Dougs951S

A truck almost ran me off the road today, I whacked a massive pothole on the shoulder going ~40ish. I dont know how but it actually ripped the oil cooler from its mount ( didnt damage the cooler ) so it was just hanging, tearing the metal on the side of the cooler where the mounting bracket it. I ziptied it back on for now, but the bigger issue is my steering wheel is now ~20 degrees off from center. The front driver side is where the impact was and I had the wheel turned to the right at the time to try and avoid it. I dont think I bent the wheel, I jacked it up and gave it a spin while I watched it and it doesnt wobble. I cant see any visible damage. The steering wheel is turned toward the right when the car is driving straight. It doesnt pull, vibrate, shimmy, or do anything else strange other than that I can feel a vauge *strangeness* when toward the left side. As I understand it the aluminum control arms usually break before they bend and since they seem fine, it wasnt an EXTREMELY bad impact. What is the weakest link in the suspension and most likely to have gotten damaged? I'm guessing the inner and outer tie rods are bent, possibly the ball joint damaged. Should I just convert to steel arms? That would mean A Arms, bushings, ball joints, early sway bar brackets and drop links, and sway bar bushings right?

Paulyy

get your car on jacks, remove the wheels and start looking is all i can tell you

jmj951

I haven't had this happen, but I've had the entire front suspension apart so I'll add my predictions. Ball joint pin is my top guess. On lowered cars that bottom out a lot, the ball joint pin hits the limit of travel in its socket and bends. If that's the case, I would think you'd notice a difference in camber. You'll need to disconnect it from the bottom of the strut to get a proper look at it, which means also disconnecting the front sway bar link from the passenger-side a-arm so you can drop the driver's side a-arm enough.

Other guesses:
1) Caster block moved. Easy to confirm, just look up and you'll be able to see if it's out of place.
2) The special eccentric-type bolt between the a-arm and the caster block has rotated (or possibly but unlikely, bent).

Dougs951S

Just to close this thread with an update, your 3rd guess was correct John. Caster block eccentric was knocked hard enough to rotate it, and also I believe I may have slightly bent the driver side front wheel. I'm pretty sure the ball joint is fine. New 996 twists and an alignment fixed the issue completely, good as new. Thanks for the input.

jmj951

Thanks for the update Doug, nice of you to close the loop.

Dougs951S

Just wanted to add one more foot note to this thread.. In addition to bending a stock wheel and rotating the caster eccentric, the impact destroyed my driver side inner tie rod ball joint. Impressive amounts of damage for a pot hole!

CyCloNe!

Ya i hit one b4 n it took out my ball joint, strut, sway bar end link and put a dent in the wheel. I was going 30 lol them suckers are deadly.