[focusman11]

alright well its finally snowed here in nj and in my neighborhood theres a fine layer of ice because they decided not to ice it. well i decided it would be a good idea to move my steering wheel back and forth to slide around... it was a terrible idea.
in my f-150 it was great, easy to control the drift w/ RWD but not in my focus... to make a long story short i lost control and the ABS didnt help and i hit the curb.. thats it (drivers side). my rear wheel has a gash and ill inspect the car more thouroughly tomorrow because of my new problem.
basically my alignment is way off- the steering wheel points to the left to go straight and yet the car actually pulls to the right. i thought only the back end had hit but i guess not... please tell me i can fix this on my own id really not like to have to pay a shop to get this done. (by the way it still steers almost as normal besides the two problems above).

 

[In Focus]

i did the same thing dont go straight to a dealer or anything
what i did was just go to a tire shop i went to tire craft and just told em i needed a wheel alignment dont mention hitting anything cause then they go all crazy saying it needs this and that 1st off just see if its just a alignment you need and if not go from there


in the case of my car i thought it was completely screwed but a wheel alignment fixed all my worries
hope this helps

 

[focusman11]

how much that cost you?

also, it doesnt jsut pull... my steering wheel actually points at a 45 degree angle to the left whenever im driving straight... anything i can do to try and fix it even a little?

 

[viney266]

Ummmm no, go to a local tire shop...TELL THE TRUTH!! Guys there don't care how you did it, but they are human ,too. They need to know what to look for...Geez guys.

Look under there first and see if anything is obviously bent. It depends on how hard you hit, you could have bent parts. Hopefully an alignment will do it.

The car will have to be realigned at a minum, if the wheel is 45 degrees off I fear you did some damage.

 

[focusman11]

ok so i took a look today and the rear driver's side wheel seems to be bent out a little which i believe is aiming the car to the right (think when you go in reverse and the way the wheel would face for you to go right-as facing backwards-). im not sure about the steering issue maybe from impact? i dont know.

 

[DrkKnight614]

ok so i took a look today and the rear driver's side wheel seems to be bent out a little which i believe is aiming the car to the right (think when you go in reverse and the way the wheel would face for you to go right-as facing backwards-). im not sure about the steering issue maybe from impact? i dont know.

I did the same thing last year. Just hit the front though. But just like you said, to go straight the wheel had to be turned a great deal. You'll need more then an alignment. Do it fast or bye bye tread on your tires.

Anyway, in my condition, i bent I believe one of the control arms or maybe it was the tie rod, I forget its one of the rods in the front lol. Anyway, gotta get it to a place and get it up on a lift so you can check out the underside of the car. I went in just for an alignment and the guys there noticed the bent rod and showed me. It was barely noticable, but slightly bent, and obviously enough to make everything very out of wack. It wasnt to expensive, the part was under 100 bucks and i think i walked out the door paying 200 or less for part labor and alignment. Your damage might be more extensive then that, but yea just go in there, let them take a look and tell them what happened.

Good luck....like i said get it done fast, because I unfortunatly drove like that for a few months because I didnt have time or money to get it checked out and everyone else said it seemed fine....which i had a feeling it wasnt. But long story short my summer tires became slicks a few months later lol.

 

[jrn146]

You might have just hit the back wheel but if something is whacked out of position in the back the car might be driving skewed a little which would throw your steering wheel off. I did this to my old Escort once after backing hard into a curb. Nothing was bent but it needed a 4 wheel alignment and it was good. It was about $50.00 at the time.

 

[focusman11]

great well now whenever i brake sometimes, there i a squeek, not like a grinding, but a squeek kind of sound coming i believe from the front passenger? im gonna have to take this in, probably i will sometime next week.