It was a low speed hit. No body damage but my right rear rim is toast. I got my other set of rims back on it and didn't notice anything broken when I removed the broken rim but it was hard to tell since it was dark and cold.

I was driving it back home but it definitely was tweaked. I had to steer to the left a little to make the car go straight. It also was at the point that if I went faster than 35 MPH, it felt like the rear was going to come loose again.

My question is what parts could be broken/bent or basically what could/needs to be replaced?

Should I take it to the dealer or just a place that does alignments?

Thanks!

Mike

 

I know my local Les Schwab guys and most of the time, they are able to tell me if something is screwed up. usually it is my (now EX) fiance hitting the curbs, and they always told me what was damaged, etc. and did a great alignment at the same time.

 

that sucks keep us updated. which side did you hit i assume it was one of the rear wheels that was damaged? don't hit boost on worn tires when turning haha.. i did that before :smiley_12

 

Hahaha. Nice tip sevensix. Sorry to hear about that rx7 guy. I think just changing the wheel will be fine because the same happened to me lol. Keep us updated.

 

apparantly i can't read tho says right rear up there lol in the original post. my reading skills suck as much as my driving habits

 

take it to a good alignment shop in your area. They will let you know if anything is bent. It sounds like it took a pretty good hit, so at the very least try tohave it aligned.

 

Yeah.. I would def take it in for a check (MAKE SURE they check your tow aswell.. or toe, or how ever the hell it's spelled.. same thing as alignment but for your rear wheels).

I had something similar happen to me a couple years back. Some old black lady ran a red light early in the morning, T-boned me and then called the cops on me. Whatev, thats not important. There was no apparent damage to my car, just a couple scratches on the paint and the outside rim of the wheel well was bent in (I managed to turn my car at enough of an angle to deflect most of the force)

Later (about a month or so) I noticed that my rear tires were wearing unevenly, VERY unevenly.. the inside edge was down to the steel lacing. I made an appointment to get new tires and correct the tow (guy on the phone at Sears explained that that was the problem). The night before my appointment I was coming home from Kung Fu. Some *** in an accord wanted to race me (was driving my Prelude at that point) on the highway. I stomped his *** (yay H22A1), but my rear tire ended up catching a crack, pulling my *** end towards the wall, I corrected **see overcorrected** and ended up doing a 1080 spin @85mph in the middle of the highway. Nobody else was involved (thankfully) and my car eventually stopped (the cement wall had alot to do with that...) I picked up my bumper off the road, set it back in place (bumper is still held on by zip-ties), turned my car back on and drove home..

Long and short. Get that **** checked and fixed as soon as you can! It's not worth it to wait...

 

Forget the dealer, take it to a reputable/well-known shop for doing alignments, and make sure you get a 4-wheel alignment.

Alignment is still very much an "art" even with the most sophisticated equipment.

Good luck,
:-) neil

PS: get your wheels re-balanced as well.

 

Take it to a mechanic and have your suspension looked at.

Thumping is not a good thing.

And also get an alignment anyways. Around $100 for piece of mind.

 

It happend to me not so long ago, I had the same symptons you describe. Check your upper control, lower control arm, toe link and all of the dust boots for tears (most of the load&damage is taken by the arms, toe link..) If no damage is found than get an alingment that should make the car working 100% again.

I had to get an aligment along with replacing the lower control arm ($500) labor ($550)total bill $1100. But if it happend again I would first get an aligment $80 and see if its that. Good luck! dont forget to report back.

 

I managed to do this screwing around in the snow a few years ago. Turning onto a back road it looked like 4 lanes of unplowed snow to set up a good drift across. Only thing is there was a buried median in the middle.

Long story short I broke:

Both front and rear wheels
Shock
Axle
Control Arms
Wheel Hubs
Brake rotors
Bent both front and rear subframes

And this was at like 20 mph.

Hate to say it, but if you hit hard enough to break you wheel (like I did), you probably hit hard enough to bend stuff pretty badly under there. It can all be fixed, and cheaper than replacing a motor, but it won't be fun.

 

Crap. I'm really hoping I don't have to replace all those things you said 'cause that's a lot of moola I didn't want to spend on the car during the winter.

I'll post pics of the damage and what it looks like in the wheel well.

Thanks everyone for the informative posts!

Mike

 

I did it too. Had to have the lower control arm and hub replaced...plus an alignment. Cost me around $800 parts/labor. One tip, don't buy parts from the dealer. They wanted over $1300 for parts alone. I found used parts for $200 and took them to the dealer. Don't trust the dealer to tell you if they could find used parts either cause I think Mazda of Everett (WA) probably didn't go any farther than looking out the window to see if they could find them. I got probably 40 responses whithin a couple of hours.

 

Replaced the rear control arms and toe link and got a lifetime alignment check service from Firestone and it drives straight!

Here are the pics I said I would upload...

 

FS: one stock rim with minor curb rash...