i corrected enough but i knew i would hit the cement wall on the left edge of the exit ( you know, shaped like the cement they put in to temporarily split lanes during construction, the bevelled typ kind of like this: /\ ...)
well, knowing that i would hit it no matter what. it was a matter of with what part of my car.. so i aimed the tire at it hoping to avoid body damage and thinking i was now going slow enough that all i would need is an allignment and MAYBE a new steel rim for snow tire.
luckily i avoided body damage ( well, my plastic bumper bottomed out on the slope of the cement, causing my right quarter panel to bend.. but absolutely no scratches whatsoever.)
Impact : hit cement sloped wall with left wheel.. didn't even loose my cheap hub cap. but steel rim is definately damaged in some way.
emediate symptoms: VERY wobbly steering wheel. car steers funny.
my question is about allignment.. i got an allignment but my steering wheel vibrates.. actually, it kind of wobbles left to right a little..
what other damage should i look for ?
besides bent / out of round rims.. ( the guys that did my allignment said they did not see any visible damage to any of the mechanisms under there... although.. the allignment i am not too happy with .. the wheels seem to be pointing slightly away from each other. like lazy eyes
this hapenned to a friend in a jeep, they told her one of the "control arms" or something was bend. and talked to her about "Rack and pinnion" steering or something.. she had to get the arm replaced..not something they just fix by bending back
Scenario: icy condition on highway exit
What happened:
as i exited the high way.. my rear started to slide out to the left.. my "instinctively.. usualy good driving skills" told me to steer towards the slide to starighten out.. did so.. straightened out, but had enough momentum, and slippery condition, to now have my rear slide to the right.. again i tried to correct.. while applying brake to try to come to a smooth stop... i corrected enough but i knew i would hit the cement wall on the left edge of the exit ( you know, shaped like the cement they put in to temporarily split lanes during construction, the bevelled typ kind of like this: /\ ...)
well, knowing that i would hit it no matter what. it was a matter of with what part of my car.. so i aimed the tire at it hoping to avoid body damage and thinking i was now going slow enough that all i would need is an allignment and MAYBE a new steel rim for snow tire.
luckily i avoided body damage ( well, my plastic bumper bottomed out on the slope of the cement, causing my right quarter panel to bend.. but absolutely no scratches whatsoever.)
Impact : hit cement sloped wall with left wheel.. didn't even loose my cheap hub cap. but steel rim is definately damaged in some way.
emediate symptoms: VERY wobbly steering wheel. car steers funny.
my question is about allignment.. i got an allignment but my steering wheel vibrates.. actually, it kind of wobbles left to right a little..
what other damage should i look for ?
besides bent / out of round rims.. ( the guys that did my allignment said they did not see any visible damage to any of the mechanisms under there... although.. the allignment i am not too happy with .. the wheels seem to be pointing slightly away from each other. like lazy eyes
this hapenned to a friend in a jeep, they told her one of the "control arms" or something was bend. and talked to her about "Rack and pinnion" steering or something.. she had to get the arm replaced..not something they just fix by bending back
01-01-2001, 08:38 PM
#2
I would start by replacing that wheel right away. If you still get the wobble, your tire could be damaged as well. If it still wobbles after that, well..., you might have an axle problem.
If the wobble goes away, but the steering still feels wierd, get back to the alignment shop. If something's bent (control arm) it should show up there. BTW, the "lazy-eyed" look of your tires could be due to the fender damage.
Get a printout of your alignment and share them with the board. Someone will know if they're good.
If the wobble goes away, but the steering still feels wierd, get back to the alignment shop. If something's bent (control arm) it should show up there. BTW, the "lazy-eyed" look of your tires could be due to the fender damage.
Get a printout of your alignment and share them with the board. Someone will know if they're good.
01-01-2001, 10:38 PM
#3
Member
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: RI
Posts: 110
Interesting
I had a similar experience (i.e. a could-have-been-crappy incident was just wheel damage) up in VT last year around New Years. I was driving about 30mph, and I saw a sign up ahead that showed a sharp left turn. I figured that since the speed limit was (I believe) 25 or 30 that I'd be ok. So I didn't really slow down much. Well, that corner was one of the sharpest I have ever seen in the middle of a road NOT in a neighborhood. It was one hell of a 90 degree left turn. I should have been going like 10 or 15mph. Crazy sharp.
Anyway, directly ahead of me was a big sand pit thing which was flush with the road. It was probably 15 x 15 feet, with wood keeping the sand in. On the three sides (left, right and far) there was a gradually increasing drop-off into people's yards, or in the case of the left side, someone's driveway. If I were to drive straight into the sand put, I'd fall off the edge about 3 feet and into someone's yard. The left edge of the wood surround started flush with the road, and went straight back, as the driveway next to it sloped down (such that if you drove off it with just the right side of the car on the wood, you might be able to get the car up on 2 wheels, except somebody's house was right there). Now that you know the scenario, here is what happened.
