Bad: Pinging the corner of a curb hard enough to knock the steering off-center and make left turns decidedly crisper than normal.
Good: The tire didn't go flat on the drive in, in fact the tire is undamaged.
Bad: While looking under the car to check for any unintended control arm restructuring, note that the oil filter is rusted through and leaking.
Good: The suspension doesn't look deranged and I caught the leak while it was still a trickle.
Bad: We didn't have any cheap VWAG oil filters, just the yummy expensive newer filter that is the same in every way except twice the cost.
Good: Find out that the filter for a Ford 3-liter OHV is practically identical and is even cheaper.
Bad: We didn't have any in stock. On went the yummy expensive 1.8T filter.
If the steering is off center something gave up....
bentwrench wrote:
If the steering is off center something gave up....
Yeah, the shape of the control arm or tierod.
One or more of the following are bent, tie rod, control arm, strut, knuckle(steering arm area, tie rod end not being seated in its taper when you go to remove it is a dead giveaway).
I have a feeling that it just shoved the ball joint inward. B2 chassis product, the ball joint slides in the control arm to adjust camber, and I'd had them maxed negative. Doing that made toe go positive, so if it tweaked in, then toe on that wheel will be a little more negative, which would make sense why the steering wheel is now at 11:45 instead of 12:30.
Either way, my level of concern approaches zero. I'm more worried about the cold start injector that is rusted through and leaking fuel, and how the heads of its fasteners are similarly rusted, so changing it might require swapping the intake manifold in addition to the line. And that ain't happening either, so here's to hoping that it doesn't go geyser before my new car is done.
Oh yeah, those 3 bolt ball joint thingies? I remember those.
