trailing arms

I have a 99 Grand Prix GT about 135,000 miles. I was under the car today replacing all those rubber exhaust hangers and I noticed the driver side trailing arm was bent upward a few inches back from the front mounting point. I am gonna replace both of them with the Dorman ones and was wondering just how critical is it to get an alignment afterward? I mean its just a straight piece of metal with a bushing in each end right? How much can it be off? I just had an alignment less than a year ago when I replaced the struts. Thanks for any input!

I have a 99 Grand Prix GT about 135,000 miles. I was under the car today replacing all those rubber exhaust hangers and I noticed the driver side trailing arm was bent upward a few inches back from the front mounting point. I am gonna replace both of them with the Dorman ones and was wondering just how critical is it to get an alignment afterward? I mean its just a straight piece of metal with a bushing in each end right? How much can it be off? I just had an alignment less than a year ago when I replaced the struts. Thanks for any input!


The question would be "what caused it to bend?" I would for sure get the alignment checked after you replace the arms. Cheap insurance against smoking a tire...

Yeah. Im not 100% how it happened. More than likely my dumb ass jacked it up in the wrong spot although I am usually very conscientious about where I place the jack.
I was thinking I could save the $90 it cost for the alignment as money is tight and I am not noticing any pulling or anything. Once I replace both trailing arms with nice straight new ones I figured it would be pretty close to aligned. Thanks for the response!

Hate to say this, but, what if the bend was there during the last alignment? New arms definitely will call for an alignment....