What Damage Might I Be Expecting?

[SilentOne]

Its been terribly rainy here in southern California, on Friday was going around a right turn corner pretty slowly, and note that my shoes werent tied and was fiddling with them, moving my foot to the middle of the shoe. Well when this happened, the shoe got stuck between the top of the gas pedal and the top of the pedal area, pressing the gas down around this corner i was going around. I lost traction around the corner , so i compensated for the steering and kicked my shoe out between the pedal and the top , regained traction, but my wheels were pointing the wrong direction twards the curb on my left, slammed on the brakes because i was heading perpendicular, but sliding foreward still. Since the roads were drenched in rain, totally spun out and went up this curb and came to rest in the mud of the median going about 20-30mph perpendicular. Such a huge jolt of going up a curb at that speed must have thrown something out of whack, because when I drive my car now, I feel a slight vibration in the wheels, and there was a different feeling when putting the car in park (I have an auto). Usually when putting it in park the car doesnt have any give, doesnt move foreward or backward, but now it seems to have more play in the gear, moving foreward before hitting the stop mechanism and rebounding back. Its no longer a tight feeling when putting it in park. Also today i went over a horrible pothole and what I believe was my transmision either slipped out of gear or something else. sounded something like the old 1930's firetruck sirens. What possible damage might have going up that curb done.

Could the noticable but not horrible vibration in the steering wheel be due putting the wheels out of alignment, suspension, or could I have slighty bent an axle?. Is it normal to have that much give and movement in park? What might have that noise been after going over that horrible pothole? And when pushing down or lifting the front end of my car, it seems to lift and bounce up and down quite easily which I dont remember as beeing normal. I remember It beeing tighter (Stock 325is suspension).


If you guys have any feedback, I would greatly appreicate it. Thanks

[Rooz]

Originally posted by SilentOne@Jan 10 2005, 09:55 PM
Such a huge jolt of going up a curb at that speed must have thrown something out of whack, because when I drive my car now, I feel a slight vibration in the wheels, and there was a different feeling when putting the car in park

Could the noticable but not horrible vibration in the steering wheel be due putting the wheels out of alignment, suspension, or could I have slighty bent an axle?. Is it normal to have that much give and movement in park? What might have that noise been after going over that horrible pothole? And when pushing down or lifting the front end of my car, it seems to lift and bounce up and down quite easily which I dont remember as beeing normal. I remember It beeing tighter (Stock 325is suspension).

If you guys have any feedback, I would greatly appreicate it. Thanks

[snapback]268553[/snapback]

OK, In order:

The vibration is probably because your car is now out of alignement. So, go to your local firestone aand get that taken care of

Now, the pothole, I have had something like that pothole happend to me, next day I put my car in the lift, found it it had only hit the bottom of my car, absolutely nothing to be worried about, unless you notice changs, I know it made a big sound, and did mine, but if it will make you sleep better, lok at your car under a lift to see if their was any damage.

And finally, your suspensions, well, do the test, push down on all corners of your cars, if it takes more than 3 bounces total (ups and downs togetehre) for your car to go back to it's normal position, then you might wnat to think about replacing your shocks

[SilentOne]

Thanks Rooz. Do you get a significant movement when you put it in park, Not like this is a horrible thing, I dont remember there beeing so much movement.

[Rooz]

If your BMW is an auto, you will feel a slight movement, but that's just how they are. For example, start your car, put your foot on the brake, and just move it between the gears and you'll feel the car moving (up and down) while you change the gears, it's completely normal, my 328 has it, my bro's (323, 325, 328) all had it, and my mom's 540 has it too. And myabe you just never noticed it before....

[Rooz]

keep us updated on how things go...

[SilentOne]

I must say this is one tank of a car. Only thing I know needs fixing for sure is the alignment. As for the Check engine light, that should go off after how long?

[bitcore]

Most likely your arms are all bent to hell, your rims are bent, throwing their balence off, your bushings could have been torn (like the lower control arm lollypop bushing might do if it got torqued really hard really quickly)

Your alignment is definately off.


The same thing happened to me, except I had bald tires in the rear (bald as a linoleum table) and a damn hurricane came in the middle of the week, 3 days before I was going to get my brand new pirillis on. Back end hit the curb really hard, my aftermarket control arm (a garage bent my origonal one a while ago) was SPAGHETTI, my axle U joint sheered off and was useless (car was undriveable after about 1/2 a mile) The axle from the diff was bent, the shock was bent, the wheel bearing was ruined, the rear trailing arm was supposidly bent, the passenger, side airbag went off and tears the leather paneling off with it. 1 completely destroyed solid alloy rim (style 42 I belive, it's a tough rim) was bent really badly and 2 other wheels had curb rash from the bouncing back and fourth between curbs.


