There was a gnarly blizzard a couple days ago up here in Seattle, and it just so happened that I was eating sushi when it started dumping. So yeah, I got caught in a bad situation and on the way home I got sucked into a curb. I was slowing down for a stop-sign, when my car slowly started slipping to the side from the slight "grade" that all roads have for water run-off (curb to curb). Not much I could do in fresh snow with summer tires and the RWD. I was like a fish out of water.

So yeah, I cracked my Mazdaspeed lip pretty bad, curbed up my front-pass. side wheel and now have a bunch of positive camber from the (low) impact... Now, I've never really played around with the Rx7's steering/suspension setup before, but I jacked the car up and spent about 10 minutes comparing the now "damaged" passenger side of the suspension with the drivers-side, but I could see nothing bent or broken? Granted, I don't really know what to look for, but everything seemed like a mirror-image of itself.

Could I just have knocked the suspension out of allignment? Or should I be looking for something else.

The camber is to the point that if I let go of the wheel it starts veering badly to the passenger side. I don't know how many degrees, but maybe 5-10?

I was going to take it to a generic suspension/brakes/wheels shop to have 'em put it up on a rack and take a look--but I'm VERY hesitant because I haven't let anyone touch my Rx7's for the past several years...

Thanks for any advice!

A couple pics of my poor baby before the "wreck".

 

:-\, i love your car, i hope oyu can get verything sorted out

i heard about the weather, i'm thankful im stuck where its a dry frigid cold . . .

 

You might have bent the lower ball joint on your control arm. Your car looks like an s5, so I think you have to replace the whole control arm since the ball joint can't be changed out.

Same thing happened to me, cept on the driver side. Luckily I have an s4, so I just changed out the ball joint.

EDIT: I looked at your sig and you indeed have an s4. So yeah, just check the ball joint to see if it's bent. I am fairly confident that is the cause of your camber/steering problem.

 

im not shure i had a drifiting accident i smacked a curb at 30mph and hit a tree and still all i got screwed was a bent strut.... mayb some of of our cars are different but hmmm i would think just threw it out of alingment...
TwEaK

 

jack it up in the air and check your front end parts (shack it down) and give it a good look over.

 

bring er on down to you local mathews tire they do a good job tell them you want a FEA check and then they will tell you what is wrong broken or bent.

 

You probably bent the spindle. It's an easy fix - Just buy a used one here in the For Sale section.

 

damn the snow. I almost hit a fence the other day. I still got that black parts car rx7 if you need anything you take whatever, you just have to take it out yourself. Im about to trash it in a week. Everything on the suspension is still there.

 

right click and save!!



now for the wipeout:
i did a similar thing (but to a different car) and took it to a shop thinking i bent the strut. turned out all he had to do was adjust the camber a little and it was fine
i would let a shop check it out. that way you know for sure what really happened. i just gave in to the shop because i am a rookie when it comes to the steering also.

good luck mang!!
hope you get it fixed soon!!
and the lip...OOoooOhh man! not the lip!!
that car is so sexy to! youll get it fixed.

 

Ban!

J/k I love your car, its my background on my XBOX 360

 

I would get an alignement check to see what the numbers are for your camber, caster, and toe. Get a printout and go from there. Drift could be from the caster or toe just being out of specs. If they can't make the adjustment to within specs then parts need to be replaced. J.

 

Right on, thanks for the help (and compliments) people. I plan on getting it checked out at a local shop in a day or two, but I don't want to go in there without first being educated about what to expect.

Oh yeah, thank you Ron for the offer! I'll let you know if I have any issues and need something.

 

I dont mean to thread jack, but I did the same thing today w/ the snow 10 seconds before I parked my car, (a little to much clutch in the corner + bad tires + fresh snow + down hill ) haha damn my stage 2 ceramic clutch.

ANYWAYS, mine was the driver side rear. Smacked it pretty good. I took the car out as fast as I could go (40 mph at the time cause of the snow) and the car didnt shake or anything .... The rim seems ok, just a little scratch. What should I be looking for in the rear that might be messed up?

Thanks.

 

I looked under the rear and have no clue what I'm looking for / looking at. haha Its all really dirty though :P . Nothing looks bent, but all I can do is compare the left to the right.

 

When I bought my FC the right front was cambered out due to a curb. It was the spindle. Control arm and strut were both ok.

 

Cool. Thanks for the tip.