damaged suspension?

[vojtazbrna]

Hey guys! After that sh*t load of snow here in NJ I had a little accident. Long story short I hit a curb of our sidewalk pretty hard. Right front tire damaged. Had it changed and asked the guy if he could see any damage on the suspension. He said that it was all tight and looked good. Now a couple days after the accident I can hear some rumbling noise coming from the front of the vehicle when accelerating. Simply, anytime the front of the car goes up(even when speed up a little) the suspension makes noise like an old cracking wooden floor. Now I figured I'd ask you guys first if you have any ideas before bringing it into a shop.
Thanx

[JimW]

Best person to talk to is Amanda, same thing happened to her car last winter....almost to a tee, she replaced a control arm among other things.

I think she got a new rim as well....

[vojtazbrna]

The rim is perfect...no damage at all. It wasn't that hard The tire seemed almost fixable if it wasn't ripped on the side of it.
Now how can I talk to Amanda? Or how can I make her read my thread?
AMANDAAAAAAAA......U THEEEERRRREEE???

[JimW]

Shes actually in and out, my suggestion to contact her is

[e-mail], or send her a PM. I can even email her at work tomorrow. Sorry I cant give that one out, but start with those two, and I will do what I can tomorrow morning for ya.

[vojtazbrna]

Thanks Jim. I appreciate your help a lot.
I actually found her email on this web. I sent it to auror_ah@hotmail. If you could maybe let her know, too? It would be GREAT. Thank you very much again for your concern.

[Amanda]

Ah yes, I feel your pain. As Jim had mentioned a similar thing happened to my car last march… Although my car hit a curb going sideways at probably a minimum of 35-40mph and though it was drive-able the front passenger tire was at 45 degree angle and amazingly the tire itself was still very much intact (minus the extensive rim damage). Although I did have to replace pretty much everything on the passenger side that touched the wheel – right lower control arm, wheel hub, rim, tie rods, axle. The axle actually broke once it was brought to the shop.

Anyway once they replaced everything and the car was really drive-able again I noticed the same noise you appear to be describing, when I brought it to my mechanics attention he said it was perhaps due to the impact of the car hitting the curb it weakened different points of the actual frame of my car and that is what the creaking noise is the weight shift causing the frame to creak – So at that point it wasn’t something he would be able to fix but if I wanted I could have a machine straighten it out.

Now that may not be the same for you – I would highly recommend getting your car up on a lift and having an experienced mechanic (not just someone who will give you the run around or try and charge your for unnecessary labor in parts) and really have them poke around and examine every aspect of your front end to get a good diagnosis – and at least give you some piece of mind – best of luck and please do keep us updated…

[Letitroll98]

There is a great deal of force when these "little" accidents happen. Just to illustrate, imagine if your hand was in the way when you hit the curb relatively lightly. You wouldn't imagine too many unbroken bones, right? Your car is somewhat more durable, but not way more.

I would expect possible damage to any of the suspension pieces: wheel bearings, tie rod ends, control links, CV joints, shock mounts, brake caliper loosening, a cracked axle etc. Amanda suggested a bent or broken sub frame, perhaps a broken weld, this would be least likely in my opinion unless you really wacked a curb like she did. No way to tell remotely what it may be, but it's definately something you can't just wait for it to break more. Well, you can, but it won't be fun at, say, 65mph in heavy traffic to find out what was breaking. Best of luck fellow New Jersian.


P.S. e was thinkin' (dangerous, I know) maybe it's just a really out of alignment situation. Did your guy check that?

[vojtazbrna]

Thanx Amanda.
First of all, I hit the curb at about 10-15mph. I was pulling into our driveway...relatively slowly.
I guess that still doesn't change the fact that there is some damage. I will have that checked as soon as possible. Thank you for your advice guys.
I'll let you know the results when I find out.

[skeeter]

Does it get louder when you turn to the left? if so it may be your hub assembly.

[vojtazbrna]

it doesn't get any louder when it take turns. however, it's gotten louder since the last week. now it's squealing and cracking and that doesn't look good.i'm making an appointment tomorrow;hopefully it will get fixed soon.
today i cleaned the throttle body at least, so no more gas pedal sticking, yaaay. that was pretty easy
still have the breaks to clean though and i am waiting for a little warmer weather with that

[vojtazbrna]

Ok, I know it's a little late, but I thought I'd let you all know how this all ended. A friend of mine took a close look at the wheel and found absolutely nothing wrong. The only problem was that the bottom part where the wheel is attached to the main frame was bent up. He straightened that out and the noise is gone. I have a feeling that most of that noise had a lot to do with the temperature. It was all much worse when it was really cold. Just like Jim stated once somewhere here that his front axle was making cracking noise when driving in cold weather. And a lot of other guys seemed to be in the same boat. Anyway, it's all better now and the conclusion is: no damage at all.

[JimW]

Good to hear!

Safe motoring and good luck with the car!