scotty878

Ok, so....

It's terrible and slippery outside right now, and I just drove home from a friends house. All was good, went around a slight bend, all the sudden, started sliding and BAM, hit a curb...Tried straightening the wheel and applying the brakes, but I guess I turned the wheel to much and applied the brakes too hard...So I hit the curb on the right side, dont think the wheel was turned TOO much, but theres marks on the rim so I definatly didnt hit with the tire head on. So I dont think the rim was bent and if it is, it must be very minimal, but my real question is my axle. I was probably going about 15-20 MPH, 25 absolute TOPS! So do you think everything will be ok and am I just being my parinoid, super **** self or might I have a problem?

Any opinions or ways to maybe check is appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Scott D.

Roddimus Prime

does it click when you roll? roll the window down and try to listen to it for scrapping or clicking. when you get a chance get underneath and look at it...look for bused boots or crakced supports.

scotty878

There's no clicking as far as I know, I drove it this morning got up to about 60 MPH without any noticable problems....First warm day I'll put my snow tires on and get under the car.

Roddimus Prime

i wouldn't drive it until you have it inspected...you'd be SCREWED if that whell fell off the car at 60mph.

scotty878

Yeah, I'm going to try not to...Thing is I just put in job applications at a bunch of places, so if I need to go to an interview....Hopefuly a friend will be around.

I was doing some more driving and noticed a few things....

1.) It pulls to the right a little bit, but if I go left and straighten the wheel out, its fine until I hit a bump, then it starts pull to the right again.

2.) On the topic of bumps...It seems like when I hit bumps, the sterring wheel seems to jerk a lot more than normal. So when I hit bumps the wheel jumps around if I'm not holding it tight...

3.) The steering seems much more nuetral, it doesnt seem as responsive as before...

4.)Their seems to be a LOT more road noise...It sounds like a pretty deep pitch humming and at first I thought it was the engine being a little sluggish since it is so cold out, but I got it up to about 50 and put it into nuetral, revs dropped but the noise was still there, and slowed as the car slowed.

I think a lot of this may be fixed by a simple alignment, and maybe some things just got knocked a little crooked when I hit the curb.....I really hope its nothing major!!

Roddimus Prime

tie rods are shot I bet. may have some damage to the wheel hub....tie rods sound GONE.

scotty878

How bad is that...? Hard/expensive to replace?

Roddimus Prime

not hard...they can be a pain if their stuck on there good though. You may need an air hammer and a chisel to get them out..but you should be fine if you know what you're doing.

Too bad you live so far away.

p.s. what does your mom think about you spending all this money on your car? She must get sick of writing me checks!

scotty878

Alright, well my cousin is a mechanic at the local Mazda dealer so he could probably get the parts cheap and install them with me....

Haha, she actually doesnt mind too much...My older brother, when he still lived home, used to drink and smoke and crap a lot, so he never had any money, and I dont do any of that, so I have some money to spend, so she doesnt care, just as long as it doesnt get me into trouble! lol...But I dont know if I'll be writing you too many checks in the near future, I just put a deposit on a motorcycle which I now need to pay off...I think 3 of 4 paychecks will go to that, number 4 will probably be to the car!