Wheel alignment after minor accident

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2004
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10,861
Location
Kent
Afternoon all. This isn't going to be a rollercoaster of an exciting thread, but I'd appreciate opinions from anyone with experience in wheel alignment.

Just over a month ago, in the snow, our car was hit by someone whilst parked outside our house. We live on the outside of a curve in our road, which had a shallow layer of snow which turned to ice on it. In the evening (Monday), a takeaway delivery driver came around too quickly, skidded wide and went straight into my girlfriend's car. The bang was loud enough that both me and my neighbour heard it and went outside.

He'd evidently struck our car on the wheel itself - I could hear the tyre deflating as I walked outside, the rear quarter of the bumper was smashed, and as you can see in the picture, the wheel was off-centre from the arch. Bugger. Undriveable, I thought. The guy stopped, he was unhurt, insured, and gave us all his details. Girlfriend rang up her insurance next morning (Admiral), who referred her to their accident management company, seeing as it was obviously non-fault. By Wednesday morning, we had a courtesy car delivered, then shortly after, a low loader came to collect her car, as we'd explained the tyre was flat and the wheel looked off centre, so we assumed some suspension damage. The car was towed onto the low loader and taken off for repair. Great, no hassle.

It's been about a month and we've finally been updated that the car is finished and due to me dropped back to us on Monday. However, being the anxious type, I asked if we could have a quick run down of what exactly was fixed. The information we had relayed from the management company was that the wheel and tyre has been replaced (fine), as have the bodywork parts...and the alignment has been corrected. However...it seems that no suspension parts required replacing.

I'm a little perturbed by this - in my (admittedly non-professional experience), if you can visibly see that the wheel is off-kilter, then there's more than just an alignment problem and something must be bent. Yet apparently the car was re-aligned and is all in spec again, without any suspension parts being replaced. I find that hard to believe - I guess there might be some movement in the suspension bushes which might have returned to normal once the car was towed onto the truck, but surely not enough to account for the wheel being off centre by the amount it visibly is? And besides, alignment affects camber and toe (and caster, but this is a back wheel)...so some sort of damage is the only way I can account for the wheel sitting physically forward in the arch.

I should add that we don't have the car back yet, nor do we have a full assessment of the damaged parts replaced, so I will check that when the car is returned. But I did specifically ask the girl on the phone if anything mechanical had been replaced, and she said no, the alignment had been out, obviously, but it had just ben realigned.

Am I overthinking this? Assuming the car comes back straight should I just shrug and carry on, or would anyone else agree that it looks like there's more damage here than a simple alignment could rectify?

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It’s the Sorrento isn’t it, with AWD? I too find it odd that all of that was ok and not damaged considering the wheel position. I guess all you can do is inspect it/drive it and see what happens.
 
HoneyBadger said:
It’s the Sorrento isn’t it, with AWD? I too find it odd that all of that was ok and not damaged considering the wheel position. I guess all you can do is inspect it/drive it and see what happens.
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Yup. I did think about the potential damage to the driveline, but as the wheel only seems to have shifted forward a little, I'm sure there's enough articulation in the driveshaft for that not to be a problem. I was more concerned about a control arm or something being bent.
I couldn't get under the car at the time, so I stuck my phone into the arch and took some photos, and I couldn't see anything obviously damaged...but obviously it's hard to tell using photos shot off the hip, as it were.

It may be that I'm just being overly cautious, and any damage was indeed minor enough that an alignment was indeed enough. I just worry about something like a control arm being bent and becoming a problem later down the line. As you say, I guess all I can do is just see if it drives okay.
 
seems a totally legit concern, to express, immediately, with them
they can email alignment check results prior to collecting the car , so that there are no surprises when you collect it;
maybe request they have some certification from a dealer that repairs are compliant with relevant warranties too ?

if the management company is acting on behalf of their insurer, conact your insurer too to keep them in the loop about concerns.
 
looks like something mechanical amiss there, doubt its just adjustment, maybe they have replaced a suspension part and just was read wrong too you.
 
They don't always fully put everything on the description of a work order - for instance I had both rear drum brakes rebuilt including new hub seals and backing plates as well as misc parts and it is just listed as hub seals (being the point the problem was identified from) + axel cage.
 
gc123 said:
looks like something mechanical amiss there, doubt its just adjustment, maybe they have replaced a suspension part and just was read wrong too you.
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Rroff said:
They don't always fully put everything on the description of a work order - for instance I had both rear drum brakes rebuilt including new hub seals and backing plates as well as misc parts and it is just listed as hub seals (being the point the problem was identified from) + axel cage.
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This is what I suspect. We were talking to someone on the phone at the management company, not the garage, so the information was not first hand. It could be something like "wheel/tyre replaced and aligned" not mentioning what was required to bring the wheel back into alignment.
I will wait and see on Monday, see if they can provide the full geo report.
 
Measure with tape the gap from wheel to door side and same for the other side of the car to see if the gap is the same. If the repaired side is different then complain to insurance and also take car to dealer main dealer to have inspected and confirm that its not fixed proper. Get quote from dealer and then ring insurance and tell them how much it will cost to fix and give them a chance to fix it or tell them to pay the dealer to get it done.
 
