Rep Power: 280

Last night I was getting off on on an exit and hit a patch of snow, which sent me sliding into a median at 30+ mph. The snow in the road was very random and I think there may have been some black ice as well. Also, the median was covered with snow and had small curbs so i did not total my car.
BUT this is what did happen:
-the steering wheel has to be at a 90 degree angle for the wheels to be strait
-left rim got filed down almost to the tire
-right tire screetches unless I am making a left turn, basically if I am going making a right turn, no matter how slight, it gets pretty loud
-my car now has camber, which makes right turns terrible, it feels like my tires folds right over on the slightest right turn
-the screw that holds the fender on, under the car behind the wheel, broke

Positives:
-no obvious body damage
-no damage to rear except dime sized chunk missing from rear tire sidewall, no other damage at all, very strange
-car rides smooth and there are no noises, besides the screetchin

If a def person, who could not make right turns was to drive my car, with out looking at the steering wheel, he would not be able to tell that the car was even in an accident. It does not pull to one side or ride bumpy at all and no other noises besides tire. My friend who is in mechanic school is going to take a look at it saturday. He said by the sound of it, I will probably need at least one new rim, new ball joints, and new control arms. He also said that our cars have strange control arms-not sure what he ment?
So, what do you guys think?
I am going to take the front wheels off right now to see just how bad it is, will get back with more info.
-Thanks for any input-

 
Rep Power: 811

i think he means the arms are easy to break. ya you're gonna need new stuff and an alignment to straighten the wheel.

 
Rep Power: 280

I took the wheels off and nothing looks severly bent or broken (from what I can see). The left rim is definitely bent. I put something to the side of the tire while it was spinning and there was a half inch variance around the rim. I forgot to check the other rim, gotta go to that!AHHHgg!

I also have a little positive camber on the left wheel, what would be bent to cause that?

Also I took it out for a drive in the sleet and it was pulling all over the plac, completely different from the dry conditions of last night. Last night I could take my hand off of the wheel and it would drive in a strait line.

 
Rep Power: 423

There's a lot of stuff that could be broken. More than likely some of it is. The LCA may not look broken, but I bet it is, the tie rod could also be bent, so could the strut itself, the frame of the car, the steering rack as a whole might have shifted.... there's a lot of stuff that could be wrong. Put it on an alignment rack and a frame rack, find out whats wrong. Its impossible to diagnose it without looking at it.

 
Rep Power: 280

I am in the process of getting new rims. I am going to have my buddy look at it saturday, and he is going to help me get my rims cheap as well. Then after I get new rims I am going to take it to either the dealer or Mr. Tire to have it put on a rack. Then get the parts and hopefully my buddy and I can install everything and then all I will have to do is pay for an alignment.

Thanks for the input boilermaker.

 
Rep Power: 280

Update:
I got the car to the dealer and so far they know that the left steering hub/knuckle and strut are bent. They said that other things may be wrong with it but they need to fix those first. It looks like the rims took the most beating, but I really think that the left LCA is bent or at least needs a new bushing because it looked different than the right side. I think I am going to have them do the work cause my buddy only has weekends off of school, he drives from Pa to MD every weekend, and I need my car back. The dealer said i could get a 15% discount because I am a student and the alignment after the car is fixed will be "free".

 
Rep Power: 0

After they're done with you, you'll need that 15% discount. My first thought was a bend strut and damaged knuckle. They are the first to go on side impacts, plus usually a tie rod end. Good luck, but any tire shop could do the job for a lot less that a dealer would charge, but if you turned it into your insurance, I guess it doesn't really matter.

 
Rep Power: 280

The main reason the dealer is going to fix it is because I am using my grandparents 87 buick park avenue and my grandmother does not want to wait a few weeks to get her car back. They offered to pay for it...So what am I gonna say? All I could think of is "thank you".

Initially I took it to the dealer because the dealer is 7 minutes away and my tires were worn down so much that was as far as I wanted to take it. When my granfather found out how fast they could fix it I guess he thought what the hell. I might get it back today!
Also they said it would be somewhere around $800, is that bad?

