Hit a curb......what could be broken??

[Way2QWK]

Test drove my 88 LX last night down some dark road and was making a left turn in a very narrow cauldasack went into turn to fast and the car just understeered. Hit the curb from a angle at about 5-10mph. Scuffed the rim. Front end felt fine on the way home except it pulls to the right. What would most likely be damaged. Will the front end ever be the same again? I feel like a moron for dong this to the car.

 

[crazypete]

Probably bent a tie rod. Mine has a tie rod bent and it pulls to one side. If it doesnt shake violently then you didnt bend anything big or exciting going over a curb. If the wheel was bent or wheel coming loose, it would shake like crazy.

I've been driving around on a bent tie rod for years. I wouldnt recommend it unless it is only a tiny bit bent and you can compensate by rotating the tie rod out a few turns (the bend shortens the rod and puts the wheel a few degrees in so it will pull in the opposite direction as the tire that hit).

 

[94Silverbullet]

I'm going to paste a response from an old thread I wrote:

Don't take it too lightly! I once hit a curb even thought it was head on pretty hard and thought everything was allright. A couple weeks later I was parking(LUCKILY)in a garage and I heard a slight screeching and the car was hard to move. It turned out that one of my wheels was turned left and the other was turned right, so they were both facing in. I'd broken the right front steering assembly or axle(not sure exactly what it's called). I'm pretty sure there was a crack in it and I never inspected it. Make sure you do a thorough inspection. If I were zooming on the highway and that happened.... ....don't even want to think about it...

 

[nmcgrawj]

check your springs....one might have broken.

 

[QDRHRSE]

There are a lot of things that could be damaged. Get it checked out by a pro. You could have damaged a tie rod, the rack, the spindle, the control arm, the wheel, your strut, and/or you could have bent the frame. Sounds extreme but all this is a possibility.

 

[Way2QWK]

thanks for the replys. drove the car today. Its doesnt pull as much as it did last night, but definitly not as solid as before. will inspect front end a little better tomm. May use this mistake as a chance to rebuild front end

 

[red93fox]

why didn't anyone mention the fact that it could just be out of alignment? something as simple as hitting a pothole can throw the alignment out of whack. what are you doing hitting curbs anyways? maybe a ugo would be more your speed?

 

[Michael Yount]

red93 is spot on - you can't check this yourself. Get the car on an alignment rack. They'll be able to tell how badly it's out of alignment (if it's pulling now and wasn't before - something's been moved) and find out if anything is damaged. Also have them pull that wheel/tire and spin it up on the balancer to see if the wheel's bent. It could be as simple as re-aligning it. It could be as complex as bent wheel, damaged ball joint, damaged tie rod end, damaged steering rack, bent/damaged unibody/chassis/frame, separated belt inside the tire (that will also cause a pull). Not trying to frighten you - just trying to point out that we can't diagnose it over the net, and you probably will miss things that wheel/tire/suspension specialists can help you identify.

 

[PhLoBuS]

I hit a curb to avoid an accident and luckily scuffed the rim and popped the tire that was it...

 

[v8only]

many years ago, I pulled a brain fart turning right off a freeway offramp, and slammed my dr side front wheel so hard on a curb I jumped up on the curb. the dr side wheel is pushed toward the back of the wheel well to where it scrapes a little on a lock to lock turn. It won't align (is that caster or camber?) the angle that the wheel rotates back or forward is off -1.5 and it's only supposed to be .5 or so. it doesn't effect tire wear.

I've taken it into a few front end shops. Problem is everything "looks" perfect under there, so I don't know wtf was bent.

 

[donsbad68]

ouch

 

[deftsound]

make sure your front end supports and bumper supports are ok

 

[Michael Yount]

Take it to a body shop - they can put it on their chassis/frame jig and tell you what's bent -- for a small fee of course.