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Car drives crooked!

S

svtd00d

CEG'er
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
157
Location
Gurnee, IL
I hit a deer recently and ran off the road!(poor contour) anyway, no severe damage seemed to be apparent other than the driverside light where i nailed the thing.
then when it snowed i realized that every time i went on ice or snow it would almost send me into a fishtail!! Also when my friend noticed from driving behind me that my car almost drives sideways, like its bent!! i didnt run off the road that hard that i think would have bent the frame!!

when i jacked up the front of the the wheel kinda moves a lil bit, like it did when my bearings went out. I didn't notice any damage though! front or back, but something is tweaked..
-edit- front left spring is broke but shouldn't affect how car drives that i know of.

anyone know anything or need more explanation lemme know. ill get video soon.
 
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Assuming your frame is not bent, you need to get a wheel alignment. When the tech has it up in the air, they will be able to tell you if more is needed (tie rods, lower ball joints, wheel bearings, etc.). But for now, you can safely assume you need the wheel alignment.

How are the conditions of your struts and springs? Maybe those need to be replaced too.

Do the o'clock test.
O'clock test

Jack up the car one side. Place on jack stand.

Grasp wheel at 12 and 6 o'clock and push in and out. Any movement, most probably suspect wheel bearing.

9 and 3 o'clock - tie-rod/ball joint.

Lower the car and do the same for the other side.
 
about 1 month ago i replaced both front wheel bearings so hopefully they arent bad again, also my ball joints are toast, seals are broke, but

when i have it jacked up , i am able to wobble the wheel around, not like its barley attached, but significant enough to know it shouldnt be that way.

would alignment cause my car to drive sideways and fishtail? when you watch the car drive from behind, you can see that the left front is wayy left of the left rear making the car appear to drive sideways.
 
Something is bent. The rear control arms getting bent can cause that. So can several other things.

Look for bent suspension. If you don't see anything, get an alignment check. That should better tell you where to look.
 
svtd00d said:
...when i have it jacked up , i am able to wobble the wheel around, not like its barley attached, but significant enough to know it shouldnt be that way.
....
Click to expand...
This is symptomatic of a bad ball joint, tie rod or wheel bearing.

Your front wheel being turned sideways could also be the above 3 reasons.
 
just take it in to a shop. going sideways like that is called dog-tracking. sounds like you just bent something which threw the alignment out of whack
 
thanks for the help so far!

it sounds like you are sure of why its side ways, 'dog-tracking'.

and thankfully sounds like just alignment.



.. now that i think of it though.. if the bearing is fine. how would the wheel still wobble?
 
if the wheel wobbles, you're looking at replacing a part(s) and an alignment. you're looking at a couple hundred bucks minimum. figure an alignment is $60. ball joint plus labor is around $140. but im sure they'll find other things wrong. us mechanics always do :laugh:
 
ha, this is the only place i like talking to mechanics anymore. my wallet is no longer friends with them. I've been scammed way too many times, which i don't like to admit because its the scammers that ruin it for the honest people that are hopefully still out there!
 
my car dog tracked really bad because i hit a curb and bent one of my control arms, so check those out, although it seems like that might not be the case here better to be sure.
 
svtd00d said:
thanks for the help so far!

it sounds like you are sure of why its side ways, 'dog-tracking'.

and thankfully sounds like just alignment.



.. now that i think of it though.. if the bearing is fine. how would the wheel still wobble?
Click to expand...

It is not likely just an alignment. It is likely that something is bent, throwing the alignment off. You will most likely need to replace the bent parts and get an alignment. An alignment check can help find the bent parts if you have a hard time identifying them.
 
Big Jim said:
An alignment check can help find the bent parts if you have a hard time identifying them.
Click to expand...

agreed.

It was very difficult to try and visually pick out something bent by just crawling on the ground under the car. Hopefully when i take it in i can find it and get it fixed before they do the alignment!!
 
svtd00d said:
ha, this is the only place i like talking to mechanics anymore. my wallet is no longer friends with them. I've been scammed way too many times, which i don't like to admit because its the scammers that ruin it for the honest people that are hopefully still out there!
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to be a jerk but since said "scammers" aren't here and can't defend their actions I have to comment. By the questions you are asking here, you appear not to be very knowledgeable on these cars or perhaps any car for that matter which begs the question, what makes you think you were ever scammed? If you feel that you can't take your car anywhere for fear of being scammed, you may not like what you hear from the alignment place you take the car to either. No one on this site can second guess a situation which we aren't privy to. If you worry about being taken by repair shops, your only recourse is to become an expert on your car so that you maybe will know more about it than these technicians who were probably only following the repair guide.
Karl
 
very%20bent%20control%20arm.JPG



for future people wondering why there car is driving crooked.. in my case it was a bent control arm. this is what it looked like.
 
Would a bend in that part create some mild camber issues in the rear wheels? the inside tread of my rear left wheel runs down seemingly quicker than the rest of the tire.
 
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