Wheel is no longer held vertical after collision.

DANE1124

MEMBER
2003 PONTIAC GRAND AM
V6
FWD
AUTOMATIC
112,000 MILES

After sliding into a curb driving in cold weather, my front right wheel in now angled inward. I guess when my car slid into the curb the top end of the wheel pushed over the curb while the bottom stayed on the road. The wheel is no longer held at a specific angle and both front tires are unresponsive. I looked at diagrams and want to know, from this type of impact what all could be broken and what kind of repair would be needed.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,737 POSTS

What does "unresponsive" mean? The wheels don't rotate to drive the car? They don't turn left and right when you turn the steering wheel?

When you said the wheel is angled in, is that on top or on bottom? Normally after hitting a curb, the top is tipped out. If the car has never been aligned before, that means almost certainly the lower control arm is bent and must be replaced. It's just two pieces of rolled-up sheet metal.

The GM engineers didn't care enough to make the front wheels' "camber" adjustable. If it has been aligned in the past, and that needed adjustment, as all cars do from time to time, your mechanic had to grind one of the lower strut mounting holes to allow for some adjustment. Once that is done, the adjustment can slip after hitting something hard enough. That is simply a matter of having it realigned.