Continuing my streak of bad luck with this car, I grazed a small curb at about 25mph today while trying to avoid a driver in front of me who suddenly braked hard to make a left turn without using his turn signal.

When the steering wheel is straight, the left front wheel is dead straight, but the right front wheel is toed in. The wheel and tire are fine. Curb rash can be fixed easily. Tire has no damage. But the alignment is fucked.

What did I damage?

I am thinking either one of these...

-control arm
-steering rack
-tie rod
-coilover

I am going to take the wheel off today and check for any obvious damage but chances are I am not going to see anything.

Is this something I could fix myself? Or should I just take it to the dealer/body shop and have them take care of it properly?

If I take it to the dealer, I could get the airbag recall taken care of too

 

Sounds like you'll need to replace the pass side LCA, knuckle, bearing hub or transfer hub.

Things to look for are any subframe, tie rod, upper control arm damage

These are the things that I see need replacing when cars come in after hitting curbs and damaging suspension components. Good luck

 

might need all as stated above,,might get away with only a tie rod end
it does NOT need the dealer for this,

I would go to an alignment shop- they know what bent parts look like and what good parts look like--thats all they do all day long
tell them honestly what happened so they know where to inspect for hidden damage=
things like shock wave thru the axle can mess up bearings in different places

NOT a giant name brand chain store where sales quotas must be met every day
Private owner shop where you can speak direct with the tech,
and watch- from behind the yellow insurance/safety line, whats being done and found

If its major expensive and you carry comprehensive insurance = thats what its for

 

Yea, this isn't maintenance. Your car was damaged, and the repair is almost guaranteed to be higher than your deductible (unless you have a crazy high deductible).

 

My deductible is 500. I am probably going to go through insurance. Looks like I'm going to shell out minimum 500 bucks

This is technically my first claim for an accident that was my fault (I have been rear ended several times before). My rates shouldn't go up right? I have Liberty Mutual.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. $500 is a bit much to pay out of pocket.

 

From your progression thread you seem to be pretty handy, why not try to replace the parts on your own? Sure figuring out the damaged parts will be the hard part.

 

I will find out if I can do the work after I go to the collision center on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully it's just a control arm or knuckle. I can replace those easily.