Ok guys. Most of you by now know my story about the loading dock jump in the Lumina. I have not had any suspension problems or anything whatsoever since that occured, and it's been a few months and quite a few thousand miles.

Well... I rotated my tires the other day, and both front tires are very worn on the inside...so I'm thinking something is messed up. Also, when driving straight down the road, some days the car will want to wander to the right (like the alignment is off), but yet some days it sill go to the left..?

I made an appointment at school to have an alignment performed on Tuesday, as well as get a check over on the suspension. I'm hoping there isn't too much messed up, but since there really isn't anything different in ride, handling, or anything other than the tires are wearing funny, I'm hoping I should be good and an alignment will take care of it. Either way, I'll let you guys know.

Oh, and if you think why is he taking it to a school? Well, it costs $10 plus parts, so that's a heck of a lot cheaper than a shop...especially when I'm also having the HHR done on Thursday. But I'll let you know if they find anything that's been damaged.

 

Get it all straightened out.............. Then you can do another jump! Hit it at about 50mph and make sure you get a YouTube video this time!!!

 

Believe you were told by many when you took that leap, to have alignment checked before you damage tires..

Good alignment shops provide a print-out of what it was, & how much correction was required..

Good luck..

 

Yeah, but I didn't have money to do an alignment, and I couldn't get it into school back then. I had figured I would notice a gradual wear in the tires but from the angle I was looking I could never see. The tires aren't ruined, they're just worn down a lot more on one side is all, and it's just two of the four tires.

 

I'm actually surprised you don't see obvious damage to the vehicle. Normally in a jump like that, the front sheet metal would fold up like a piece of origami. I can guaranty though, there is damage, somewhere. Pictures would be nice.....

 

Nope, no body damage at all. Other than the front and rear bumper was scratched up. How the muffler which hangs UNDER the rear bumper didn't get a scratch but the bumper did, I will never know.

There's really nothing to take a picture of. I've been all under that car, and the metal that supports the engine was scuffed up, but not damaged. There's nothing I could find. The engine mount is bad and leaking, but that was like that before the jump. I mean if there was a particular spot you wanted to see I could snap a picture though. I wouldn't even know what to take a picture of, since like I said I can't see anything wrong.

Side note....if the alignment was really off, would I get worse gas mileage? Only reason I ask is because I'm still getting inedible mileage. Drove to Kalamazoo and back about a month ago. Drove 60mph with the cruise the whole way...34mpg. On the way home at 70mph with cruise I got 32mpg...

 

No real connection between alignment and mileage.

What about the gaps between your fenders and the front doors? And what to the top of the aprons look like, particularly at the top rear area by the cowl?

How high was this loading dock?

 

The gaps between the fenders and door are both off...but they were off before the jump. One fender was replaced by the previous owner when she hit a pole, the other may have been repaired when it was a rental...looks like it might have been in an accident since none of the bolt holes line up and you can see overspray.

What are the aprons?

It was about 5 foot or so in the part that I went off the edge, and I figure I was doing around 15-20 I think.

 

The aprons are the inner fenders, including the strut towers, back to the firewall.

 

Sounds like you're thinking what I'm thinking Marshall, maybe young CCK has tweeked the front clip or subframe. I wouldn't be too surprised to find some deformation from the inadvertent "Chitwood Thrill Show" tryout if the car was ever put on a jig and checked against the specs.