This monday my ball jointed failed unexpectidly. It never made any creaking noises and the boot wasn’t ripped so i never suspected it was bad. Well it broke and i lost all control of the car and slammed into a curb doing about 35. Luckily i didn’t hit anyone but the car sure is fucked up. The ball joint that failed was the front right, when it broke the car started to pull to the right and instinctivly i turned the wheel to the left and the car just jerked hard and that was it, the curb and my left front wheel became one.
It badly bent the left lower control arm and probably the radius rod. What i can’t figure out is if it bent the lower subframe where the control arm bolts
Can any of you tell if its bent by this picture or maybe i need more to tell? Does anyone have any measurements i could take to verify its alright or not? I don’t feel like replacing it if i can avoid it.
lol @ tow truck driver. if you look closely you can see the tire marks in the background where it broke ( they’re in the center lane and head towards the middle drastically )
Heres the left side suspension
I had a similar thing happen when I got into a accident with my teg. Bent my radius rod, lca, and subframe. I just replaced them from a teg in a salvage yard and it was like 100ish dollars for everything. Then got the car alligned and it rides just like before the crash. When I get home to my laptop I can post pictures of what bend and all that.
Did it bend the front sub frame that the radius rods are in or the rear one that the lower control arms / steering rack is on/
It was the rear. The one the lca’s bolt to. I replaced that and the front crossmember.
I had something similar happen, just go ahead and replace the obviously bent parts and take it to an alignment shop, just reading the measurements from the alignment will tell you everything. And while you are at the shop ask them to check the “set back” of the front wheels, that tells if one of the frot wheels is pushed back towards the rear of the car. Which would let you know that the subframe is bent or not assuming you’ve changed the other bent parts. If it does turn out to be bent, as mine was you can either have them align it as best as possible and deal with the way it drives or take it to a body shop, have it put on a frame rack and pull it back straight, which is what I did. And then align it again and it’ll be good as new. When I did it the body shop charged me 250 so it’s not a huge deal
How much did you pay for the frame to be pulled if you don’t mind me asking. I’ve got a caster problem (about 1.5 degrees off, wheel pushed back) and if replacing the lower control arm (which is what I suspect it is) or anything else doesn’t work then I’d like to get a ballpark idea of how much that costs
awww man I just crashed my teg into a few curbs this past sunday and I have the same issues right now…I’m going to make and thread and post pics. my neighbor across the street told me my subframe and steering column is bent. I’ll post pics and hopefully all you great can help me out…