long story short, my drivers side wheel hit a concrete pillar thing last night at probably like 10-13mph while moving forward. the reason i say wheel is because it is the only part of the car that is damaged. the impact brought my car to a halt. the driver side wheel is tweeked outward at maybe like a 10 degree angle from the car when the steering wheel is positioned straight and the passenger side wheel is straight. also the wheel is pushed back and touches my fender as you can see from the following pic.











i spy a bent tie rod and possibly a bent stabalizer bar and control arm... anyone see anything else from these pics?

 

Possibly the kunkle is bented too and your sway bar (stabalizer bar ) is bent because the bar itself is flexible.

 

from the pic, it just looks like the inner and outer tie rod are bent. replace those first and see if you can get it to line back up. of course you will have to go get a alignment but you should be able to get it some what close.

 

how do i remove the circled part of the tie rod from the boot behind it?

 

From looking at the picture, undo the outer tie rod; the part that connects to the knuckle. You can do a string test to see if your alignment is okay.

http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/a.../alignment.php

I will never pay for an alignment again. First off, I hate waiting for Sears or Les Schaub to do an alignment and secondly it's so not worth the $75; I can do an alignment just fine on my own.

 

you know you were going faster than 13 mph more like 25 mph

 

I am not hating at all but are you aware of how much 1 degree is. no matter how close you can get it with a string, it will never actually be aligned. if you have a car up on the rack and barely push the tire with one finger it can upset it by a couple of degrees so I hope you dont think that is the answer to all alignment issues.

 

I completely agree with the following statement, “If you have a car up on the rack and barely push the tire with one finger it can upset it by a couple of degrees.” That statement is essentially part of my point; a vehicles alignment is so finicky that it only takes a small imperfection on the road to throw off the suspension geometry. I don’t see the value in paying for an alignment when it can get altered so easily, especially on cars with modified suspensions. I live in an area where the roads are less than perfect, as soon as I take my car off the alignment rack and drive down the road I know for a fact that something is going to get messed up; in this case I would be out $75 because one, I paid for someone to perform the work, and two, because cars with modified suspensions do not get a warranty with their alignment so if I want the problem fixed I’m out another $75. If I align the car myself, drive down the road and something gets misaligned I can always pull into my garage and take care of the problem myself. I suggest give it a try, see how close you can get the numbers then take the car into a shop for a “professional” alignment. I’d be surprised if your numbers weren’t pretty close to the alignment rack.

 

I dont disagree with it not be close, cause it will be but it still could pull or cause tire wear which would be my main concerns. the other thing that some dont take into affect is that each vehicle has dialed in toe, camber, and caster. which the machine I always used already put the info in for you when you select the vehicle but either way the string trick is effective just not precise.

 

Alignment isnt all about the wheels and steering wheel being straight, theres alot to adjust.. Camber, Caster, and Toe. Sure, you can eyeball toe and "set the toe and go" but that doesnt mean your tires are going to wear evenly...

 

Not getting warranty on an alignment is stupid you need to find another shop buddy. A lowered car and a stock car should get the same warranty unless of cause your sh$% is on the ground then that is a different story.

Mahdavi Motorsports does a killer job here in ATL and comes with a 3 month warranty on labor.

Anyways if your car goes out of alignment that quickly then something is not right with your car. Even if the road is not perfect it should not be able to mess up an alignment that easily unless you hit something hard.

Back to the subject, judging from the pics...you may have bent something in the sub-frame as well so make sure you check that out as well. Replace your broken parts and take your baby to an alignment shop to give you an idea what else could be messed up.

GL man.

 

sub-frame appears fine. so far from the parts that i can physically see, its a bent tie rod and lower control arm. the control arm appears to be pushing the wheel back into the fender. hopefully when i take it off today the wheel will go back to where its supposed to be. if it doesnt then ill be lost.

 

I know, I never said you didn't disagree with me, I just wanted to give a little more information. From the responses thus far I can only assume no one read the article on C-Speedracing because the string trick is only one part of the alignment; I can fully adjust the camber and caster to dial it in within spec.

This is from their website...

http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/a...s/DSC01982.JPG

 

If people would have read the article on C-Speedracing they would have read that it is possible to fully adjust camber, caster, and toe. I am not advocating that it is better than a laser alignment but it is a great alternative.

 

Shops like Sears and Les Schwab do not offer warranties on vehicles that have modifed suspensions; check the small print. A local speedshop or private mechanic might offer a warranty but that is a different story. Cars can easily become misaligned, that's just a fact, how fast it happens depends on the driving conditions; hit one pot hole going 60mph and that will do the trick. Laser alignment racks have not been around forever, the article is a similar way to how cars were aligned years ago. I'm not saying any of you are wrong, but I've spent too much time and money paying someone else to perform an alignment when I know I can get the same results.

 

how did you hit a pillar? was it like the center ones???

 

few more questions... i took pictures to help with what im asking

the piece in this picture is the one that bolts the front sway bar to the control arm. it seems to be stuck, i took both the bolts off of it. i tryed to remove it but it just gets stuck after some pulling and wont budge. i figured i would have to take this off before the control arm would come off.



same thing with this part. this is where the control arm meets the wheel hub. i took the pin out and the nut as you can see from the pic, but this part doesnt budge either. i tried lifting the wheel with a jack but the whole control arm lifted with it. i even got underneath the car, layed on my back and pulled myself up holding onto nothing but the control arm but it doesnt budge.



same goes for these 2 joints. as you can see the bolts that hold them are removed but they dont want to pop out of the joint for some reason
this first picture, from what it looks like the bolt is apart of the control arm so it would just pull out, unless i need to take the brace off.





this is pissing me off. ive loosened all the bolts that i can see on the control arm. the next thing to do would be to remove the one brace thats holding the control arm bushing. this seems so trivial but its being a bitch right now. i just wanted to ask if theres a special way of removing it before i start prying and break something else.

 

you wont get the "part" in the first pic out because the "part" as you call it aka (end link) appears to be bent and maxed out. The "part" in pic two aka (ball joint) is pressed in and needs either a ball joint splitter or ratchet handle method applied to it.

You obviously dont really know what you are doing. Take the car to someone who knows WTF the "parts" are called and how they are taken out and replaced. Next time be a little more careful that looks like an otherwise clean EM

 

ball joint splitter you say??? thanks for the help!

also i realize i dont know what im doing.
you see theres a process to learning that everyone goes through...

1.) you start out not knowing anything.
2.) you ask questions.
3.) you learn about the things you didnt know before.
4.) you complete the task once youve learned all that you need to know.

im on steps 2 and 3

but really thanks again for the help, i appreciate it.

 

yes it will make getting the ball joint out esay as hell.
but from those pics i think you should have someone that knows what they are doing look at it.
you deffinently messed that poor thing up.

 

i appreciate all of everyones concerns with not knowing everything that im doing or about to do. the way i see it is the parts im removing are already broken and being replaced. if i break them more, no foul. if for whatever reason i come to a point where i cant continue then ill take it to a shop. i however would be much more satisfied if i just did it with my own two hands, as im sure a lot of you would also. this is afterall a great opportunity for me to learn and work on my car.

if anyone has any other advice they would like to share with me, please do.

 

you can't get the control arm to drop because of the way you're disassembling it. remove the three 19mm bolts visible in the last pic that you posted. then drop the whole arm down. you can easily remove the bushing from the control arm after it's off the car.

and for the guys pissing and moaning about aligning a car -- caster is non-adjustable on our cars, and camber is not set by stringing a car. stringing a car will allow you to set toe, but a camber guage is necessary to adjust camber. keep in mind the fact that changing camber will change toe and vice-versa.