Whilst waiting to reverse parallel park with the wheels turned at full lock some daft lady tried to squeeze past and twatted the back of her
mong-mobile against my front wheel... No visible damage to my car bar a small scrape on the rim... no idea how she missed the wingmirror/bumper..
Car drives perfectly ok in a straight line etc with no vibration but the steering wheel is now most deffinately not lined up with the direction of
travel... out by about 3-4 mins on the clock.
Just been under the car and the boot on the track rod end on that side has come away but I cant see much play... Something must have bent to move the
steering wheel.... Not sure what though.... any thoughts from the collective? If I replace both track rod ends and get the tracking done do we
think that would suffice?
Rather annoyed because the husband (who wasnt there at the time) is convinced its my fault.... im standing by the fact I was stationary, indicating
with my reverse lights on and his wife hit a stationarry object...
[Edited on 14/12/15 by tegwin]
[Edited on 14/12/15 by tegwin]
Long been convinced that if your tracking is out something is bent or worn.
My first check would be a bent steering arm, easily checked with a ruler edge.
+1 for poss steering rack arm if it's very slight you may be able to dial it out my just doing the tracking .
Can you not ask her to prang the other side for symmetry. Sure she'll understand.
that would make sense I guess, I dont think the track rods them selves have ever been replaced (2001 car). For piece of mind im tempted to replace both track rods and both rod ends.... expensive perhaps but worth it? Or just replace the obviously scrap track rod end and see how it goes...
quote:
Originally posted by maccmike
Can you not ask her to prang the other side for symmetry. Sure she'll understand.
I'm pretty sure that if you hit a stationary object its always your fault, no matter what you think of the positioning of that stationary object.
Well that was what I was told by some legal eagle type anyway.
So if you were stationary then there is no way they can blame you.
If the steering rack is rubber mounted has it shunted the whole rack across?
Yes, that is also my belief....
Steering rack is bolted to the front subframe so If its moved, it will have snapped the casting.
If you jack up one front wheel with the other sat on the floor and then push/pull the wheel up in the air would you expect to feel movement?
Probably better off getting it right up in the air so you can have a good look underneath
Bent steering arm to start with by the sound of it and when you get the tracking checked if its a mile out you'll need to dig a little deeper....
I've seen all sorts of things bent from this type of accident.
Track rod ends
Track rods
Lower ball joint
Lower Arm (wishbone)
Suspension strut
Subframe
Sometimes the bend is so slight it can be difficult to work out what happened.