Jedimiah

I was in an accident about 8 months ago and the other car hit my fron right side. The accident crushed the headlight and bent the fender really good and cracked the bumper on the right side. I fixed all the above parts and replaced them myself. Now the only thing left to fix is the alignment ( I think). I remember trying to steer left to avoid hitting the car head on. So when I drive and center the steering wheel it drives to the left about a good 20 degrees to the left. I want to fix it myself if I can but I'm not familiar with wheel alignment. What I would like to know is:

- How do Identify the problem, what do I look for?
- If something is bent or broken how do I know if it needs to be replaced?
- If I do have to take to a tech to fix how do I avoid gettting ripped off, how much should it run to fix it?
- Is there anything else I should be looking for that may have been damaged in the collission?

I have an acocrd manual for my car and I can pretty much refrence the book to the car and identify most the parts, but nothing looks broken or bent to me.

Any help or advice is always appreciated.

YeuEmMaiMai

first off you need to make sure the front end is sqaured up properly (frame not bent) if it is wthin specs you need to make sure none of your suspension parts are bent (like control arms)

When doing the allignment make sure that they center the wheel after the allignment.

LSV84

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by YeuEmMaiMai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">first off you need to make sure the front end is sqaured up properly (frame not bent) if it is wthin specs you need to make sure none of your suspension parts are bent (like control arms)

When doing the allignment make sure that they center the wheel after the allignment.</TD></TR></TABLE>

if someone sais your rad support is bent is that the frame?

YeuEmMaiMai

it's part of the structural integrity of the car. if that thing is bent you will need to check your frame out..........

msedacca

You should take it in for an alignment at any of your local tire shops, IE Discount Tire, Tire Kingdom, etc etc. They can check your camber/caster/toe.

When I got in an accident, my front camber was off somewhat (not as much as you describe, but off enough to invest in a camber kit down the road) A few people told me that I could reset my control arms back to stock, but when I brought it up with Honda they looked at me as if I was speaking Martian. I did speak with someone who told me I could bend them back to stock, but it would cost me mega-bucks, and Honda overcharges to begin with. I know my front caster is still off, but I'm not sure how to fix that.

Hope that helps

LSV84

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by YeuEmMaiMai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it's part of the structural integrity of the car. if that thing is bent you will need to check your frame out.......... </TD></TR></TABLE>

well i think the shop i took it to ripped me off. i hit a curb right...and the situation was really bad with steering etc. so i take it to him and he tells me i bent my lowercontrol arm and it would need to be replaced and they would align it and bend it accordingly. he charged me 90CDN for the labour and 110CDN for the control arm(junkyard piece of garbage too) and 60 for the alignment.

well now my left wheel sits approx 1/2 inch differently from the other side..and it slighly pulls to the left... i take it back to him and he gives me this yadda yadda yada about the rad support was bent and he was just trying to get me going for the most minimal work possible... so now he wants another 200 or so to put the car on some sort of bed and rebend the rad support, claims he wont charge me for the alignment this time... does it sound like something fishy???

(sorry for hijacking but its the same topic kinda)

YeuEmMaiMai

when you bend the rad support ut pulls the fenders in towards each other. Fixing the frame is pretty much straight forward....put car on frame machine and pull it back into spec or cut and weld (more severe damage) and then put it on a frame machine and line it up.

msedacca

Honda told me they could rebend the control arms for 450 bucks. Instead, I got a Progress alignment kit for 335 bucks and solved that problem, and I have adjustable camber now. What shop have you been going to?

YeuEmMaiMai

screw that I'd just buy new ones and install them. They are only $180 a peice and anh halfway descent shadetree guty can do it........

LSV84

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by msedacca &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Honda told me they could rebend the control arms for 450 bucks. Instead, I got a Progress alignment kit for 335 bucks and solved that problem, and I have adjustable camber now. What shop have you been going to?</TD></TR></TABLE>

i told the guy cant you guys just rebend that control arm and it by the look on his face it looked like i was speaking chinese to him. the place is called marcels auto collision.

LSV84

whats a fair price to bend the rad support back to spec considering he let me down the first time...