Car update:
i dropped car off weds night
is now 20 minutes to closing time on thursday.
Car store claims they’ve been measuring stuff for hours and they cant figure out whats wrong.
I dont know if he is lying or not but i cant see how my wheel is pushed back over 1/2 inch and they cant find what is bent but htas what he said
he said "by tomorrow morning we will definitely know"
but thats what he told me first time.
TBH i think its possible they arent even looking at it and they are overbooked but he claims they are actively measuring stuff right now.
In their defense, most times in comparatively (subjective term…) minor hits things bend and this cannot be detected with the naked eye.
It becomes a matter of an educated guess. I can’t speak for what they’re doing but I would concentrate heavily on the control arm.
I know it cant be detected with naked eye, two mechanics already looked. They are claiming to take measurements, he told me on phone “we cant see anything wrong we are taking measurements from bolts” i may be messing up the exact frame reference point. I would assume if something is bent (and it must be to be that far pushed back) taking measurements would show a discrepancy somewhere.
I was wondering is it possible the bend is the subframe, not the piece? Especially if its the mounting points of control arm in subframe? I have read this is a possibility and it would explain why even taking measurements everything apepars even.
Although the most likely scenario is they overbooked. When i dropped car of fthe lot was LOADED with cars, way more than last week, and last week the mechanic said they were busy. So its possible my job just got pushed back because it is small. I’m thinking they might be planning to look at it tomorrow morning, and if they dont have time (cuz bigger, more lucrative jobs) they will just tell me to come pick it up and pretend like they cant figure it out.
Tell the shop to put the car on an alignment rack and measure ALL the angles, so to speak
A smart guy will be able to look at the various measurements and know without a shadow of a doubt that something’s bent, and he’ll probably also be able to zero in on what component would be causing the measurements to be off
Theres no doubt something is bent bcuz of wheel 2 wheel discrepancy.
The shop owner’s son (who deals with customers) explained to me this is what they are doing, taking “lots of measurements” but they havent figured it out.
As stated I am suspecting they just never looked at my car cuz they PROBABLY overbooked. The lot was so packed i couldnt even park my car, more than last week . And i KNOW last week the son was trying to get me to leave the car, meanwhile the mechanic (father) was saying he was too busy to do it.
The subframe is stamped steel just like the control arm so yes it can be bent comparatively easy. I’m not convinced the subframe is the problem though.
If I had the car what I would do is say measure the center point of the lower ball joint to various datum points on the subframe. I would think if there are discrepancies from one side to the other then the control arm is the problem.
One could install a new control arm only and see if that corrects the side to side variation. That’s about all the advice I can offer without hands on. I can only reiterate that I’ve done a LOT of curb strike repairs, etc and a damaged control arm was the norm.
Bad news, car shop called and they said “all the bolts are equal on both sides, we cant find anything wrong”.
He said they measured everything and they are all equal points on both sides.
His only guess was that it could be something inside the steering gear because they did not disassemble it, apparently you need a special tech to do this.
I questioned if its possible it could be the subframe explaining thewheel to wheel discrepancy and thus why the mounting points for bolts are equal both sides. He said its unlikely because you need a harder hit to bend the subframe.
I also asked if he thinks its worth it to replace the control arm as thats most likely to bend and most likely to cause the steering wheel off center and wheel push back. He said he didnt think its a good idea because the bolts are even on both sides, it would be a guess and throwing money away.
He does think something is wrong and messed up but he cant figure it out.
He rotated the tire and redid the balance just to do something. I already tried that though.
On the plus side he didnt charge me anything. He sounds like he really did spend time on it.
So, thats that. He is recommending maybe disassembling the gear box to see if the bend is inside. He couldnt think of anyone to refer me to to have this done however.
I doubt i bent the frame on a 10mph curb bump while parking. There is no way thats true, this requires a higher speed collision.
I havent ruled out the dealer repaired this car on the sly, OR the body shop I went to miscalculated something in the measurements and its a simple control arm (which is the most likely reason for off center wheel/push back tire).
EDIT: since the car pulls right with a straight wheel i’m starting to wonder if i brushed the curb BECAUSE of pre-existing steering issues. The reason i miscalculated is the car turned too far right vs normal car. The car does turn right if the wheel is totally straight after all. I would not put it past dealer to totally repair/replace parts from an undocumented accident then sell the car as new, which would explain why everything measures fine but the frame is actually bent. Who knows.
No offense but clearly something has to be wrong if the wheel is 10mm back. It is visibly obvious as well, except before i didnt know to look for it (just handling issues).
Even if you discredit my reports of handling issues as hysteria, the steering wheel and tire abnormalities are objective signs.
I never said you bent the frame. The rack allow precise measurement of all points. They’ll either get that wheel back to where it should be, or tell you why they can’t.
Crazy update
Picked up my car, thank mechanic for his time.
he was like "yea we couldnt find anything wrong everything measures out"
and I said "thats so weird, because the wheel is pushed back" then he was like “actually about that, when we put it on a lift we heard a “pop”. Sometimes things just get jostled and pop back into place.”
I was like…
Are you even serious!
So when I got home i measured myself twice, and the discrepancy isnt there anymore. What the …?
Can that really happen?
So it appears my wheel is no longer pushed in, and on the lift they heard a “pop”, and after thorough inspection they say everything is fine. Can a bump push something in and then spontaneously adjust itself? I mean this sounds impossible. I measured twice and now both sides are even. So weird.
“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!” CSA
Wild guess here- in your original assessment and measuring, you are measuring your wheel against the plastic front bumper. Bumpers flex and bend, and can even “pop” back into place when tweaked on a bit. This is why so many told you not to go by the measurements you had, but to measure by predetermined fixed measuring points on the frame and various front suspension parts. I didn’t really put a lot of stock into your pictured measurements for this reason.
saying that, your car should not have a pull. DO as suggested up above, and find a flat parking lot to see if your car veers at all, as streets have inclines built in for drainage. YOur car may be fixed, and just have an untrusting owner now.
Sure but i want to point out it was the mechanics who did wheel to wheel measurement
i only did it against the bumper to verify
i also did wheel to wheel and found same discrepancy
My bumper was never impacted by anything so i dont see how it could pop into place
In either event its all very strange the discrepancy is gone now.
I told you earlier and I’ll tell you again, that tire measurement you took is NOT a valid measurement, never was, never will be. If someone checks the wheel for true as I specified in an earlier post, I think they will find the problem. The alignment should be checked on a machine that has had the calibration verified before the car is put on the rack.
The alignment done at the factory is the best alignment you are going to get (except for Honda’s). If the alignment was changed since then, it is probably wrong now. It takes a pretty hard hit to knock a front end out of alignment.
If you can turn the steering wheel all the way from one lock to the other without feeling any binding, the rack is good. It’s best tested with the front wheels off the ground just so you aren’t feeling any variations caused by irregularities in the surface of the ground.
One last thing, drive down the road at around 50-60 mph and then move the steering wheel side to side. You don’t need to leave your lane so you don’t need to move it much or very fast. Listen for a low roaring sound that changes volume as you switch from side to side. If you hear that, then you have probably damaged the wheel bearing.
I really hoped every time I look at this problem to see problem resolved, there have been so many mechanics, and no resolution, wondering if as stated previously a bad wheel might be a problem, but it should not be this hard, sympathies to the op.
