Hit a curb.... What to check?

Shikkaka

Shikkaka

Shikkaka

Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2003
Posts
2,901
Location
Nottingham
Morning all,

I hit a curb during the winter months going round a bend maybe a tiny bit too quick for the conditions, live and learn.

Since then the handling has never been as good as it was. I've put it off for ages but have just had 4 brand spanking tyres put on and the tracking aligned. I'd like to get it looked into with the new rubber on so I'm not wearing it down too quickly and the fact I want my motor to handle as it should.

It's not massively bad, it will still grip fine round corners but it just seems like the whole cars body roll has become more noticeable since doing this.

What sort of things could I be looking at? The cars an 11 year old Fiesta Zetec-S so naturally pretty good in the handling department and hopefully cheap enough to get fixed.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Could be a number of things, there are all sorts of components behind the wheel other than suspension.

Get a meccy you trust to check out everythings straight

Suspension arms, Anti roll bars, bushings and ball joints etc
 
If its not your Alignment i would definatly get it up on the ramps.

could have either bent your control arms, damaged ball joints. Would defo ask a local garage just to have a look for 5seconds.

If its rolling maybe damaged a shocker?
 
On a side note and I've just remembered. When I first start the car up and pull off there are a couple of knocking noises as if something is shifting into place when the steering components are being used. Once it has done so I never hear it again until I come back to the car and move off again. Even stood in traffic I never hear the noise again, it's only when the car has been stood for a while.
 
There are any number of things it could be. I'd get the wheels off and start with a visual check to make sure that nothing is bent or broken. Check that the anti roll bar is all in one piece.

If it all looks fine then check for play in the bushings and ball joints. If that's all good then the fault's probably in the strut assembly. If the fault is in the strut assembly then there are a few things that could be off

- The strut itself could be dodgy
- The spring might be broken
- The strut mount might be broken (although there's no easy way to check this without dropping the strut out)

I had a similar problem a month or so ago - only difference was I went over a pothole that I thought was just a puddle. Nothing was obviously broken when I had a look so I didn't exactly know the cause of the problem but was fairly certain that it was something to do with the struts. I replaced the struts, springs and mounts on both front corners and it massively improved things.
 
When they did they alignment they should have noticed if any of the usual steering/suspension culprits were damaged surely?
 
Defcon5 said:
When they did they alignment they should have noticed if any of the usual steering/suspension culprits were damaged surely?
Click to expand...


They normally only align the front wheels against each other though - they won't notice dodgy camber, caster, SAI, set back, thrust angle etc.

This is why you should always have a 4 wheel alignment done even if the rear wheels aren't adjustable - things like thrust angle can only be calculated if all 4 wheels are measured and then the front can be set to compensate for any errors on the rear.

Something like a hunter machines goes one step further as it can measure all the other items - again not everything is adjustable on a car but it can aid in the identification of any damaged components - often suspension damage isn't obvious to the eye.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Not to put you off at all and it could not be the same with yours but my mum curbed her 57 plate focus when we had the last lot of heavy snow and it was fixed by the dealer through her company and it never handled the same since, despite going back numerous times and having all of the front suspension and related items changed.

She continued to have numerous knocks and rattles at startup and various points during driving.
 
Bit late but it may have been an idea to get it checked out with the old tyres then at least they could see what's what.

Same as buying a s/h 4x4 with brand new tyres, unwise.
 
amigafan2003 said:
They normally only align the front wheels against each other though - they won't notice dodgy camber, caster, SAI, set back, thrust angle etc.

This is why you should always have a 4 wheel alignment done even if the rear wheels aren't adjustable - things like thrust angle can only be calculated if all 4 wheels are measured and then the front can be set to compensate for any errors on the rear.

Something like a hunter machines goes one step further as it can measure all the other items - again not everything is adjustable on a car but it can aid in the identification of any damaged components - often suspension damage isn't obvious to the eye.
Click to expand...

Cant recommend this enough. Sorted out my issues when i had them on my Clio 172. Seems the majority of people take the "front two wheels alignment" offered at most KwikFit type places as gospel for alignment not being an issue :(
 
I hit a curb in similar circumstance, bent both subframes which in turn bent the front of my car round pushing the wing into the door and the wheel almost touching the arch. It also cracked my radiator. All of that doing 15mph and yes it was a rover but I fixed it by getting two subframes from the scrappy and re-jigging the body work and a new radiator. So potentially a lot could be wrong. I would check all the gaps between the doors and bonnet along the wings etc.
 
I hit a curb back in February and since got a new wheel, new front tyres and tracking done but I still don't think it's quite right.

I had the car up on stands and checked for play in things I could see but nothing was obvious. Going to get it into a mechanic soon to have a look. Got a clunk which I thought was pads moving but it isn't, could be a cv joint or anything I guess :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom