Hi,

I pulled over to answer the phone, when I pulled over it was on one of those concrete divider type things between the footpath and the road. When I went forward to get off of it there was a terrible grinding sound, I had misjudged the height of the divider, so I reversed, and drove on normally, car drives fine until you turn a bend with near full right hand lock, then there is a grinding sound.

I looked underneath and there is a plate that looks like its between the gear linkage and the gear knob(well its automatic so gear thingy), the plate is vertical not horizontal but has been bent slightly, not sure what that connects to, the track is also out, the car will now go to the left.

Any ideas? Dreading some major repairs here.

Thanks

Jon

The plate I am talking about is connected to the crossmember underneath the car, oddly I can't find the exact name for that crossmember, as crossmembers seem to be in many places on the car!

Jon

Well silly me, its the subframe.

If thats been pushed/pulled, ie when I moved forward then back, is it possible its out of alignment and causing the tracking to be out?

And if so, where is the best place to get a new subframe and more importantly are they easy to fit?

Thanks

Jon

I'd suggest you get it to a garage, up on a ramp and get a good look.

Surprised you still have a sump in one piece. If it is the subframe, you may have bent the chassis as the subframe is fairly robust. Could turn out to be a very expensive phone call you took :(

Oh dear that doesn't sound good.

I was only doing 3 or 4mph, dont know if that is enough to bend the subframe when the car bottomed out, possibly it is, got no idea lol.

The car drives fine apart from like I said it will go to the left, so the trackings out and that damn sound when on full lock. The bent metal is where the engine rear torque link enters, its bent about 25-30 degrees I would say.

I am taking it to my mechanic tomorrow to have a look at. Really hope its nothing expensive, I can get a subframe fairly cheap, just dont know if I was doing enough speed for the whole chassis to be bent.

Cheers

Jon

Took it to my mechanic, not done anything to the car, just very slightly bent some metal on a crossbar underneath, other than that nothing wrong with the car. He said its the best place I could have hit it

Cheers

Jon