f**ked my suspension up tonight...

[Shiznit]

long story short, my drivers side wheel hit a concrete pillar thing tonight at probably like 10-13mph while moving forward. the reason i say wheel is because it is the only part of the car that is damaged. the impact brought my car to a halt. the driver side wheel is tweeked outward at maybe like a 10 degree angle from the car when the steering wheel is positioned straight and the passenger side wheel is straight.

i havent been able to look at the damage cuz it happened so late at night and i didnt have any of my tools to take my wheel off, which is again a long story...

anyway what kinda damage should i be looking for when i go take a look in depth at the damage in the morning?

 

[Kaotic_Zeus]

ouch man...

hopefully it's only like the outter tie rod or something.

 

[Steven.]

could be a broke tie rod, ball join, bent LCA, who knows till you pull the wheel off and inspect it all

 

[fwdpower]

concrete pillar? you do know a pillar looks like this.

Or do you mean a concrete island? Like a curb in the median?
Or did you literally hit your car on standing concrete. lol

But yeah, it does sound like a broken tie rod. After fixing all the bent stuff, it's a good time for a new alignment.

 

[EK|B]

Please tell me you weren't drunk. What part of town did this happen in? And uh, it just won't be a "good" time to get an alignment, it's NECESSARY.

 

[wannabe]

definitely sounds like bent suspension components. there isnt anything adjustable that could slip or move out of place that much.

if i were to guess i would say bent LCA.

 

[Genuine Rolla]

Sounds like it could be your lower front control arm. You should be able to get another one for $25-$40 off of eBay.

 

[Shiznit]

no i wasnt drunk, i was with a friend and we were 100% sober. im gonna head there right now and jack it up to see what i did. and yes concrete pillar like the one in the picture only a little bit more wide

 

[Shiznit]

i spy a bent tie rod and possibly a bent stabalizer bar and control arm... anyone see anything else from these pics?

 

[Sammo115]

Damn. Its hard to say from the angle of the pictures. But good luck to you man. hope things dont get tooo complicated.

 

[ryanM]

just replace things one at a time.

replace the tie rod, then see what else is tweaked. not everything is going to be noticeable with your eyes.

but i'm 99% sure that everything that you damaged is bolt-on, i wouldnt be worried.

 

[slowcivic E G]

definitely the inner tie rod to start, outer too just to eliminate that like Long grain said, then go from there. I dont know if there are pick and pulls around you, but that would be a good place to get any upper or lower control arms.

 

[PhntmSk8r]

If you hit it hard enough to break the tie-rod, then id say your lower control arm is bent for sure. That should get fixed for sure, i bent mine and since its been bent ive been shredding axles at least once a month, i just kept getting them warrantied at different auto zones in my area. I'm also H swap though, so i have driveline issues to begin with.

Good luck getting everything fixed, let us know how it goes.

 

[PhntmSk8r]

If you hit it hard enough to break the tie-rod, then id say your lower control arm is bent for sure. That should get fixed for sure, i bent mine and since its been bent ive been shredding axles at least once a month, i just kept getting them warrantied at different auto zones in my area. I'm also H swap though, so i have driveline issues to begin with.

Good luck getting everything fixed, let us know how it goes.

 

[Kaotic_Zeus]

suprised the axle joint boot is still intact.

 

[Shiznit]

how do i remove the circled part of the tie rod from the boot behind it?

 

[Steven.]

ouch, i see the tie rod is bend, cant really tell the rest

 

[LS1Bait]

hey, atleast you weren't rolling on rotas.

A lot more would have been destroyed.

good luck mang.

 

[jdm jim]

thats yur inner t rod. u have to seperate the two then remove the boot, youll need a inner tie rod tool to unscrew it from the rack. i bought mine from carquest for about 50 bucks.

 

[Shiznit]

few more questions... i took pictures to help with what im asking

the piece in this picture is the one that bolts the front sway bar to the control arm. it seems to be stuck, i took both the bolts off of it. i tryed to remove it but it just gets stuck after some pulling and wont budge. i figured i would have to take this off before the control arm would come off.

same thing with this part. this is where the control arm meets the wheel hub. i took the pin out and the nut as you can see from the pic, but this part doesnt budge either. i tried lifting the wheel with a jack but the whole control arm lifted with it. i even got underneath the car, layed on my back and pulled myself up holding onto nothing but the control arm but it doesnt budge.

same goes for these 2 joints. as you can see the bolts that hold them are removed but they dont want to pop out of the joint for some reason
this first picture, from what it looks like the bolt is apart of the control arm so it would just pull out, unless i need to take the brace off.

this is pissing me off. ive loosened all the bolts that i can see on the control arm. the next thing to do would be to remove the one brace thats holding the control arm bushing. this seems so trivial but its being a b***h right now. i just wanted to ask if theres a special way of removing it before i start prying and break something else.