Long story short, I had a fight with a deer. The deer scampered to safety, but I locked up my rear brakes on my fairly pristine 27,500mi 1994 Miata R-pkg and spun it into the ditch. Popped the bumper pretty good, and managed to drop the driver's front off the road and was pretty sure I heard something creak.
Bumper is scratched up pretty good and cracked in one place, R-lip got ripped off, but I was able to zip-tie it back in place. Then comes the worse stuff... Steering wheel was a little cockeyed in the post-mortem. Before, I could get about -2.0º camber in the front, now, the left front maxes out at -1.1º.
I pulled the wheel off and nothing LOOKS bent, but I have an unpracticed eye. Last night I ordered a lower control arm, ball joint, and lower control arm bolts. Next, I guess I'll try the spindle and the upper arm. After that, I'll have to try the subframe... :(
I already paid for the unlimited front end alignments for one year from Tire Discounters, so I figure I can just swap out one component at a time and just go over there and ask them to max out the camber until it's correct. Is there a better way than my planned guess and check to determine which component is bent?
All in all, I'm just happy it wasn't worse, but I do want to get my car back to how it was.
As far as looking, you need to look for cracks in paint, stretch marks in the steel.
Measuring, you can figure quite a bit out with a tape measure- You will have certain points on each side of the car that are symmetrical. Crossmeasure- take a point on the body and measure to a suspension point on the other side of the car. The check the same measurement going the other way on the car. Check enough spots, and you should be able to narrow it down. Lower arm, crossmember or knuckle are 3 pretty good bets.
As good alignment shop might be able to help you out here too, if you explain what happened.
Sounds like a lower control arm to me. They're usually the first to go, and when they do you lose negative camber. Let me guess, the steering wheel was turned to the right post-incident?
Unfortunately, it's really hard to measure one. So drop in a known good one, that's the easiest way. The factory manual has dimensions for the undercar bits, but I doubt you'll need to go that far.
Yeah, the steering wheel was cocked to the right a good 15-20°. I already have a new LCA en route through Mazdaspeed. I'll swap that puppy on and take it back to the alignment rack and see what happens. Thanks for the help!
I've had to replace a couple of LCAs - good thing they're cheap and easy to swap. The first time it happened I was irritated at how easily that sheet metal folds up in an impact, but I guess it's a whole lot better to have to replace a control arm than a subframe!
Take a close look at your differential housing. Right at the notch in the passenger side mounting arm while your inspecting for damage. They have a penchant for cracking in relatively minor impacts.
Here is a video on diagnosing a bent ball joint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5KmvynFgi0
Lower control arms get bent very easily. I ran over a tree that had fallen across the road. Was able to get it home, but the steering wheel wanted to be way off to the right to go straight. Lower control arms were the answer.
