I have a problem, i was driving home today and this lady cut me off and i hit the brakes and they locked up..i missed hitting her, but when i let off the brakes, my car went right onto the curb. i had two flats (one rear one front) and my rims are pretty much fubar. i got two new tires and was drivin it. it was makin that noise like you are slammin on the brakes...but my foot was off the brake and i was goin maybe 30 or 35. i got out of my car and looked at the front end, and the side where i hit the curb is slanted a bit, where as the other side is stright. i am thinkin i broke my control arm? what do you guys think, and what is the easiest way to go about repairing it..is it easy to do yourself or what? please respond if ya can...

 

I had the same kinda thing happen to me. I ended up breaking the K-member where the rear of the control arm mounts to the k-member. I needed a k-member from a junk yard to fix that as well as the control arms to fix the bent one. Put the front of your car on jacks and get a good light and look around. Look to where the control arms mount to the k-member. Look for fresh rust spots that indicate that the metal in that area has ben bent. Good luck

 

what is a K-member? lol..and also, did you have to get an alignment for it afterwards?..and how long did it take you to do it? what kind of tools do you need?

 

anyone? i ordered the lower control arms from spohn and wonderin if i should be able to install them myself..any help would be appriated

 

the k member is the big piece the engine mounts to, also referred to as crossmember. not hard to pull the control arm, only 2 bolts does va use salt? how about your front control arm? sounds like the caliper stuck, so put a new one on the list. it would be a good idea to see if it can even be aligned with the messed up stuff

 

i don't think the caliper is bad...the sound is basically just the tire rubbin against the shock (i think) and they just from hittin the pavement at an angle

 

if i have to replace the k-member, how hard are those to replace? sounds like i'd have to pull the engine and everything lol...

 

Well maybe get under the car and look for anything thats obviously broken or bent?

 

You don't have to pull the engine to pull out the k-member. Just suport it from above with a engine lift(safer method) or from under neither with a tall jack stand under the crank shaft pulley. Theres only 6 big bolts holding it to the cars subframe. Get inder there and check to see if something is bent. Don't change it out if it doens't need to be. I only did it cause a factory weld broke when I hit my curb.

 

you say the lower control arm is connected to the k-member?? you happen to have a pic of what the old stock one would look like?

 

spohn doesnt make front a-arms yet, in reference to ur other thread u made.

from ebmiller's website

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tar...ebuild&.src=ph

aftermarket



stock

 

Lower Control Arms are in the rear of the car. Those are called A-Arms or A-Frames and they connect to your K-member. The front springs rest in that middle pertch and the brakes / struts / spindles are attached to these A-Arms. If you're A-Arms are messed up you dont need expensive aftermarket parts to replace them. Just get them from the junkyard. Much cheaper and just as effective. If you are looking for weight reduction and tubular components, then its a different story. But if you just want the car back to how it was, go find some used ones. If I were you I'd just take it to a shop you trust and ask what they think. I'm going through a steering problem right now, and I've never worked with steering stuff, so I'm having my friends check it out for me. No shame in that. If you dont feel confident that you know exactly what is wrong and how to fix it, its the safer way to go.

 

i dont wanna sound stupid here but have you checked the wheel bearing in the side that you smacked the curb with a friend of mine did this in a firebird and it crused the wheel bearing slightly and caused it to make a scraping noise and if he would have replaced it sooner he wouldnt have had to replace a spindle too .....i would check that before buying anything else also its only about a 4 dollar part if its bad