Thread: Smacking a high curb with a B13 .... Terminal?

On my way to work, blasting down a main arterial through the city. Then an elderly, handicapped placcarded gent finally made up his mind and quickly pulled to the curb to drop off a passanger. Right in front of me as i was trying to pass him.
Locked up slamming the brakes. Seemed like i wouldn't stop in time to prevent hitting him, car to my left, so swerved into the curb instead. 10 or 15mph max, full stop tho. Got out, noticed some bad wheel rash but no obvious misalighnment, got back in, and got to werk.
Peeked underneath a day later and couldn't see any obvious damage.
But Bob ain't right.
Steering wheel is cocked about 10° going straight ahead, there is a slight pull, but the worst is highway tracking/feel that is downright spooky. Running snow tires probably only highlights this.

Tie rods, control arms and even knuckles are replaceable, but could the mounting points or even the frame be tweaked?
These are decades old erector set whips after all.


Hang up & Drive!
85 Toyo MR2 .. 142K .. ‘Jerry’ ( Way too quiet *squints* )
94 Nissan Sentra LE .. 62K .. 'Bob' ( smaked a curb .. *shakes head* )
03 BMW 540iM .. 88K .. ‘Björn’ ( almost 300hp, wife's & road trips *grins* )
04 Mazda6 .. 97K .. 'Maz' ( borrowed from ... my Ma *sigh* )
Brand loyalty..........whazzat?

sounds like you bent a inner tie rod.

In my younger days I was constantly hitting curbs in my b14. Literally happened about once a year (I was drinking way too much back then). It was usually the lower control arm that was getting bent. If the caster is off, you'll need to replace the control arm. Luckily you can use an arm off any b13 or b14, if that turns out to be the problem.

Smacked a curb good and hard one time in my old 89 b12 and yes it damaged the frame but inthink i was goin just a tad fast than u. If its only pulling a little and stearing wheel is only off as much as u say i would agree that its just a tie rod and maaaayyyyybe a little control arm damage.

When i did it i bent the lip of the steel wheel all the way to the lug nuts and the tire stayed inflated lol. Bent the shock... Tie rod.... Control arm... Axle.... Frame. Fixed it for a while by jamming a floor jack in there on its side and jackin everything back straight lol. Talk about bein young and dumb, moral of the story is it coulda been worse

I would replace the control arm while I was at it. go with oem also.... trust me on this... I have never smacked a curb, or been in an accident but had a control arm fail on its own. broke at the weld while driving and lost complete control of the vehicle. you don't want to have risked weakening the weld of the arm and have it break at speed. I was only doing 30 and luckily, it only ruined the control arm and fender and bent the door trying to get out. it could have been a lot worse.

if you decide to replace it with a non-oem part and have an autozone near you hit me on pm, I can help cut down replacement cost of the part.

Thanks guys. I'll get him up on the ramps tomorrow and take a closer look at the control arm/mount points.
I was planning on overhauling the suspension anyway ....... but not till next spring. After road salt season ya know.

Should have some spare straight control arms somewhere in the parts bin from uber clean Jenny. No time to slap in the Energy Suspension bushings. *sigh*
Tie rods are cheap.
You guys have no idea how much I miss driving a B13 right now.




Using my wife's 540 almost makes up for it.

Nice to see your still around Paul!

Mostly a lurker and searcher...
But SERiously, if you can get past FWD B13s are as awesome as BMW e30s and older school than e36s
*smirks*

Thanks for the advice. It's obviously f-ed up. And that failure mode is scary. Didn't get to take a good look so he's sit till I can really assess the situation.
May just do the total suspension overhaul minus lowering springs both sides just to be safe. Needed it anyway

Well, I solved several problems with one purchase.



Drives straight, no wonky tracking and note the lack of sluggomatic dipstick in the following pic.
Still needs a name tho.