As I saw the turn, I cranked the wheel over, until it hit lock (didn't hit the brakes because I caught some sand on the outside wheels...if it was clean, I <i>might</i> have made it at 30mph, but not necessarily). Basically, the car started to turn, and the right front dug into the sand, which helped slow me down, but not enough. The front end fell off the left ledge (it was about 15 inches high where I fell off, I'd estimate). THe car had enough momentum to get the back end off, too...man it sounded pretty bad. A loud thud basically. I hit the brakes and semi-intentionally didn't push the clutch in. I wanted everything off so I could get out, survey the damage and figure out WTF just happened. It happened so fast. Luckily, friends were right behind me in an A4 (which, if it was leading, might have done the same damn thing), so they stopped and asked if I was ok. Obviously I was, but I was concerned about the car. There were two scrapes on the asphalt where two metal protrusions on the chassis stick out, but all lights seemed to be in working order. Even the front air dam wasn't scratched. However, the car landed on the right front wheel, with the steering wheel turned to left lock, which means nearly perpendicular to the road. I thought I was gonna have to yank out the spare tire. I inspected the steel wheel and snow tire for visual damage...the lip was bent in a few places, but the tire seemed to remain properly inflated (don't know how it didn't break the bead!). We all decided we should keep going so I let them go, then followed behind. The car vibrated pretty bad at certain speeds. There were spots, like 35mph, and 65-70mph where it was pretty bad, but above 75 it was fairly smooth. After I determined that the mechanicals were in working order (stabbing the brakes, steering left and right, etc.) I cruised a bit faster, but I was still worried about the vibration. I hypothesized that a wheel bearing could have been damaged, or a ball joint or who knows what. To make a long story short (sorry...) I drove home and told my parents what happened (most of it anyway). We took the car to the dealer who determined that the right steel wheel needed replacing. The left one was re-balanceable, and it also needed an alignment. That's it!
The moral of the story is, Maxes are pretty tough!
[Edited by kevm14 on 01-02-2001 at 12:44 AM]
Anyway, directly ahead of me was a big sand pit thing which was flush with the road. It was probably 15 x 15 feet, with wood keeping the sand in. On the three sides (left, right and far) there was a gradually increasing drop-off into people's yards, or in the case of the left side, someone's driveway. If I were to drive straight into the sand put, I'd fall off the edge about 3 feet and into someone's yard. The left edge of the wood surround started flush with the road, and went straight back, as the driveway next to it sloped down (such that if you drove off it with just the right side of the car on the wood, you might be able to get the car up on 2 wheels, except somebody's house was right there). Now that you know the scenario, here is what happened.
As I saw the turn, I cranked the wheel over, until it hit lock (didn't hit the brakes because I caught some sand on the outside wheels...if it was clean, I <i>might</i> have made it at 30mph, but not necessarily). Basically, the car started to turn, and the right front dug into the sand, which helped slow me down, but not enough. The front end fell off the left ledge (it was about 15 inches high where I fell off, I'd estimate). THe car had enough momentum to get the back end off, too...man it sounded pretty bad. A loud thud basically. I hit the brakes and semi-intentionally didn't push the clutch in. I wanted everything off so I could get out, survey the damage and figure out WTF just happened. It happened so fast. Luckily, friends were right behind me in an A4 (which, if it was leading, might have done the same damn thing), so they stopped and asked if I was ok. Obviously I was, but I was concerned about the car. There were two scrapes on the asphalt where two metal protrusions on the chassis stick out, but all lights seemed to be in working order. Even the front air dam wasn't scratched. However, the car landed on the right front wheel, with the steering wheel turned to left lock, which means nearly perpendicular to the road. I thought I was gonna have to yank out the spare tire. I inspected the steel wheel and snow tire for visual damage...the lip was bent in a few places, but the tire seemed to remain properly inflated (don't know how it didn't break the bead!). We all decided we should keep going so I let them go, then followed behind. The car vibrated pretty bad at certain speeds. There were spots, like 35mph, and 65-70mph where it was pretty bad, but above 75 it was fairly smooth. After I determined that the mechanicals were in working order (stabbing the brakes, steering left and right, etc.) I cruised a bit faster, but I was still worried about the vibration. I hypothesized that a wheel bearing could have been damaged, or a ball joint or who knows what. To make a long story short (sorry...) I drove home and told my parents what happened (most of it anyway). We took the car to the dealer who determined that the right steel wheel needed replacing. The left one was re-balanceable, and it also needed an alignment. That's it!
The moral of the story is, Maxes are pretty tough!
[Edited by kevm14 on 01-02-2001 at 12:44 AM]
01-03-2001, 05:31 AM
#5
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 223
i rotated tires..
so that the culprit rim ends up in the back..
the car feels normal, i am going on the bet that the car is a touch enough cookie that nothing else is wrong
i shoul probably get another allignment because they did the first one with the damaged rim right ?
anyway... good thing it was just my snow/steel rims.. and not any of my stock or alloys...
where can i get a cheap rim ? and do i have to worry about matching the weight of the rim oposite to it ?
any input.. thanks guys
the car feels normal, i am going on the bet that the car is a touch enough cookie that nothing else is wrong
i shoul probably get another allignment because they did the first one with the damaged rim right ?
anyway... good thing it was just my snow/steel rims.. and not any of my stock or alloys...
where can i get a cheap rim ? and do i have to worry about matching the weight of the rim oposite to it ?
any input.. thanks guys
01-03-2001, 07:08 AM
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,701
All of the above suggestions sound good. If they don't work I'd recommend taking your car to a frame and alignment/front end shop. These guys are professional and are much better at spotting problems than the boys at Sears (for example). When I used to work claims at State Farm thats what we did with problem fixes and it cured it 90% of the time. the other 10% were crazy people.
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