ok so I had to drive to work today in the ice and snow. I did fine until I was a half mile from work, I went around a turn at about 15 mph. and I ended up having a front wheel skid, and hitting a curb head on. It bent my steel rim and popped the tire, but also my steering wheel is off center to the right, and I have a pop/clunk noise when I brake...what did I damage?

 

noone has even a suggestion?

 

I'd start by just crawling underneath and inspecting it... if you have the steering wheel "centered" are both the tires facing the same direction? if not you could have bad tie-rod ends or a variety of other problems...

 

Sounds to me like you may have damaged the CV joint itself. Especially if you hit the curb with the wheel turned all the way. The CV joints are under the most stress when fully turned. If you also have high milage on them they most likely already had a few wear spots which cause the "popping" noise you are hearing which should be more noticeable during 90 deg turns. Bear in mind they have marble sized ball bearings inside a cage that pulls the weight of your car.

Good luck

 

the CVs were replaced 5 months ago so they should be in good shape, Ijust had the drivers side outer tie rod end replaced a week ago and had it aligned. I was thinking I might have killed my passenger side tie rod end and knocked it back out of alignment.

 

Measure from a fixed point like bolt in the rear sub frame to the center of the lower control armball joint on both sides to see if there is a difference.

 

alrighty I will try that tomorrow as soon as the snow melts.

 

chk the lower control arms, and the rear cross beam ,, i have seen them bent all the time when car hits a curb.. also there might be some other damage not visible to the naked eye,, meaning you have to have an alignment done to see if all the specs are right on,,

And you last thing my friend,, when posting asking for help .. BE PATIENT ..at times it might take minutes , at times few hrs at time long hrs ,, we all have jobs and we come here when we can ,, we don;t just sit waiting behing the computer logged on for someone to ask questions ,, we will respond ASAP .. what that is , it depends on who is available and knows the reply to your question ..

 

sorry desert. hitting the curb and the thought that I just blew out a $80 alignment job got me stressed and needing an answer. any other time I wouldnt have posted that. apologies to all.

 

Yo drummer no problem buddy ,, I realize that you are upset and stressed and i was not coming down on you at all ,, just to understand where we all stand ..help comes as soon as we can