Hi all, I come here asking for some advice concerning my girlfriend's car, seeing as how im a chevy guy and have little experience with imports.

She drives a 1991 Maxima GXE(?) All leather, 3.0 V-6, sliding sunroof, hell of a nice little car. Unfortunatly she was recently involved in an accident where she was sideswiped on the front left side of her car. The fender is smashed in, her grill was knocked loose, and her nice steel rims were scraped to heck.

The body damage itself isnt that bad. But being the kind soul that I am , I drove the car back home for her. Immediatley I noticed something bad wrong.

Soon as I picked up a little speed, the car veered to the right.. HARD.. I barely managed to not hit the curb. It was also very difficult to hold the car steady. The steering feels really 'loose' It will turn to the right like a bat out of hell, but turning left requires alot of struggling. And by that I dont mean its physically difficult to turn the wheel, I mean the steering is so loose that turning the wheel to the left provides little change in the cars direction.

Now, bear in mind that when the other vehicle clipped her, she was turning her wheels left, and the impact forced her wheels to the right, against the steering input. So im guessing a bent control arm? Help!

I wouldve taken the wheel off and looked myself by now, but the lugs on her steel wheels dont fit any of my tools, so im stuck for now.

So what do you guys think it could be? Any techies know what this is? I can provide more details if need be.. bear with me, like I said, im a Bowtie man.

Nice site BTW, and thanks for reading.

 

steel wheels? yuck....not seen a maxima without alloys

but sorry...other than that little comment i have no experience in the matter

 

Wow, ya that is way not good. Sounds to me like a lot was damaged. Now, I'm not a mechanic, but it sounds to me like new axles, a steering rack, and left hub will need replacing (along with whatever plumbing if something is leaking).

If the accident was so severe as to cause massive steering problems, that means something in the rack and associated systems was likely bent, broken, displaced, what have you. I have had to replace a Maxima steering rack before. It was on an 87 SE, and it cost around 850 with labor...so there's a starting point for the cost.

If I were a mechanic, I could tell you more about what to do and how much it might cost, but I'm not, so all I can do is sympathize.

 

hey man sorry to hear about the accident.defidently sounds like well your gonna need a whole new steering set up and you should check the drive shafts on each side.but anything short of having a pro check it out is just speculation,and when you do have it looked at go to a few different places for different opnions.and make one of those places the nissan dealership they are always way too expensive but they know maximas and can usually tell you whats really wrong and you can use that information against the other mechanics that will be working in the car.hope that helps and you really need to go to auto zone and pick up a star so you can take her wheel off check it out.its cheap! good luck

 

Can't tell ya exactly what your problem is, but back when a friend introduced my Maxima to a wall, I had to repace the front-right axle and the rim (bent), along with some minor body repair. The way the collision occured the front-right wheel hit the wall first and took most of the impact.

Before the repair, the steering was way off -- the wheel was turned a good 270 degrees when going straight, and was a little loose but not terribly so. Made wonderful sounds when driving too.

Anyway, the axle and rim fixed her up.. with how loose the steering it on yours the steering rack seems likely though..

 

step 1... check steering rack MOUNTS. there's a couple of c shaped brackets with rubber bushings that hold the rack to the firewall. if one of them got broken off from the impact forcing the rack sideways, it can cause that to happen.

also look at the control arms.. as you said, they may be bent. if that's the case, then it'll be best to just replace them both and be done with it. (hope she's got full coverage or it was the other guy's fault!). control arms are about $220 each.. steering rack is about $300 for a reman unit, and then you'll have to deal with install.

you're looking at a good $3000 dent by the time you replace the headlight, fender, and repaint the door, fender, bumper, hood...
you should be able to pick up a used factory wheel for about $50.. I've got two sets sitting on the back porch if you want one.

main point is that everyone is okay. the car and be fixed or replaced, but humans can't.

 

Same thing happened to me this winter, I hit a curb doing about 30 in the ice and it killed the alignment. I ajusted it the best I could and brought it to my front end guy. $100 and an alignment later it was back to normal.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

I looked under her car yesterday, the control arms seem to be fine. I dont know a whole heck of alot about FWD cars, but everything seemed in order.

I could get a clearer look because my floor jack is in AK at the moment, but when it comes back I will put the car on jackstands for a better look-see.

If I can get my scanner to work, I will post a polaroid photo of the damage.

Thanks again.