Even a few mm bend will make a big difference and you might not be able to see it easily by eye. It can look aligned on a machine but it will never go straight.
 
There's no way an alignment is going to fix a wheel being forced forward in the arch. That will have definitely bent something. Even a 1mm bend on a part will put it out of range of an alignment. Alignments are meant to correct the tiny amount of wear experienced by rubber bushes and the movement of parts when replacing suspension components, not to paper over damage.

I think there is a good chance they have replaced a suspension component or two but haven't listed it. Best thing to look at is the final invoice. Don't forget, these garages are there to milk insurance companies so are way more likely to replace things that don't necessarily need to be replaced, than to try and get away without replacing parts
 
Car came back today. Wheel aligned, but still obviously further forward in the arch than the the other side. Two guys dropped it off, the one driving said it had felt fine, but the other agreed with me that it's still quite obviously not right.
On the undamaged side, I can fit four fingers (giggidy) in between the arch and the leading edge of the tyre...only two fingers (fnarr!) on the damaged side.

Car rejected so they can have another go. How irritating, it's been 4.5 weeks since they picked it up, I would have hoped that even if they'd aligned it correctly, that someone would have noticed the offset.
On the plus side, the bodywork looked fine.
 
Mate just got my car back after similar damage, rear quarter/wheel with the stance of a drift car.
Crash was back in August, and countless rejections.
Good luck
 
My wife's car ( 3 different ones ) over the years have all suffered accident damage ( all 3 not her fault ) each time I have gone to collect the car after its been "repaired" and each time I have rejected the repairs. Paintwork, alignment ect ect
On the second repair each one came back perfect, i'm sure they just expect most people wont check and assume its all repaired because they say it is.

All three repair places were fully manufacture approved places as well
Therefore just bodge the repair as quickly as possible.
 
For anyone who was waiting for the exciting finale to this, we've got the car back again today, and this time its the right shape. It's been quite the journey:

- As per previous post, last Monday (15/03) is when they first brought the car back. The wheel was quite obviously still not right...and I don't mean, you needed a tape measure to check. I spotted it was still out of line from the bedroom window when he pulled up outside the house.
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- We rejected the car, but we also phoned up the management company to ask how the hell an "approved repairer" could have a car for over a month, and still think giving it back to us how they did was acceptable.
- Shenanigans ensued, I think the management company raised hell with the garage, who apparently claimed that "the wheel out of alignment wasn't part of the original damage approved for repair" (huh?!). I think they were trying to get out of taking on the costs for the courtesy car, which would fall to them during the rectification period by claiming the work they'd done is all they'd been asked to do.
- In the process of this, we got hold of an original assessment document which, among other things, seems to list a load of suspension parts to be replaced. We questioned this....if suspension parts were approved for replacement, why weren't they? Or, if they were, and that didn't fix the issue, why did someone not investigate further before returning the car? And if they were on the original damage assessment, how did the garage not think they were part of the repair requirement?
- Management company contacted us and say they will ensure an independent assessor inspects the repairs after rectification to ensure the work is correct. He phoned us earlier this week, and we went through our grievances with him, so he knew exactly what needed investigation (not that it wasn't obvious).

Today, the car came back to us, and it's all good. Wheel is sitting in the correct position again. I stuck my head under the car, but I could see no evidence of any parts replacement. Nothing looked new, most bolts don't look like they've been touched. I checked the invoice, and there's no mention of parts on the invoice, but there is an item, "Anchor vehicle on straightening rig", so I'm assuming that whatever was causing the problem has been bent back to shape. I took the car out immediately for a test drive, and it's perfect, tracks straight, no undue vibration or noise.

So overall we're largely satisfied with the end result, but we are still waiting for the report from the independent assessor who signed off the work. I would like to get to the bottom of what exactly caused the garage to completely fail to fix the alignment issues the first time round.
 
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Nice one, at least it's now sorted. So alarming that it clearly wasnt right first time around. Imagine you were somone who just took the garage repair at face value? Crazy.
 
HoneyBadger said:
Nice one, at least it's now sorted. So alarming that it clearly wasnt right first time around. Imagine you were somone who just took the garage repair at face value? Crazy.
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Indeed. We might still take it to Kia to get them to give the car a health check, just for peace of mine. Might be belt and braces, but given that the repairer seems to have proven that they aren't exactly competent, it be nice to get an opinion from the dealer, mainly as the car is still under warranty. Wouldn't want a dodgy to repair to invalidate that in the future.
 
I would take it to Kia for a check as you suggest, the other garage and insurance company shouldn't be able to argue with any findings. If the repair garage missed such a visible defect what else did they miss?

Here's the thing with insurance companies, as it it was a non-fault claim you are well within your rights to decide where the car goes for repair and you should always choose main dealer. However, they have a clause that says if you do choose a main dealer (or someone not on their books) then you can't have a courtesy car as well. What kind of crap is that? Somebody in the insurance industry may be able to correct me but don't these repair garages bid for a contract with the insurance companies? So they low-ball their costs to win the contract and then struggle to keep each repair expense down to contracted levels.
 
Sounds like a bit of a **** up all round tbh. I'd still be taking that to someone competent to check. And I'd be wanting a copy of the "independent report" - which I bet hasn't been done.
 
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