Got Too Much Negative Camber y0 (Hit the Curb)!

[danza]

The last 2 weeks have been an automotive nightmare.

In order of occurrence:

-Gatwick Honda do their best to kill my CTR's gearbox by helpfully leaving the gearbox filler bolt loose.

-Civic windscreen is cracked and needs replacing.

-Suzuki Swift Sport windscreen needs replacing.

-And added to the list is last nights wife/CTR escapade in which slippy slidy snow meant the NS front wheel said hello to Mr curb at lowish speed (10-15mph at a complete guess, based on the fact that the airbags didn't deploy ).

I had to drive 13 miles up the A23 (which was actually really fun, drifting in the snow and all) at 11:30pm to rescue my wife who was stranded at a village pub, move the CTR and drive back down the A23 to be greeted by a 9-car pile up. We got home at 4am.

Just got the CTR home (wife didn't want to drive in the snow last night).

Wife's just sorting the insurance now.

Anyone like to hazard a guess as to what the likely damage is?

Red line is current camber (ish), green is where it's meant to be (ish). Steering wheel is at 20-25 degrees clockwise from center position when driving straight ahead.

WIN.

 

[danza]

It'll just be a bent wishbone and steering arm. Almost certainly not worth claiming for tbh.

Oh and that'll be positive camber fwiw.

Well my wife's on the phone now. Maybe the wheel's bent too? She has protected NCB so it's not too much of an issue. The Honda garages charge the earth for parts/servicing of CTRs. There seems to be a 30% Type R tax on all of Honda's prices.

Positive camber it is!

 

[danza]

I did this to my ZS, exactly the same.

Damn roads!

Luckily I got given loadssss of ZS parts, including a full new suspension setup... stolen parts for the win?

All I have are loads of knackered brake calipers, some old hoses and a scratched front splitter as spares.

My sympathies Danza clearly you need to go away on holiday and get away from motoring for a week or so...

If only! I won't be driving anywhere fro the next week or so anyway, so hopefully nothing else will go wrong.

If you bent the wheel theres an easy fix.... push it forwards half a turn and you will get rid of the positive camber

Of course that wont of happened though so expect to see a nice bent lower arm, might be worth checking the pickup points on the subframe hasnt moved either as its only pressed steel.

That's what I'm worried about - the mounting points on the chassis/subframe. Hopefully they're all ok, but I'll have to wait and see.

Direct Line is utterly rammed with claimants ATM so we've no hope of getting through until the snow melts and people stop crashing. Can't use their online claim form because for some unknown reason, they've blocked my wife's online account.

 

[danza]

Small update:

The car was eventually collected last Friday due to the distance from the repairer, and the annoying coincidence between snow and the several times which they attemted to come out and recover it.

I heard yesterday it seems to only need a lower arm, which they have ordered and will fit at a cost of £364. They'll then check the geometry and go from there if it is incorrect.

I really miss not having my car. VTEC is soooo addictive, and my Swift Sport just doesn't compensate at all. Hopefuly the CTR will be back soon.

 

[danza]

IF it is incorrect? You managed to bend a lower arm - your geometry WILL be out

They said they'll re-check the geo. after fitting the arm, and go from there if it's still out.

 

[danza]

Well it's a bit late now. It's being done through the insurance, simply because I was unsure of how much damage there was.

If it's below the £500 excess, we'll be picking up the bill and cancelling the claim anyway. Live, learn and all that.

 

[danza]

I know it's a bit late now, but couldnt you have sourced/repaired it yourself?

I hit a kerb August last year and bent the rear lower arm along with shearing one of the ARB bolts. Fixed myself at a cost of £20 for the parts (fellow owner breaking his car so sourced the parts from him ).

I simply don't have time to get under my car and look at it at the moment, let alone source/fit/take it to be realigned etc. If I was less busy, I'd probably have had a go at it though.

 

[danza]

Have you/the wife been defrosting the windscreens with boiling water?

No chance!

Wayward stones flying up into the windscreen.

Anyway, the garage STILL has the car. It looks like there was more damage than initially met the eye (after fitting the lower arm), and they're investigating further on Monday. They are being pretty vague though.

Had to go for a hire car aswell due to the time it's taking, and an impending clash of timetables where my wife and I must have a second car. As a result, we're picking up a lovely Ford Ka in the morning.

Is hitting the kerb at 10-15mph likely to have damaged the wheel at all? I keep asking them to check, so hopefully they will. I'll probably get it up in stands to check when I get it back anyway (unless they replace the wheel, which will then stand out like a sore thumb due to the state of the paint on the others).

 

[danza]

Well, it seems that there was far more damage than met the eye. The lower arm was replaced, and the geo. was still miles out.

The required parts list has somewhat swelled, and runs to £1,800 less VAT and labour.

Parts that have been ordered/fitted (only the lower arm has been fitted so far):

-Lower arm
-Steering knuckle
-ARB link
-Hub/bearing assembly
-Subframe
-New wheel (gah - one spankingly shiny new wheel and 3 that look like they've been dragged down the road)
-1 x new shock absorber (Honda don't recommend that they're changed in pairs which sucks massively, and I don't have the cash available to stick a new one on the other side ATM)
-1 x miscellaneous suspension component that I've forgotten the name of

The extra parts will be there on Friday, work will commence Monday. Cutting it fine with the hire car which goes back next Saturday. I just hope that the car feels the same to drive after all this. :/

 

[danza]

Just as well you used the insurance then!

