Hi guys last night I had a run in with a kerb, literally....

It was wet and around a sweeping bend around 35 I lost the car.... luckily or not so luckily the front passenger side wheel took all of the impact.... So the rear was spared any damage....

I continued my journey about 50 yards... with a horrible scraping noise but not much else... got out of the car to discover the following:

• A nice gouge out of my Ronal A3 Alloys
  
• A deflated tyre with sidewall damage
  
• Oh and the most important thing the wheel had been pushed back into the wing and thus now when you open the door the panels catch.
  

So I pushed it on my friends driveway who lives nearby, took the wheel off and inspected the damage....

Doesn't seem alot considering how far the wheel was pushed back....

The lower control arm/wishbone is bent in half.... but the mounts on the subframe and the engine are fine...

The driveshaft into the gearbox is fine, not leaking no obvious splits in the CV boots and most importantly it was still moving the wheel without any obvious cracking noises.....

The steering track rod.... is bent quite badly.... only it would seem at the rod end....

My question to you is... as this was a relevantly low speed impact or moderate....

Will the entire track rod replacement and wishbone and bushed, likely move the wheel back to it's original position.... I couldn't see any damage to the strut or the brake calipers etc....

I'm going to the Motorfactors today to pick up the track rod and track rod end.... A wishbone/lower control arm with bushes and a Anti-roll bar link...

Criticisms and advice are very much welcomed.

"Oh and the most important thing the wheel had been pushed back into the wing and thus now when you open the door the panels catch." is worrying me. Do you mean that the trailing edge of the front wing has been bent?

If so, then I'd suspect that you may have bent the chassis, and there's no way of proving or disproving this short of using a proper body jig, which almost certainly makes it an insurance job I'm afraid.

Having done this in snow at a low speed last year, I can give you a window into other possible damage.

You may have stretched or bent the bolts that keep the lower sub frame on..

Your CV joints may seem fine but keep an eye on them as mine got hair line fractures that started releasing tiny shards of metal that flew through the boot and created CV joint grease leaks.

Your steering Rack could still be toast.. a shock like that can damage it internally.. Mine was sent of for specialist inspection by the mechanic doing the repair. He'd just repaired a Leon that kept pulling left after a big repair with no obvious reason.. turned out the rack was cream cracked.

Your Bearing will have taken a whack.. don't be surprised if it fails prematurely.. that said, I've done 10k on the one that I whacked and it still seems serviceable.. the MOT next month will reveal any gremlins though as i'm planning to have it all inspected in a kind of 12 months on major repair check up.

Looks a bit like this i'm guessing?

Fab Vs Kerb

Looking at the receipt for repairs.. apart from lots of bolts including upper sub frame front and rear it seems he also had to replace the drop link.

And don't forget you'll need the geometry checking over and almost certainly setting up correctly,.

Edited 31 March, 201016 yr by Rob.

Yeah looks exactly like it does on your Fabia! Uncanny really...

Anyways... I've been under the car.... The wishbone has bent in half almost taking all the impact along with the steering arm, tie rod (Whatever you want to call it)

The subframe, bolts etc appear to be undamaged...

Bit of an update on the situation...

Replaced the front wishbone today.... luckily... the subframe seems fine!

Had to angle grind the ball joint off from behind the disk.... and fitted a new one along with new bolts etc.

Now just the tracking arm and tracking rod end to do...

Does anyone know how to get the tracking arm off on these?

I can see a thick shaft that the Gaiter boot goes into... unclipped the gaiter but it doesn't want to move.... seems to be a bolt just around here....

A little guide would be must appreciated.

Bit of an update on the situation...

Replaced the front wishbone today.... luckily... the subframe seems fine!

Had to angle grind the ball joint off from behind the disk.... and fitted a new one along with new bolts etc.

Now just the tracking arm and tracking rod end to do...

Does anyone know how to get the tracking arm off on these?

I can see a thick shaft that the Gaiter boot goes into... unclipped the gaiter but it doesn't want to move.... seems to be a bolt just around here....

A little guide would be must appreciated.

I did this, but at about 70, I can't get my tracking to be straight, but everything else seems to be fine - nothing obviously bent, but I had a gentler angle of approach to the kerb that I boshed. :wonder:

Bit of an update on the situation...

Replaced the front wishbone today.... luckily... the subframe seems fine!

Had to angle grind the ball joint off from behind the disk.... and fitted a new one along with new bolts etc.

Now just the tracking arm and tracking rod end to do...

Does anyone know how to get the tracking arm off on these?

I can see a thick shaft that the Gaiter boot goes into... unclipped the gaiter but it doesn't want to move.... seems to be a bolt just around here....

A little guide would be must appreciated.

Are you saying that you can't remove the gaiter from over the inner balljoint, or that the arm won't move now you've unclipped the gaiter?