Oh yes..........

 

5 feet ?? c

 

Didn't I say it was a ****ing accident? Jesus....

If any of you want to come up here and look at the car, go for it. I know my cars, I was them at least once a week, and am always crawling under them to keep tabs on things. There is nothing different with this car. I don't care if you don't believe me, I can't find anything wrong. If anything is bent or moved, it's such a minuscule amount that it isn't even noticeable from how it was before....

 

Take a deep breath Eric, we all realize it was an accident and I believe the thoughts expressed when it happened were a mix of "glad you weren't hurt" and "it still runs?". Something is bent in the front end, maybe only by a few thousandths of an inch, but still bent. Determining the exact amount of deformation would require stripping off the front sheet metal and placing the car on a frame jig to measure the pickup points against the factory specs. Since you said it already hit a pole and the bolt holes are off, your unfortunate accident may have just added to some preexisting damage.

From the symptoms you've described its sounds to me like the caster is off, meaning the tops of the wheels are now tilted in too far, this will wear out the inside edge of the tires and affect stability. Camber isn't adjustable on the Lumina usually, but it can be tweeked with an camber kit that allows you to bring it back to within range of the factory specs. Chances are that even after an alignment you need to be planning for a very strict tire rotation schedule to minimize chewing up more tires. I would have the front subframe mounts checked while its on the lift along with the suspension bushings just to cover all the bases.

 

So, what exactly would be broken or needs replacing if the camber is off and can't be adjusted?

 

If the camber can't be adjusted you're gonna have to live with it I'm afraid, short of putting the car on a frame jig and having it pulled back to specs which is expensive. I'm thinking that you've got damage to the subframe or strut towers themselves, we're probably only talking a couple tenths of an inch, but that's all that it takes to tweek things out of shape.

In retrospect maybe you should have filed a claim with your insurance company and had the car checked out by a competent body and frame shop. But now you're into one of those "closing the barn door after the horses got loose" deals, so see what the alignment shop says and if they can make adjustments to compensate so you won't chew up tires as quickly. If no camber kit is available the alignment shop can try compensate by changing the toe settings in order to try and eliminate the directional instability you're feeling, the trade off will be more tire wear.

 

Well the car has PLPD insurance, so making a claim wouldn't have helped me anyways. I figure KBB says the car is worth like 1k, so it wouldn't take much to total it.

I checked on my w-body forum (for the Lumina) and I guess the camber is adjustable on it... Yay!

 

OK then, if the camber can be adjusted you're in good shape, just make sure to let the alignment shop know about the suspected damage and see how close they can get it to the factory specs.

 

Yeah, I'll make sure to let them know so they can do a good check over!

Thanks!

 

Well I told the guy when I dropped it off what happened, and he said they'd check over the suspension. Got a call this afternoon saying they looked it over and couldn't find anything wrong, and they did an alignment...$10! Yay! Of course, I can't pick it up to verify it's all set until tomorrow...