Check your transmission's sump pans to make sure they arn't leaking. If you want, go ahead and change the fluid, filter, and gaskets.

Check all the arms holding the wheels on, bushings for cracking, new leaks on the floor where you park your car.

I'll add more later but Im in class now.

[bigred318]

did this a couple days ago in a friends car, and has happened in my friends 2.5 pretty much you could have broken tie rod ends bent a control arm, bushings etc... you for knocked your alginemtn out and will need that fixed... could have EASILY bent a rim wihch would really suck. theres a lot of things that could have happened and might have.... some may not show up for a few weeks/months

David

[bitcore]

yep, undercariage damage is not a fun thing to deal with.

If you just hit the ack side and ROLLED over the curb with the other wheels, then the damage will mostly be isolated to that one wheel that slid into it.

If it was the front wheel that slid sideways into the curb, your steering rack could be bent, which is a bigtime no fun thing to be replacing.

I just slid into the curb with my rear wheel and rolld over another one with two other wheels. $2,600 of parts and labor on just the rear suspinsion system. I need 2 new wheels, (3 would be nice), new bumper (towtruck winched down the bumper and broke the mounts, along with the impact spider crack where it tapped the guardrail) a new airbag, and a new door panel. I still have about $4,000 worth of crap to replace. The $2,600 I spent was just to get the thing rolling again...

[drz]

Originally posted by bitcore@Jan 12 2005, 12:36 PM
Most likely your arms are all bent to hell, your rims are bent, throwing their balence off, your bushings could have been torn (like the lower control arm lollypop bushing might do if it got torqued really hard really quickly)

Your alignment is definately off.


The same thing happened to me, except I had bald tires in the rear (bald as a linoleum table) and a damn hurricane came in the middle of the week, 3 days before I was going to get my brand new pirillis on. Back end hit the curb really hard, my aftermarket control arm (a garage bent my origonal one a while ago) was SPAGHETTI, my axle U joint sheered off and was useless (car was undriveable after about 1/2 a mile) The axle from the diff was bent, the shock was bent, the wheel bearing was ruined, the rear trailing arm was supposidly bent, the passenger, side airbag went off and tears the leather paneling off with it. 1 completely destroyed solid alloy rim (style 42 I belive, it's a tough rim) was bent really badly and 2 other wheels had curb rash from the bouncing back and fourth between curbs.


Check your transmission's sump pans to make sure they arn't leaking. If you want, go ahead and change the fluid, filter, and gaskets.

Check all the arms holding the wheels on, bushings for cracking, new leaks on the floor where you park your car.

I'll add more later but Im in class now.

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Check the undercarriage. Like many have said above, there are many things that can go wrong and will only show after a while. You don't want anything to snap off while you are in the middle of heavy traffic or driving fast on the highway. Good luck and be careful. BTW, sorry to hear about your accident.

[flying_junk]

yea man. sorry about that. but i did that same thing two weeks ago. and well. i have a really bent rim, broken axle, broken control arm, broken sway bar and sway bar link. just about everything that holds the rear wheel to the car. it sux but theres nothing in can do about it now. u are very lucky cuz alot more could have gone wrong. just check everything out and compare it to the other side of ure car. if u think something might be bent or what not check it with the other side of the car and see if thats bent and what not.

[bigred318]

when you hit the curb and went up over it did your wheel hit it, or did you get lucky and have the tire hit and bounce over it?>

David

[Cruzin 323is]

hit a pothole in my car... cracked the rim.. had to buy a new 1... plus i needed a whole new front suspension!! get it checked out!!

[SilentOne]

I crawled undearneath my car today, inspected every part, comparing both the left and right sides, checking for loose parts etc. Miraculously, nothing visible is broken, everything is bolted on tight, and I checked my rims for bending. No Bend in the rims, I have the 16" stock sport aluminum rims, all I could find was curb rash on the rear right rim. This leads me to believe that My tires saved me on this one from major damage, as the tire went up the curb with minimal rim exposure. However I think that the impact with the back right rim may have messed with the bearing, as that back wheel sounds a tad louder now. Btw, when they align wheels, they align all 4, or usually the front 2? And How much might I be expecting to pay for a wheel alignment? Thanks for all your inputs. I was pretty lucky.

[bitcore]

They can do it multiple ways. Go ahead and get a 4 wheel alignment. Less than 75$ I say for the alignment.

The rear bearings in E36 have a tendancy to go bad before the front ones, Get it checked out.