Taurus: bent strut?

My wife's 93 wagon got hit slightly in the front passenger side just in front and across the front tire. It bent the inner tie rod end, then it drove for awhile then broke. i replaced it. the wheel is canted slightly in at the top (negative camber). It does not appear the strut tower got bent. The strut adjustment is fixed, unless i drill out the welds at the top of the strut tower. What are the chances that during this hit, the strut cartridge itself bent, and is adding to the negative camber on this wheel? It does not look bent, the tire is leaning 2/4 degrees aprox. I am just patching this car until i get another one, so i don't want to put big money in it. I do have another set of used struts if a bent strut is the cause

As a sidebar, the inner tie rod end was a bitch to change. I rented a tool at O'Reilies. The dam screw that locks the tool down to the tie rod will only turn 2/3 the way until it hits the motor mount when removing. What a pain.

bob

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Reply to
bob urz
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IMO, the answer is to have a competent shop check the alignment. Know where you are starting from.

Reply to
HLS

"Got hit" seems to imply it got hit by another vehicle. Any reason why insurance isn't paying a competent repair shop to fix the thing?

Reply to
Tim J.

You probably already realize this, being the one maintaining this "vehicle"...

That car was bent coming from the factory!

Reply to
Calab

Reply to
<mechanic

What state are you in?

In Oregon, by law ALL car insurance policies must carry uninsured motorist coverage. Which pays out in the event of a hit and run, or in the event that the person who hit you didn't have insurance, or his insurance company was a scam, etc. And auto insurance is mandatory in this state.

If you haven't checked with your insurance agent and are just making assumptions it could be pretty expensive.

It's only unalignable if you have loose spindles or bearings or rod ends or some such. Because whatever alignment you set will just go right out again when stuff shifts. Otherwise it is alignable, insofar that it will take an alignment of some kind. It may not, though, be able to go back into the manufacturers alignment.

I think you should align it with a tape measure and masking tape on a flat surface somewhere. Then after that, watch the tire wear patterns on the front tires very closely. And make sure that you test drive it on a wet surface to see if it is really unexpected and unsafe handling. It's probably no worse out of alignment than half of the cars on the road.

My experience is that it is very rare with a 15 year old car that it's worth paying for someone to repair it after it's been in a collision. If you can pry, bend, hammer, jack, wedge or whatever the vehicle back into some semblance of order, then drive it until the engine blows up. But, right now the used market is flooded with cars so you can get a replacement cheap. So, drive it until there's major engine trouble then haul it to the wrecker.

It really doesen't matter if it pulls to the right a bit. What matters is if whatever it causing that is wearing out your tires.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

I am far, far more concerned with the quality of driver in those cars than the cars themselves. A good driver can handle most car problems that would be dangerous, ie: blowouts, loss of steering, loss of brakes, etc. by not panicing and knowing what to do. A bad driver can't even handle the machine when it is in properly running condition.

It is an extremely small minority of accidents that are directly attributable to vehicle failure, and of those that are confirmed to be, the majority would have not happened if the driver wasn't being stupid.

The vast majority are caused by drivers who are stupid and/or ignorant. For example, guy falls asleep and drives off the road - that's ignorance. Too ignorant to have learned that driving while overtired is dangerous. For example, guy gets drunk and crashes his car, that's stupidity, as in guy does not have enough brain cells to take precautions before going drinking, or even to just get into his car, and lay down on the seat and go to sleep for a couple hours. For example, girl has a blowout and immediately slams on the brakes - that's ignorance. For example, guy speeds and goes around a corner too fast and rolls it - that's both stupidity and ignorance.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

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