[s-cars] whacked a curb

[Ned Ritchie]

Ed,

Ah yes, the old bent strut that the naked eye cannot see.
Alignment may come into spec, but it is still bent.

It bends where the flat metal plate attaches to the tube.  You'd never
expect it to be able to bend there but it can.


Daughter and I went out to play in the snow one night.  A curb popped up
and you know the rest of the story.

I was able to use a frame alignment rack and a big torch to turn it red,
and many tons of pull to bend it back.

Ned

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Edward Estabrook
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 11:02 AM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] whacked a curb

Last night (in 6" of snow and freezing rain) I managed to whack the
driver's
rear wheel against a curb. An SUV couldn't stop at an intersection I was
pulling thru and the only way to avoid impact was to accelerate out the
way,
towards the curb.  Tried to pivot the car away from the curb and pivoted
too
far.  Rotated into it going maybe 10mph.

Destroyed my wheel, tire and allignement.  More worrying though, it
drives
really wierd, like the rear end wants to swing out every so often (when
I'm
driving straight, not accelerating).  Is this 'normal' for the car being
way
out of allignment, or is there something else wrong?  I pulled the rear
wheel and everything looks OK... no obvious cracks or bends, everything
tight.  With the wheel on it looks like the top of the wheel is every so
slightly out further than the passenger side wheel (makes sense I guess,
I
hit the bottom of the wheel).

I'm tempted to try and get it alligned and see if it goes away, but I
obviously don't want to ignore damaged parts.

Also, where does one aquire a used 16x7.5 avus wheel?  I'm not concerned
about the cosmetics, just the roundness.  Or is there a manufacturer
that
makes knock-off avus's (I've seen highline wheels, but only in 17")?

I'd to have the bent wheel fixed, but I'm worried this may not be
possible
since a good chunk of the lip was ground off on impact.

Thanks!
Ed

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