hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

hi everyone,

so with the snowstorm today, coming back from the grocerys, I turned into a corner too fast and hit a curb with my left front side wheel, i think the speed was about 25km/h, so far after hitting the curve, there are no symptoms from it... the wheels are a little bit scratched on the edge, but doesn't seem like it's bent... should I get this checked out at all or do you guys think it's fine?

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

At the very least I'd pull the wheel off and have a look at the control arms. Check for cracks and excessive play. They should be solid, no wiggle-room.

While the wheel is off, check it out for cracks and dents.

If you don't find anything obvious, slap the wheel back on and consider yourself lucky, but continue to pay attention to any steering issues and weird sounds coming from the area in question.

You're probably fine. :)

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

thanks for the input, i might get that checked out, btw i found one symptom but im not sure if it's related to the accident or not at all, when i turn the wheel to the right, it comes back straight pretty fast, but when i turn it left, it seems like it takes more time to come back. I might just be feeling that way but im not sure. Would this be related at all?

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

i would recommend getting it checked out in that case

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

That is a pretty good hit so you may want to throw it on an alignment rack and have it inspected just to be safe. On a VW of a similar year that hit could have bent the lower control arm or the tie-rod so you have have tweaked something. The car should return to centre the same turning left or right so you may have adjusted things a little so it is worth checking. The last thing you want is to have a failure when you are at speed and things are under more stress but a quick visual inspection and an alignment rack should let you know if there are problems.

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

Thanks guys, Do you recommend an independent audi mechanic or should I just go to Canadian tire?

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

Given that choice it would be an alignment shop or an independent shop that can align cars and specialize in Audi. I would try to avoid the dealer if possible because their prices are pretty steep and I would avoid Canadian Tire at any cost. I would just expain the accident and have them do a quick check and make sure nothing is bent or broken. If the car doesn't pull one way or the other the alignment is far out so there may not be a problem.

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

Thanks very much corrado guy, Im not sure if my mechanic can do alignment but I'll ask him tomorrow first thing in the morning. The car barely pulls to one side or another, but I want to be sure. :p will post the results tomorrow, hopefully it's not too costly?

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

The costly part depends if anything is damaged, I'm more of a VW guy so I don't know how these cars are designed to be hit. On the VW models the control arm is designed to bend and then the tie-rod and if it is a hard enough hit you can damage the wheel bearing. The angle at which you hit the curb will make the difference, if it was just a light kiss then there will be little to no damage but if it was a hard hit (body/car jarring) then you may have more damage. The rim usually sees the brunt of the hit so if you just have scuffs on the rim and sidewall then there is probably little to no physical damage to the car.

If your mechanic doesn't do alignments then he can take 10 - 30 minutes and do a quick check and then use their recommendations to decide whether it really needs an alignment.

Re: hit a curb in the snow... should i get it checked?
 

Thanks very much, I'm guessing these cars are very similar to VW's, my rim is left with scuffs on the edge which almost looks identical to ones you get from kissing the curb when parallel parking... the angle was almost parallel to the curb but wheels aren't bent or anything, just scuffs.