l33tn3wb3r

I have a 94 vtec with 130k miles and a little lowered.

Well, the accident wasn't really bad at all. I hit a guy's truck; the front passenger side of my vehicle clipped his steel tow ball in the back of his truck. It hit a metal piece of my car just to the right and behind my headlight and did a little damage to the bumper/splash guard.

Now, I was only doing about 20 MPH, and now my steering wheel is cocked to the left when I drive, and the car pulls right. I know my upper ball joints need to be replaced, and I had a friend check my tie rods, he said they seemed to be okay, except one had bad bushings.

My ball joints were bad before the accident, and my car still drove really well. Even if my wheel DID get hit, what are some possibilities that would cause this sudden misalignment? Nothing looked bent to me...Could I have affected my steering assembly directly?

 

petern101

yeah, any force can do that.

Even hitting a pothole can knock your alignment out.

Why don't you just go get an alignment?

__________________

"I am a ricer because I have Z3 fenders"

l33tn3wb3r

That's already scheduled. I read in some past posts that some people went to get an alignment done, and it made their driving worse, so I was a little skeptical.

I live in a rinky dink town, so half the shops here don't seem to care about their jobs too much so that scares me too ha. Thanks for the reply though.

petern101

^I don't know how it could worsen your driving unless getting perfect alignment meant your frame was completly out of whack.

That sounds dubious. Either that or the wrong alignment e.g lots of TOE in or something like that.

__________________

"I am a ricer because I have Z3 fenders"

nakajima

Check that your subframe isn't bent and that none of your suspension members are bent either.

l33tn3wb3r

Ya, that's funny a kid I haven't talked to in about a year suggested that. I can't really see there was that much force, but then again it happened so fast.

I've got some upper control arms coming to me in the mail, so in another day or two, I'll find out about the subframe, etc.

I did notice today though, that while parked, if I crank my steering wheel from center position, to left and slightly back right, I can feel/hear a slight pop?