I have a 97 Camry that went over a curb (well its not my car, but I was driving), the front right wheel went up and over and it gauged out some of the rubber on the tire but it didn't pop and looks ok, but the wheel seems to have every so slightly deformed. Right near the point of impact it feels as tho the rim was compressed inward just a few millimeters, it drives fine as far as I can tell tho. Should I replace the wheel or just the tire?

Both

Have a shop take a look at the wheel judge the damage with the tire removed. Sometimes a tire shop can bend back a slightly deformed steel wheel. Is this a steel wheel or an alloy wheel? I would also have them inspect the undercarriage of the car on that side. It's not too hard to bend a suspension component.

Mike

The rims are steel. And the dent is not visible, I only noticed when I carefully ran my finger around the edge. The car drives fine, no drifting, grinding, wobbling etc that I can tell. And the tire still has pressure. I am hoping the damage is so minor that we don't have to have any work done on it right away, except finding a new hubcap since that thing is good and gone across the highway now. It looks like the side of the tire went over the curb and on the way back down took some rubber out of the tire but not too much, and the lip of the rim that holds the hubcap in is bent but I think I can fix that to install a new one. Thoughts?

I will jack up the car this evening and spin the wheel to see how bad it is also.

if the gouge is on or any where near the side wall i'd replace it

Yea, there is a bulge in the sidewall near the spot where it hit, it looks like goint onto the curb didn't hurt anything (since it hasnt before) but it slipped down the side, poped the hubcap off and gauged out part of the tire, also bent the lip of the rim down, all as the tire came down to street level. We have a fullsize spare with an intact rim but that one was also gauged out (that time it was her fault), so at the least we can put that spare on tonight. I looked at the test of the parts and it doesn't look like anything else has been damaged at all, the tire and rim took the impact and the cushy toyota suspension did its job well.