Sounds painful, hopefully it'll be good as new when fixed

Yep, is painful, luckily not for me (not until renewal time at least)! I have my fingers crossed that the car doesn't crab about all over the place after this. Being positive - I'm sure they'll make it good again.

Oh and if you want another dragged down the road alloy for a swap with your shiney new wheel I'll be happy to trade You know you want a complete set of kerbed alloys

I remembered your thread as the guy at the garage was reading the parts list off to me. I was sure you bent the subframe of yours, though clearly not!

As for the shiney new alloy, I think I managed to convince the wife it'll look like visual AIDS, and as a result we'll be having the others refurbed in the summer. \o/

 

[danza]

After hearing from the garage (actually, I had to phone them last Thursday), I found out that they were awaiting delivery of the subframe last Friday. They said they'd call me either Monday or yesterday to confirm progress, which they didn't.

I called them today and was informed that it is being dropped off tomorrow. I really, really hope it's straight and nothing untoward shows up in terms of iffy handling. I can't believe it's been 2 months!

I'll probably update tomorrow after a hoon.

 

[danza]

Thanks for the comments guys!

It's back, but I *think* it pulls to the right, albeit very slightly. It seems to be slightly easier to turn the wheel the first few degrees to the right than left, and seems to want to re-center easier when going from left to straight than right to straight. I'll have another drive later/tomorrow to confirm, but I think I'll have to take it back.

Bottoms.

 

[danza]

The car was collected by the repairer on Friday.

They've since looked at the car, found that the rear was out of alignment with the front, and have adjusted it (although to me this does not explain why it was effectively steering itself to the right when allowed to do so, and driving straight ahead with the wheel centered). I've been told that it was fine on the road test, after which I was asked 'what it was the car was doing again'.

I was told it's best to drive the car for a week to see how it behaves, and if there are still issues that it might be necessary for them/myself to take it to be laser-aligned.

I have very little confidence that this will be sorted any time soon.

Maybe, just maybe it'll be okay though. Maybe.

 

[danza]

The car was still pulling right after receiving it back last week. It was a lot better, but still quite bad on straight, flat bits of fast road.

I called the repairer, and they eventually came to collect the car a day later than when they said they would (yesterday). It was taken to somewhere in Worthing and checked on a better setup, where they found it (the alignment) was indeed still out, and there's nothing that can be done without replacing MORE suspension bits.

I was called by a tech at the repairer who said that the newly found damage was on the opposite side of the car (NS), and he asked if the car had hit on the kurb on this side as well. I've told them at least half a dozen times that my wife slid across the road after the initial impact, and thinks she could've bounced into the kerb on the other side of the road before coming to rest. From day one I forced to them that I wanted them to have a damn good look at all the suspension to make sure it was ok. Maybe they did and just missed it due to it not being too severe?

Anyway, it looks like it's going to need at least another shock (at least it'll mean I have a matched pair, not one on the way out and one brand new), and a steering knuckle too. This is all subject to the approval of the engineer (and he'd better approve it!).

For now though, I've been given a 2006 Ford Ka 1.3 which is positively the worst car I remember sitting in, let alone drving!

 

[danza]

Yeah it's a right PITA. At least they left me with a courtesy car though.

All I know is what I was told on the phone yesterday, and that was that it needed the aforementioned bits to put it right (they were bent). They didn't explain why their alignment figures were within tolerance but the car still pulled, but I imagine if an angle is allowed to be +/- 45 minutes, and it's + 45 one side and - 45 the other, that's going to cause it to do something it shouldn't.

I'm not that annoyed by it at the moment, at least they're playing ball and actively(ish) doing something about it!

I don't know how they managed to miss the fact it was pulling to the right as they'd driven it 25 miles for 'testing'. Perhaps the road test didn't involve any long, flat A-roads or something? Maybe I'm being too soft on them!

 

[danza]

It's back and as good/better that ever. \o/

They fitted a new lower arm, shock, hub assy and bearing on the OS on top of all the bits they fitted on the NS. So basically I have a complete new set of front suspension components, which I'll probably never have to worry about changing in the time I own the car.

The total bill from the garage was £2,433. Not far off a £3k claim after the hire car from Enterprise is taken into consideration, and probably not all that far off write off territory(?).

Anyway, it's good to have the old beast back. I forgot how awesome 8,200RPM sounded.

 

[danza]

Unless it snows next winter

Enough of that! Her indoors won't be allowed anywhere near the CTR if there's any snow/the likelihood of snow! Although the rear suspension components are getting on a bit now...

what a wise decision that turned out to be !

glad its all worked out for you mate

Cheers. I'm chuffed it's finally over, and that the end result was good!

Honda are a rip off. I remember getting charged something like £10 for a little bolt from honda

My ex-local Honda service center seemed just about the most expensive in the UK. I paid £444 for a job that would've cost at least £100 less at any other dealership (which at the time would've been impossible to get the car to). Their Type R tax rate was ridiculous! Thankfully they're no longer in existence, and I've found cheaper/more reliable local mechanics.