How do I know if my axle is bent?

[1alinda]

Hi, I am new to this and admit I don't know a lot about cars. Got a '98 Chevy cavalier. I pegged off the curb with my car. (snowing) My rim (front driver side) was bent pretty bad. Got it replaced, and now it sound like something is rubbing. You can't hear it too much at lower speeds, but around 40 mph, you can really hear it and the seat vibrates. I cannot feel it in the steering wheel either. It sound like a whoom,whoom, whoom, whoom. Step-dad says axle may be bent. Could this be the problem?

[roastduck]

Jack up the car, you should be able to see the axle from the bottom of your car, it should be a straight rod with a rubber boot on it.

[TimRapp]

If,after jacking up the car and the axle "looks" straight,I would advise you to maybe take the car to get an alignment on the front end,if you hit the curb hard enough to bend the rim chances are you also knocked it out of alignment.You will kill two birds with one stone if something is still out of whack because they will not be able to align the car if anything else is bent and they will tell you exactly what it is that needs replaced.But if I had to take a wil guess I'd have to say it does sound like an axel

[blu03cav]

I know all about that... i did something like that... it could be the brakes and they could be hanging up.. like they said, take it in and get it looked at and post what the prob was.

[1alinda]

Well, got the car looked at. The control arm is bent, and the front brakes are trashed. It's gonna cost me about $500. What can I say except. Dammit!