Help! Slid on ice and hit a curb pretty hard.

[MinnesotaNole]

1994 Honda Accord EX Coupe (Aprox. 99 K)

I spun out on some ice Sat. night and hit the curb pretty **** hard with my driver's side front wheel.

I took my vehicle to Tires Plus (where I had purchased a lifetime alignmnet) and they told me they couldn't properly align the wheels completely because they thought I bent a control arm. They told me to take my car to a collision repair facility because they have the laser alignment to see if the control rod is bent. What?????? I'm taking it to the dealer this afternoon to let a Honda tech diagnose the problem. My steering is really "floaty" even after the alignment.

What other damage could I have done? How much $$ am I looking at to replace a control arm?

 

[TooManyWheels]

Did they do a two wheel alignment or a four wheel alignment? Depending on the sophistication of their equipment, the two wheel may not tell you how the wheels relate to the car's centerline, or whether the wheel has been pushed forward or backward. A four wheel alignment would definitely tell you all this, though.

Aside from all that, I'm surprised that the car feels floaty. I can't think of anything that would cause that, with the possible exception of a broken shock/strut or loosened tie rod end, and you would think the shop would have caught those.

 

[sbc350gearhead]

You already have ice on the roads!

Remind me not to move to minnesota.

 

[Rick in PA]

I did this once many years ago. Hit the curb with the side of the wheel, worst case impact. Folded the wheel under, bent the lower control arm, damaged the wheel bearing, bent the frame at the cross member mounting points, bent the one half shaft and needed a new crossmember, too. Get a good mechanic to look at it and take a good inventory of the damage. Then when you get it repaired, make sure all of the damage is repaired.

I had to take mine back to the shop that repaired it because they missed the bent half shaft, plus they didn't replace the wheel bearing.

I ended-up replacing those parts myself. All told, it took over a month to get repaired due to parts not being ordered in a timely fashion, screw-ups etc.

Aside from the punch-list of what needs to be repaired, keep in regular contact with the repair shop to ensure that the work gets done (don't just assume they are "on top of it").

 

[Drew99GT]

I've done the same. Usually, if the impact was not super heavy, you'll end up bending the control arm right at the ball joint.

 

[Dr. T]

Lemme guess, you had "no season" tires on? And you live where? North Dakota? Guess why folks in Mexico don't need boots...

In either case, I still fee that the alignment shop was feeding you a line...THEY should be able to tell if your control arm is bent or not without referring you to a body shop...common what's that about... it's either bent and they can't do the alignment or it's fine. Isn't your wheel bent too?