Hit pothole, drove sideways, now steering is not centered...
 

Long story short, I was heading north on FDR Drive here in NYC, and hit a pothole hard enough to take me a foot off the ground, and turn the car sideways about a foot, and now the steering wheel is about 1 o'clock position from center. Landed on rear wheel, which didn't jump. (~40MPH.)

From what I could tell, there is 0 play on the steering wheel, no shaking at highway speeds, and the car is straight as ever.

No damage to tire, or either rim (at least visually.) No damage under the hood. No play at the tie rods, or anything.

How the heck do I get my steering wheel re-centered? Going to take it to a mechanic tomorrow to let me know if I have any real damage.

Is there anything I can try to recenter the wheel myself? This was the 1st pothole I've hit in my 4 years of ownership. :( What a doozy.

You most likely bent something. Probably a tie rod.

I dunno. I noticed a lot more damage on closer inspection. The rear wheel is tilted inwards and up, side skirt broke, and the doors on my side have shifted. The rear bumper seemed to have pushed out also. I'm a bit terrified right now.

I'll post a pic later today.

something in the back is broken. probably one of the links in the suspension.
you sure you did not drive into a crater?

Might be hard to see here - but the wheel is facing sideways and it is almost like I lowered the car an inch.

The side skirt broke and you can see it sticking out - and even though I didn't hit the front wheel, the steering wheel is at 1 o'clock position. I didn't get a picture, but the bumper separated a little bit, and my drivers front and rear doors are close together at the bottom.

Almost like I messed up the frame?

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-j...-no/2013-08-11

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q...93-no/fuc1.jpg

Tomorrow I am having an insurance adjuster check it out. It's not straight at highway speeds and just feels strange when turning - almost delayed if that makes sense. It's not turning as tight as it should - taking much more turn to go left for some reason.

I probably did...lol

Bad news M8..

Looks to me that link/s could be bent (any of the 5, lateral, camber, etc), could also have rear shock, bumper stop or even shock top hat damage..

You really are not going to know until wheel is removed and all links are inspected, including the alloy bearing hub-link connector, even brakes.

Just remember that the Series 2 parts (ALL) in rear suspension apart from main rear cross-member itself are specific for Series 2, these parts are heavier duty, but having said this most of the S1 parts will still fit if you are having supply issues for replacements, they are just slightly weaker/lighter.

I would even get your wheel rim checked for hair line fractures.

Good luck..

Be careful. I think it's unsafe to drive like that. And the city will reimburse you for that, I think. Maybe drive by there and shoot a video of the pothole before they fix it.

Has to be reported within 24 hours of the incident, and they have 24 hours to fix the hole from the time of the report else they are liable for damages IIRC in NYC.

I talked to Geico about the pothole and the city and what not. It is in a dangerous place, and I tried twice to get video before I gave up.

The car is at Geico now, and they didn't offer any real opinion beyond the wheel is definitely out of place, and they'll try to align it and check for undercarriage damage. They are going to warranty the repairs for the life of the car if they end up fixing it.

He was a bit concerned about the steering wheel when I told him it went crooked after the car landed, but said he can't determine anything until the wheels are off.

I begged him not to scratch my wheels LOL. They are all flawless.

EDIT: Yes - definitely unsafe. At highway speeds the car is "floating" in weird random directions. And there is a big dead spot when I make left turns. About 3/4s of the turn, the steering wheel goes "limp" then catches itself.

lol. $80 later the car is back in my hands.

Just needed adjustment. There wasn't any damage to the suspension or underbody or anything else they could find.

Car is driving crazy smoother, I wonder if I needed an alignment anyway. It's like they've buttered my wheel or something.

They did scratch my side-skirt pretty badly trying to fix it. I am really upset about that, it's like they stuck a fork or something into it. It's pissing me off beyond belief looking at it.

I'm glad that it was an easy fix, but now I am starting to hate the car with all the dings and scratches I've built up over the last 4 years.

Someone might get a really good deal for an R3 in the FS forum soon.

