0Mike95lude

As sad as this is, it actually happened months ago, I'm finally posting a question about it. I was at a gas station and their was blinding sun, preventing from having a good view of anything and I was driving to get around a big Van that was getting gas at the corner of the gas station and I ended up SLAMMING my front right wheel into a cement "island" curb that stuck out of place near the Air/Water pumps at the corner of the gas station..simply because I couldn't see anything.

After effects of this:
-My steering wheel is now "off" about 20 degrees to the left. Meaning, to drive straight I have to have my steering wheel turned to the left about 20 degrees.
-Other than that the car doesnt drive as if alignment is terribly off or anything, but I know I will need an alignment.
-Also when going over HIGH speed bumps, I hear a crunching sound, maybe like shock knock or something?... that comes from the front right wheel well suspension area.

So what suspension component(s) do you think i damaged or what do you think is the problem....my steering wheel now sits 20 degrees off to the left to go straight! I have briefly looked under the car and can't particarly see anything wrong...



[Modified by Mike95lude, 4:06 PM 3/14/2003]

typeSwarrior

I have that 'shock knock' type noise coming from both of my fronts, but it only does it in very cold weather (speed bumps, accelerating fairly hard from a stop, or after coming to a very abrupt stop on the brakes)--It was like that when I bought the car in January 2001. My steering wheel is ALSO in the same predicament as yours, and it happened after i wrecked my car---the suspension is fine though. My dad is a mechanic and he looked at it, gave it the okay, and I haven't had problems in the two years I've driven the Lude.

So since we both have the same thing going on, basically, I honestly just think it needs realignment for the steering wheel problem. The knock thing I don't know about--it hasn't caused any probs thus far for me. Maybe it's just worn out bushings or something, who knows...someone else may be able to shine some light on the problem.

illusion

mike, i am still going through a similar situation. i hit a divider in the highway at a decent speed. to get home, i had to turn the steering wheel to the 11/5 o'clock position to go straight.. where straight would be 9/3 o'clock position.

so far.. ive replaced the lower control arm which was bent and the front crossmember which was bent. car has been aligned but still pulls left. i have an upper control arm, shock, and knuckle on the way. ive brought it to two body shops and neither could determine for sure if i have frame damage. but as of now its looking like i dont.

thing is, its hard to tell what exactly got bent. when i compared the LCAs.. there was only a slight bent in it (this piece is STRONG). the bend was enough to see with the naked eye when held side by side. on the car i couldnt tell. judging by this, my other suspension components might also be bent slightly that i cant notice. one shop i went to said that shocks bend easily and that when people come in with heavy curb/pothole incidents, many times they replace everything while the suspension is apart just to be safe. =[

0Mike95lude

wow, i'm suprised I actually found a couple other guys here with the same problem

But, damn, it sounds like it could be quite expensive to "fix" this problem

jc836

The reality is that you MUST get an alignment to reset the Toe-in. Good chance that you may have bent a tie-rod and if the hit was really hard on of the control arms as well. Good luck

GregR

I once slammed into a curb sideways, from about 150km/h (well, I was going somewhat slower when I slammed, but still booting it nicely). So the total damage was pretty well the entire right suspension setup front and rear (about 70% of the parts at each end), plus a crossmember. Total cost was around $2500 Cdn (which is prolly $1500 US). Yeah, lots of parts get bent, and some are already pre-bent so it's harder to tell if they're damaged (straight links would be a snap to inspect).

rjr162

Ok.. i did the same thing, except on sleet and hit both right side wheels on the island. Rear suspension's lower control arm got bent to heck, got a whole new suspension from a 98. Front was fine looking. Got it aligned.. well the front caster is off 2 degrees. It pulls to the right, and I have to have the wheel to the left to make up for it (about 10-15 degrees?) I talked to a body shop about having it fixed.. they said it's one of those things you don't know what it is so you end up replacing everything, which is big $$. I checked the helms, and there's actually a way to adjust the caster up to two degrees w/o a camber kit (such as those used when you lower the car). There's a rod with shims you have to adjust. My idea is to maybe adjust it the whole way and get it re-aligned and see how close it got it to 0. Oh, and I have a squeeky noise, not a knock, on the side it happened on. I've noticed it more recently than the accident, but if i rock that side up and down or turn the steering wheel i can hear a "squeek" "squeek". Lower ball joint it squeeking.

(side note> my drivers side use to make a knocking type sound when i would stop and go, and got worse to the point it would do it over small lips in parking lots or stuff. Honda tried to figure it out to no vail, so they took the whole suspension setup apart and lubed it all really good and re-tightened everything, and it's gone now).

Elkins911

what you need to do is measure everything with a tape measure. take off your wheels and measure from one spot to another on both sides of the car (in mirror opposits) if the measuremnts are different, most likely you bent something.
your alignment is deffinetly screwed up. toe needs to be set.
make sure your struts and springs are in good shape.

steveg99

I did the same thing but going faster. I bent the lca and steering knuckle badly, which both were replaced and everything was as good as new except for the bent rim.

illusion

mike, update?

0Mike95lude

Still haven't taken it in. Unfortunately it's my only car, so I'll have to figure something out. I'll probably schedule an appt. to have it inspected later this week. I'll let ya'll know