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Anyone out there hit any snowbanks or CURBS ? I did and I bent the tire slightly out of alignment. WTF!!!!!!! Like an ass I jammed on the brakes and slid into a curb doing like 5 miles an hour. Does anyone know what the extent of the damage might be when that happens? I havent a clue didnt even try to look at it yet cuz its dark out and like 10 inches of snow on the ground. Is it an easy fix usually? torch and a sledge? I'll hafta look tomorrow

New wheel or deal with the vibration. You can't true a wheel back into shape by hand. If it's more than that, you'll have to fix whatever else it is. I've slid sideways into curbs a couple times and only slightly bent the wheels. They'd vibrate like the tires were slightly out of balance, but those were aftermarket alloys.

no I think I bent something in the assembly not the rim itselef, the drivers side wheel is straight, but the passenger wheel is steering a few degrees to the right. I def gouged the rim pretty good, but it is visibly noticable that the wheel is not aligned to the other side when the steering wheel is at 12 o clock. by torching and hammering I meant the tie rods, control arm, or whatnot under there then just adjust the rest. I mean, how fast do you have to be going to bend the frame or whatever? I hope its not serious- like I said I was only doing about 5 miles an hour

The problem is that you locked the wheels. You could hit a big curb at over 20 if the wheels were turning. Probably bent the control arm, then. A bent tie rod would pull the wheel inward and is unlikely to be damaged from that kind of strike anyway. The control arm is meant to be the failure point, so if you got to the point where you bent the frame, you'd have bigger worries. You'd need a new control arm if that is it. I wouldn't try to bend it back as a control arm failure wouldn't be fun and you'd be unlikely to get it exactly back into alignment in either event.

how about the spindle? Ive been doing some research on here to see what I may be getting into and I've read alot about the spindle being associated in cases of a bent control arm. What other components are there in the steering asmbly that may have been tweaked, and also, if Im going in there to fix a control arm, what other easy steering mods can I do. I seen something about the whiteline LCA bushings? they look like quite an improvement. Thanks for the info thus far I dont mean to keep pushing for more just looking for help thanks!

I'd look at it to see what's bent first. I jump curbs and islands frequently and hit some stuff pretty hard and never even needed an alignment (stuff that bent things on my mother's Nissan Altima). In fact, the car might pull a little to the side of the hit for a few miles, but once parked and run again, would track perfectly straight. I swear the thing heals itself. Swapping the bushings on a steel arm looks to be a bit of a PITA and you've got to do both of them.

It's hard to shift into reverse when your car is sliding forward