steering wheel not straight after car was hit- thoughts???
 

Damn, just had a great weekend and coming back to NYC I was lightly hit on the right passenger side. air bags did not deploy, car body was completely fine, but the right front wheel blew. I immediately pulled over and did not drive on the busted tire...

After putting the spare on (which was old and basically of unknown condition, but filled to 35 psi) the car was tracking straight, wheels turned fine, and the car rode fine (jounce and rebound seemed okay)...

BUT the steering wheel was misaligned - cocked about 2 to 3 inches to the left. what are your initial thoughts... do you think this is a simple fix or does it sound like my hub, axle or steering linkage is messed up. is this just an alignment issue that can be resolved with new tires???

I was going to bring the car to get two new front tires tomorrow or the next day... any thoughts???

thx... Marc

After you replace the tires, get a front end alignment. Something has been knocked out of position.

Make sure your wheel doesnt shake up while driving past like 50MPH while hitting the brakes, If it does then it might be that you knocked in one of your control arms, if not then simply go get a simple Wheel Alignment for around 70 bucks or so...

will the tireshop know if the control arm or something else is messed up when they try to do the alignment... will they basically just not be able to align the wheels if the control arm is buggered.

From the sound of it something got slightly bent. If I had to guess I'd think the tie rod on that side. If the tire got hit laterally hard enough to blow out, the tie rod likely bent. The vehicle would still track straight, but the steering wheel will be crooked and the tires will wear accordingly. Since the vehicle is driving stable, the tires would be toe'd in rather than out, so would wear the outer edge of the tires.

Tell them what happened and have it inspected for bent parts before telling them to align it, otherwise they won't find the bent parts untill they are doing the alignment and you will need another alignment after the repairs.

No the wheel alignment place wont be able to tell.

They will be able to do the alignment but your steering wheel is going to shake while you hit the brakes if the control arm is out of place, which is not worth to do then because once you fix the control arm your going to need to redo the wheel alignment.

First put the car up on a lift and check the control arms where the wheel got hit, shake the tire and see if the bold joints are okay. if they are then simply continue with the wheel alignment, if there not, replace it only with OEM control arms, do NOT purchase those crappy ebay ones, dont let them fool you with there "Lifetime" warrantys.

Good Luck man!