Cut-Off, Hit Curb

[iDrew]

Well some f***** cut me off on the road today and I was forced to go on to the curb, I hit it at around 40-50km/h and my both wheels ended up on it, so I backed out back onto the road and while I was doing that I noticed some wierd sounds coming from my left tire. So I checked it out, and my wheel was grinding agianst the car, I couldnt go anywhere. So I looked around to see whats the problem and my suspension from being straigh [ I ] was tilted abit to the left [ / ] causing the wheel to grind. So I decided to take the wheel off and put a spare tire on since it was smaller and all. I managed to get back home safe, but now im wondering how much is it going to cost me to repair this problem?

[TheSilentChamber]

How much its going to cost is going to depend on what all is broken. Next time hit the guy, it comes out cheeper.

[curtis73]

What car, year... more specifics. If you hit a curb in a 73 Cadillac, that's a lot different than if you hit it with a Geo Metro.

[iDrew]

Originally Posted by curtis73

What car, year... more specifics. If you hit a curb in a 73 Cadillac, that's a lot different than if you hit it with a Geo Metro.

Sorry, its a Mazda 626, 1997 pretty old. The wheel is practically pushed back and its grinding agianst the car when driving, if I put the car on neutral on a hill, it wont even move.

[curtis73]

The only real way to do it is start measuring. If you can get your hands on a shop manual, it will list specs like measurements between frame rails and other important dimensions that body repair guys would use. If you don't have that, find another 626 and measure to compare. If you're lucky, you just bent the wheel, but more likely is that you bent the lower control arm, possibly moved the strut mount, and maybe bent the mounts for the control arm.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you have collision coverage, might want to use it now If you're handy, you could buy junkyard pieces to return it to drivable and have a collision shop double check the unibody for straight.

[Racincc85]

Good advice. When you say grinding against the car, what part exactly is it grinding on? Is it hitting the body, the strut, etc?


Also, as TheSilentChamber said, next time just hit the guy. Not only would it be his fault and not only would his insurance have to pay but you would also take his car out of action too

[UncleBob]

the most fragile part on most strut cars is the strut itself. This could be the largest issue. But it really depends where the impact was on the suspension that caused the damage. It very well could be several components that are damaged.

As too often, I will have to recommend a shop for this one. You can try replacing components one at a time blindly, but it could be more expensive and/or it could be dangerous, missing something important without realising it. IMO, you can not measure everything and know what is damaged. Too often, with irregularly shaped parts, such as the knuckle, there is no way to measure its damage directly. Measuring bottom sturt mounting point or tie rod mounting point dimensions would require 3D CAD programs, and a known good one to plug in for comparison....at that point, you might as well replace it.

Alignment numbers just tell you "there's still something bent". An experienced eye can spot many problem that are not obvious to the unitiated though.

[obd2scannerman]

Originally Posted by iDrew

Well some f***** cut me off on the road today and I was forced to go on to the curb, I hit it at around 40-50km/h and my both wheels ended up on it, so I backed out back onto the road and while I was doing that I noticed some wierd sounds coming from my left tire. So I checked it out, and my wheel was grinding agianst the car, I couldnt go anywhere. So I looked around to see whats the problem and my suspension from being straigh [ I ] was tilted abit to the left [ / ] causing the wheel to grind. So I decided to take the wheel off and put a spare tire on since it was smaller and all. I managed to get back home safe, but now im wondering how much is it going to cost me to repair this problem?

Do as Uncle Bob says and find a body shop/Alignment shop. A lot give free estimates. Also if you do get it fixed make sure you get a new wheel bearing because they often get unapparent damage that shows up later.

[iDrew]

Im going to take it to the shop tommorow, I took some pictures of the wheel.


RIGHT WHEEL (THE ONE THATS FINE)
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9468/dsc02746my4.jpg (Wheel)
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/2352/dsc02748qc3.jpg (Wheel)

LEFT WHEEL (THE ONES THATS BAD)
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/665/dsc02756ok3.jpg (Wheel)
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/imag...690446b708.jpg (Wheel)
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/5318/dsc02755qq8.jpg (Suspension)
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/imag...2a39e75932.jpg (Suspension)

[UncleBob]

Well, I promise you the bottom A arm is bent. That is the main component that keeps the wheel centered in the wheel well. But again, what else? Cant' tell by those pics

[iDrew]

Well took it to the shop today, control arm was broken so had to get a new one cost 230$ and everything else was pretty small, in total I smacked down 300$ for this.

Gawd next time im just going to let the dude crash into me, lesson learned