Sorry to say but I think you got a hack job. There is no way that "just an alignment adjustment" fixed that much damage. Something definitely got bent.

Given your explanation of how it rode, the thrust angle must have been out to lunch. Either they masked it with some insane alignment compensation that will eat up tires and feel crazy when the car is pushed, or they replaced / re-bent parts close to where they were.

I diagnose and repair steering and suspension components all day every day. And do more alignments than any one person should ever have to do. I have certainly seen cars with the type of damage and complaints you experienced. Its never an easy fix by adjustment.

I suggest you get another opinion from a shop that specializes in suspension work.

This is what the alignment looked like. They spent about 45 minutes with the car. I am going to have it checked out this weekend.

https://claims.geico.com/temp/1813950955_P_2.jpg

And I guess this is after?

https://claims.geico.com/temp/1813950955_P_3.jpg

And they had this 1 picture -

https://claims.geico.com/temp/1813950955_P_1.jpg

links are dead. Error 404. file not found... Id be interested to see them.

How about this? I have no idea what these numbers mean, but these are the pictures Geico shared with me.

Attachment 288572
Attachment 288573
Attachment 288574

Any comments are appreciated.

alignment is ALL fubared.

Just an FYI (obviously they are fubared because of the damage)

Front:

def dont want any toe if you care about your tires, and if you do want toe, a very very slight toe out (less than 0.08 total)

caster is fine once they even it out, mine is around 7-8

camber, you want more front than rear, 1.8 front is a nice number

Rear:

holy toe batman, zero out the toe for daily driving. If you want to track the car, you can toe in to a total of 0.16 max

camber, that's your problem there, you basically knocked the camber out of alignment. Get to a few tenths of a degree below front for a daily driver.

-----

the rear toe is what is giving you the "turned inward" look on that rear wheel. Rear camber is what is giving the "leaned in" look on the rear wheel

There's something fishy going on. Not sure if that is before or after alignment.
If before... That its very strange ( impossible actually) that the camber moved without the toe moving. The toe is good in both front and rear.
which leads me to believe we are looking at the after. Wonder what the before looked like. If they did adjust camber and the best they could get was -2.6* on the left rear, there is something definitely still bent. < Assuming that the car is not lowered>

If it is lowered, then they should have been able to equalize the rear camber so they are at least close to each other.

The top picture is the camber adjustment bolt on the right front lower control arm. The position it is in in that picture is the middle of the range of adjustment. Not sure the point of them giving you that picture, but there is more range for adjustment, therefore the +0.7* should have been corrected.

i wouldn't recommend that toe for daily driving....

Yikes, looks like I need to check it out then. Thanks for the heads up guys. I'm planning to take a day off Wednesday to check it out.

Being so ignorant, what exactly should I ask my mechanic to check? It's a guy I trust a lot, just got to catch him.

EDIT: Should the bottom of the car be symmetrical? I noticed before they "fixed" it, there was a metal line that was going from the rear wheel, that was bent into a V shape, while the opposite side showed a u'ish shape. I'll take a video of it tomorrow.

if you are talking about the linkages of the rear suspension, they should all be straight

I'll take a video of the rear bottom of the car tomorrow. Do you know why they let me see the 1st picture of the car?

Id be interested to see a video. To answer your q. yes the suspension should be symmetrical. and it should all be straight as Paimon said. The only things back there with any bend or curve is the brake lines/hoses, and the parking brake cable. Even those wouldn't have a "V" shape to them though.

It could be easy for the untrained eye to miss something bent. There are 10 links back there after all. 5 for each side. They bend easily unfortunately if over stressed as they are only hollow.

edit: I plan on bringing my car in to work tomorrow. If I get time at the end of the day, Ill throw it up on the lift and take a quick video of what to look for and how things should be when in good condition. It may make for a nice reference for people that are interested in what going on under our cars.

If you did that, I'd totally send some beer money your way. :)
:beer05:

Thank you all.

Going to put it on a lift tomorrow morning. I tried to get a video but it's cloudy and not enough light outside.

i've bent rims before i've been airborne, i can't believe your rim didn't break in half if you car truly went airborne