 
Rep Power: 280

Oh yeah, I did not turn it in to my insurance and thep ark avenue is so sweet. White with dark tint and every upgrade that available in 87. It also only has 33k miles on it! You can just layback in that thing and let it happen! the seats are like recliners LOL I got to get me one for a weekend cruiser one of these days, maybe a caddy. I think you can get them for pretty cheap too.

 
Rep Power: 0

I would say 800 bux is good for this repair. could go higher though as they dig deeper, sorry, not to scare you. the knuckle work, tie rod work, ball joint work, alignment is all kinda expensive stuff to get worked on. Just get it all fixed, it will be safer and it wont bug the crak out of you.

 
Rep Power: 280

Oh I know how they love to tack it on, that is why I only wanted an evaluation. So does my grandfather. Before he told me that he would rather have the dealer do the work he went up to the dealer and got them to explain everything to him and show him what was wrong. He said that if you work closely like that with them it is harder for them to rip you off.

Oh yeah I just thought of a quesiton I have-The dealer says that after they fix the strut and knuckle/hub there could still be other things broken but they will not know till they fix those first. Does that sound right? Would that mean that If I did the work myself I would have had to make another trip back to the dealer?

 
Rep Power: 327

Yes this sounds 100% correct. When snow flys here we get no less than 5-6 cars a day that come in to the shop that hit curbs. We always quote it with what we can SEE bent, or determine bent from the alignment machine first. And note the quote that other parts and labor may be needed at additional cost, and not known at this time. Last 2 EM2's we did were well under $800 as i recall. And one required strut, knuckle(includes new bearing and ball joint), lower control arm and hub.

 
Rep Power: 0

sorry to hear that...
but damn...gearbox and boilermaker1...
you guys know too much!!!!

 
Rep Power: 280

Thanks for everybody's input!

 
Rep Power: 280

Just heard from the dealer. It is alighned and ready to go I just have to go pick it up. Total including discount is $854.57.

I have to call them back though because I forgot to ask if they looked at the fender bolt. You think I should just take it to a body shop?

 
Rep Power: 0

^^ they may be able to check it for you before you take the car.

for example, my wifes car was pulsating at the passenger side front wheel (i should have known what this meant but i didnt feel like replacing all that at the time), so I took the rotor off, turned it down smooth, and replaced it with fresh brake pads. This was the cheapest repair route, and we bought the car with 55,000 miles on it. Its really not too bad, I had to point it out to my wife and she is usually good at finding problems.

Months later after the repair the pulsating has returned. Keep in mind that immediately after my repair it drove as smooth as silk. so what this tells me is that the previous owner smashed into a curb and it is likely the hub and knuckle that need replaced, and possibly the shock.

$.02, so you see, it happens.

 
Rep Power: 327

Number one cause of reocurring pedal pulsations is improper runout after the rotor is machined. IF the rotor was removed and machined with a bench style lather. Then installed without checking run-out then this could be the cause, a bent hub! Had the rotors been machined on the car then the pulsation likely wouldnt have returned. We typically recommend new frt bearings/hubs when the car has impacted the curb enough to bend one of the suspension componets. The impact can do damge to the bearing that wont show up for days or weeks even. And it only takes .003" run-out in the hub to cause a pedal pulsation.

 
Rep Power: 287

also check if you can drive well in rainy conditions. everytime i drive now after my accident it seems as if water is being pumped into my tranny b/c i can feel it shaking in my shifter.

 
Rep Power: 280

They fixed the fender for free!!! Not even on the invoice.

 
Rep Power: 0

Very interesting, that is a small tolerance. Where can I go to get the rotors turned while on the car? Let me ask you this, if I buy new rotors and over time if still getting the pulsations, would turning those new rotors on the car eliminate the pulsations?
Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 327

most the honda dealships should have an on the car lathe. Other than that you would just have to call around. And yes machining the new ones on the car may fix the pedal pulsation. You can also try to index the new rotors to the hub using a dial indicator. Or of the hub has over .003" replace it and that to should fix the issue. Hondas are known to have weak hubs that are common to have over .003" runout

 
Rep Power: 0

My wife's car is a Lexus RX300, would the Lexus dealers have the on-car lathe? They have the worst service at the worst price, so I may try the Toyota dealer.

 
Rep Power: 327

You just have to call around and ask. Some brake shops will also have them.