Yesterday I was heading into work in my Mazdaspeed3 during the massive blizzard that hit Mass. when I pulled into a store parking lot to take a phone call. A coworker closer to work came in for me so I turned around to go home when a snowplow beared down on me. I put the car into reverse to avoid it when I smacked into a rock on the side of the parking lot entrance. The lip of of my drivers-front steel wheel is bent a little along with some cosmetic damage to the front drivers side door, front fender, and side skirt. Now the car starts to shudder when I drive over 55mph and it meanders slightly to the right when I leave my hands off of the steering wheel. I'm hoping the mechanical damage is limited to the wheel being bent out of round and the alignment being out-of-whack, but I haven't had a chance to check it or get it checked. Anything else I should be concerned about?
couldnt say for sure but id bet its just the wheel and alignment
probably just the bent rim
alignments don't go out of whack unless something gets bent- hopefully it's just a tie rod and not the spindle or a control arm..
Swap the wheel for the spare, got wobble?
An alignment is due no matter what.
914Driver wrote: Swap the wheel for the spare, got wobble? An alignment is due no matter what.
I figured as much on the alignment. I haven't had a chance to swap out the affected wheel and I don't want to touch it anyways until the adjuster arrives. There's no snow in the forecast and the roads have been plowed so I think I will be alright to drive my all-season-shod RX-7 to work starting tomorrow. I didn't notice the vibrating until today because traffic was crawling due to the snow yesterday. I think I can hear some rubbing at full lock when parking the Speed3, so it probably is a wheel bent out-of-round.
A bent wheel lip isn't going to cause rubbing. I vote bent lower control arm, that's what I typically see.
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