I was hoping someone would be able to provide some insight on what damage I could have caused as I am trying to determine if an insurance claim will be necessary and worthwhile.

Last night in the bad weather my rear end kicked out on me and I tried to save it and basically slammed the car into the curb laterally. Not only did the rims suffer rash (the front rim being totally F'd), but I think I knocked the rear camber out of whack.

Since I have never had to mess with adjusting the camber/alignment, is it possible to "knock" the camber out of whack? Or am I looking at other damage?

Also since I was on my street, I was able to crawl the car home but while doing this I noticed the ABS light came on and the brakes did not feel 100%. After taking a look at things last night, the brakes look ok. I am going to pull the rims off to inspect for further damage.

Can the ABS light get tripped if the front rim has a huge gash with balance being wayyy off? I started the car this morning without any ABS lights and I pumped the brakes to check for feel. Felt normal.

Of course I am asking for guesses as without you seeing the car, it is hard to diagnose the issues. I am hoping someone with more experience and knowledge could provide insight. I will also try to take some pictures of the damage and post these later on.

Thanks in advance!

 

how fast were u going when u hit the curb.

i recently did the same thing. hit the curb going bout 20 mph and bent the wheel, still waiting to put the new wheel on the car.

dont know if there is any more damage.

if ur car still drives, take it to lesschwab or something and get the wheels spin balanced. that will tell u if u have bent the wheels or not.

 

I was probably going about 20ish while accelerating when I lost it.

I don't think that I can balance the front rim. The front rim has quite a bit of damage to it. The rear rim is mainly just rashed, although fairly well, and may be balancable. I'll check into getting it balanced.

I can see that the rear tire's camber is no longer correct. This is a major concern as I hope I just knocked it out of whack.

I might be able to get away with a new rim and an alignment - best case scenario. Without moving the car I might not be able to see if I damaged anything else. Not too sure what to do at this point...

 

The Evo does not have camber adjustments from the factory. The only way to affect camber on the stock suspension is to change the ride height, or bend something. If your camber is off, my money is on the latter in your case.

 

That is what I was afraid to hear. Can anyone suggest which parts to look at first for bends/damage? I have some pictures that show the camber being off. When I get home from work tonight, I will post the pictures.

I have a couple comments regarding the one picture which shows two member joining and the one member looking like it is off center...hard to explain, easy to show.

Thanks again for the replies.

 

In my experience with my Integras, Hondas etc... It really depends. You need to first off take it to someone to see if it is in spec. The suspension is very touchy in virtually ANY vehicle and even though it may not look out of whack to the naked eye it very well could be (happened to me in an integra) also check your strut towers to make sure nothing has been pushed up.

It is possible that you could knock the alignment out and thats all that it could be but it sounds like you probably did more than that if you are saying that you totally f'ed up your wheel(s). You could have done some serious damage.

Insurance getting involved should be last resort if you are concerned about your premium going up... You said it was by your house and it was wet out and i guess no police report right? If you dont have a police report then at this point you maybe SOL witht he insurance paying for it. If you had a police report that showed that it was wet out then its not a fault accident and comp should be covering you then i would go all out with getting it fixed right. GL

As far as the ABS, dont know what to say about that. Best bet is to take it to someone you know and trust and get an estimate and do it right the first time.

 

camber is hard to spot, uneven/off-level ground makes it worse. Check the the lower control arms for starters.

 

Odds are you bent you lower control arm and possibly damaged a strut.

 

Just contact your insurance and have ther dealer look at it... I would'nt screw around with that kind of damage.

 

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your statement here...but I think you're incorrect.

The vehicle's camber CAN be adjusted on stock suspension both in the front and the rear. The uppermost bolt on the strut where it mounts to the wheel hub (for the front) will allow for -1 to -2 degrees of camber. The rear has a camber adjusting bolt on the lower arm/rear cross member junction which allows for about 14 degrees of adjustment.

But again, maybe I misunderstood you...


4g63 4ever, I'd probably take it to get looked over by a professional if you're not up to the task. Have them check the underbody for any misalignment and/or bent arms. Depending on how hard you hit the curb, it could be one or the other or both.

 

Would these pictures illustrate the camber adjustment point? This is the only obvious suspension damage I have found. Note the position of the bolt through the arm. What do you guys think?

 

Looks like a lot of positive camber to me. The starting point is with that offset bolt located at the 6 oclock spot (bottom-center).

If you were to be looking at the bolt head from the front, turning that bolt clockwise would give positive camber.

 

By looking at the wheel (I could post a pic) I can tell it has a good amount of positive camber. The question at this point is, is there just positive camber or is there also damage? This is why I'll need to have it looked at by a "professional." I am thinking to get 2 new rims and see if they can align the car properly. Does this sound like a good starting attack plan?

If I understand you right, turning the head on that bolt adjusts camber? Or do you loosen the bolt and reposition it? I still probably won't mess with trying to adjust this myself but I am curious to know how the adjustments work. I guess I am thinking along the lines of how hard it would be to knock the camber out of whack and not have damaged the bolt threading or anything like that.

On a positive note, this keeps me from the temptations to take the car out of the garage in the cold/wet/snowy weather.

 

You could try and turn that bolt, but depending on how tight the nut is on the back you may or may not be able to turn it. I typically loosen just enough to turn, adjust, and re-tighten.

When you go to get the car aligned, just let them know what happened, and see if they can spot anything abnormal while it's on the lift. Then see if it can be aligned. If so, get yourself some new wheels, and you're back in the game.

All the above is dependent upon how bad you hit that curb though. I didn't notice anything bent in those photos...but I'm not a claims adjuster nor do I work in a body shop.

 

I think you're right, I didn't think about those bolts.

Also I got to thinking, if something had actually bent on the subframe, wouldn't the swaybar have been pushed over, and you'd be able to notice it on the swaybar where the bushing in?