Hi All

I managed to lose my Felicia in the recent ice. I smacked the alloys against a high kerb damaging the rear bearings which has made the wheel loose, taking chunks of alloy out of my wheels and damaging the front tracking which has altered the camber by pushing the front wheel under the car slightly. When looking down the side of the car , the bottom of the wheel is towing inward and the top out. The tracking is well off; when the offside (untouched) is straight the nearside is steering left. I have taken the wheel off and I can’t see physical bends or breaks. The drive shaft seems un bent but will not spin when the car is on axle stands and put into gear with the engine running. Is it possible to adjust the camber via the shock? Any advice on this is welcomed as I have no wheels! Thanks

you main priority is to find out what pasrts are bent and replace then as no tracking adjustment will sort that out..

doesnt sound like a cheap fix

Edited 27 December, 200916 yr by westallc

Hope no body was hurt.

It sounds very much like the lower suspension arm [wishbone] has been bent, and possibly the track rod [from steering rack]. Rear wheel bearings are cheap, but you need to ensure the drum/hub is undamaged and that the stub axle isn't bent. How fast were you going on impact? Are you able to take some photos and post them up?

sounds like the left hand side wheels bore the brunt.. Any pics?

I wasnt going fast bout 20mph no 1 one hurt. the car hit hard and actually lifted up then slamed down. I will get some pix and post on. Normally I would just scrap and get anova car but I love this mota

My motor mounted a kerb at 60mph and didnt get damaged. Currently off the road as the roof leaks :(

Saving for a decent fix and respray. Hell if those boy racers can afford a respray then so can I

This Favorit cannot die!!

Bk to topic, get pics so we can see the damage. Otherwise go to a scrappers and scavenge a Felly that has been scrapped to save yours.

My motor mounted a kerb at 60mph and didnt get damaged.

Probably not sideways though. Sliding sideways into stuff puts very sharp loadings in directions the car isn't designed to take it, and can make a right mess, whereas running over stuff can happen really fast and the car can be OK.

Jaxn: I'd say you'd not only need to check the things that Tom has said, but also the subframe and mountings for it; they're not the strongest things, having cracked a couple of subframes myself.

Edited 27 December, 200916 yr by djaychela

ok i willget the pix2mor in day light. thanx

another vote for a bent subframe from me too, they aren't too strong tbh

Yeah, this can happen fairly easily....

(Fav, but you get the idea)

Edited 28 December, 200916 yr by djaychela

Trying to post pix but the tag will not allow me. Stating error on page. been tryin since yestersay am!!

have you got the pics hosted somewhere like photobucket?

try this link http://s778.photobucket.com/albums/yy66/jaxn_2009/

Had a good look at things today and I couldnt see any cracks/bends to the subframe or chassis. Looked at the shock and that is ok. When measuring the gap between the inside top of the wheel to the shock on the damaged side in comparrison to the same measurement on the other, The gap was alot wider on the damaged side obviously cause the damage was low down where the bottom of the wheel has been pushed in. The wheel is not buckled.Im trying to release the track rod end at the moment so I can at least sort tracking so I can drive to garage. At the moment is like trying to drive a shopping trolly where to 2 front wheels want to go in seperate directions!!

probably bent the plate at the end that holds the balljoint in place by the looks of the angle of that wheel.

If the gap between the top of the wheel and the shock has increased, then either the bottom of the shock or the hub carrier must be bent; there's no way for that gap to change otherwise... but as Tom says, there's probably damage elsewhere as well.

Think the culprit is this bend shock end.

http://s778.photobucket.com/albums/yy66/jaxn_2009/

fitted new shock todat but the hub carrier must also bent. The wheel has pulled in quite a bit but not enough!! The rear bearings are anialated as the rear wheel took a pounding but the stub looks ok. will be picking bits of metal outa the hub for days!!

TBH I'd be surprised if you bent the carrier as it's cast, but it is possible - is the gap between the shock and the wheel now the same on both sides or not?

Last week I went into a kerb in my 05 Fabia VRS doing about 20mph and the result was a bent track rod, £65 part, then £28 tracking (not saying it would be the same price for yours of that it is the same problem).

Mine has now developed another problem, o/s/f wheel is not getting any power to it (just to mention this is the opposite side as to the one that hit the kerb). In the snow with ASR off, n/s/f wheel spins but the o/s/f just sits there. Hopefully not to expensive (fingers crossed).

Hope you get it sorted

Edited 7 January, 201016 yr by BlackMagicFurby

its quiet normal for only one wheel to spin on snow due to the differential. My octy is the same on ice, once a wheel start slipping easily like it does on ice all the power gets transferred to the spinning wheel and none to the other stationary wheel.

Yeah, if it's got an open diff then it will behave like that, that's why a lot of performance and rally cars have limited slip diffs in them, but they introduce other handling traits that (on FWD in particular) may not be ideal for everyday driving. But a bit of left foot braking will cure the open diff spinning....

Edited 7 January, 201016 yr by djaychela