W203 Twisted Chassis??

[skymastor]

Good morning everyone,

The other week whilst driving to work I was unfortunately involved in an incident where I was forced off the road and into the kerb. The subsequent damage to my vehicle was the front and rear N/S alloys kerbed with the front now having a very slight wobble! More disturbingly was the damage to the rear N/S wheel assembly. The wheel was bent out of alignment facing forward. That day I had it into a garage where they had to straightened a thrust arm to get the wheel back straight and drivable.

Since then I have replaced all 4 thrust arms and the lower spring control arm with all new nuts and bolts to boot. There was slight elongation to the bolt holder on the sub-frame that holds the lower spring control arm, but that was easily squared by welding new washers onto the sub-frame in the correct position. The vehicle now has noticeable improvement whilst driving but is still not perfect!

When you look at both rear wheels, the repaired side sicks out slightly from the wheel arch more than the other and it now also scrapes on the inside of the wheel arch whilst driving over bumps! I did think that the sub-frame may be damaged and was going to replace it. However, after speaking with a technician friend of mine in Germany who works with Mercedes explained my problem to me before I had even got the chance to finish! (amazing!) He said that this was a common problem after such an incident. He believed that my sub-frame was in good shape as I had changed all of the arms without any problems whilst fitting the new ones back. He said the problem was that the chassis was now twisted out of alignment and needed straightening. He wanted the vehicle there and then to do the measurements, however for now, that is in UK and he is in Germany!

In the meantime, this is now bugging me to hell!! I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this problem before or if anyone would know a good place to get this sorted professionally and what I would be looking at cost wise for this!

Thanx very much in advance and happy new year..

 

[nick mercedes]

Good morning everyone,

The other week whilst driving to work I was unfortunately involved in an incident where I was forced off the road and into the kerb. The subsequent damage to my vehicle was the front and rear N/S alloys kerbed with the front now having a very slight wobble! More disturbingly was the damage to the rear N/S wheel assembly. The wheel was bent out of alignment facing forward. That day I had it into a garage where they had to straightened a thrust arm to get the wheel back straight and drivable.

Since then I have replaced all 4 thrust arms and the lower spring control arm with all new nuts and bolts to boot. There was slight elongation to the bolt holder on the sub-frame that holds the lower spring control arm, but that was easily squared by welding new washers onto the sub-frame in the correct position. The vehicle now has noticeable improvement whilst driving but is still not perfect!

When you look at both rear wheels, the repaired side sicks out slightly from the wheel arch more than the other and it now also scrapes on the inside of the wheel arch whilst driving over bumps! I did think that the sub-frame may be damaged and was going to replace it. However, after speaking with a technician friend of mine in Germany who works with Mercedes explained my problem to me before I had even got the chance to finish! (amazing!) He said that this was a common problem after such an incident. He believed that my sub-frame was in good shape as I had changed all of the arms without any problems whilst fitting the new ones back. He said the problem was that the chassis was now twisted out of alignment and needed straightening. He wanted the vehicle there and then to do the measurements, however for now, that is in UK and he is in Germany!

In the meantime, this is now bugging me to hell!! I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this problem before or if anyone would know a good place to get this sorted professionally and what I would be looking at cost wise for this!

Thanx very much in advance and happy new year..

Surely a bent subframe is far more likely than a bent chassis?

 

[skymastor]

How will I know this for sure?

 

[television]

How will I know this for sure?

Most good body shops have a jig that you put the car on and all of the important measurements can be noted and checked for distortion

 

[skymastor]

Ok.. Any idea on what this will cost?

 

[television]

Ok.. Any idea on what this will cost?

From what I have seen it takes about an hour to set the test rigs up and get the car measured

In you case it is a matter of checking that the four sub frame mounting holes are in the correct place
http://www.chassisalignment.co.uk/

http://www.aandbcarparts.co.uk/
http://www.premierautobodies.co.uk/bodywork.php

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

No idea, but I suppose it will be a couple of hours labour?

Twisting the chassis does sound extreme, but I guess given the right knock in the right place, then anything is possible.

 

[fredfloggle]

Good morning everyone,

The other week whilst driving to work I was unfortunately involved in an incident where I was forced off the road and into the kerb. The subsequent damage to my vehicle was the front and rear N/S alloys kerbed with the front now having a very slight wobble! More disturbingly was the damage to the rear N/S wheel assembly. The wheel was bent out of alignment facing forward. That day I had it into a garage where they had to straightened a thrust arm to get the wheel back straight and drivable.

Since then I have replaced all 4 thrust arms and the lower spring control arm with all new nuts and bolts to boot. There was slight elongation to the bolt holder on the sub-frame that holds the lower spring control arm, but that was easily squared by welding new washers onto the sub-frame in the correct position. The vehicle now has noticeable improvement whilst driving but is still not perfect!

When you look at both rear wheels, the repaired side sicks out slightly from the wheel arch more than the other and it now also scrapes on the inside of the wheel arch whilst driving over bumps! I did think that the sub-frame may be damaged and was going to replace it. However, after speaking with a technician friend of mine in Germany who works with Mercedes explained my problem to me before I had even got the chance to finish! (amazing!) He said that this was a common problem after such an incident. He believed that my sub-frame was in good shape as I had changed all of the arms without any problems whilst fitting the new ones back. He said the problem was that the chassis was now twisted out of alignment and needed straightening. He wanted the vehicle there and then to do the measurements, however for now, that is in UK and he is in Germany!

In the meantime, this is now bugging me to hell!! I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this problem before or if anyone would know a good place to get this sorted professionally and what I would be looking at cost wise for this!

Thanx very much in advance and happy new year..

I'd let the insurance company deal with this.

 

[nick mercedes]

How will I know this for sure?

You need to get the car up on a ramp and have a good look at the frame, W202 were famed for having bendy rear subframes, and W203 use a similar setup.

 

[skymastor]

I've had her up on rams more times you can shake a sihty stick at since this. It actually all looks OK. I even dropped the sub-frame on that side to fit a new thrust arm and all went well. There is no physical sign of damage to it! Its really doing my nut in at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who has posted here and for the links to various sites. I still can't find out yet how much it will be to get a jig job done if thats what I need? But I suppose this would tell me what the problem actually is? Anyone have any ideas on the costs involved?

 

[skymastor]

BTW nick mercedes, in advance, I have requested a price on www.euromerc.co.uk for a rear sub-frame. Just waiting for a response.. ;-)

 

[nick mercedes]

I've had her up on rams more times you can shake a sihty stick at since this. It actually all looks OK. I even dropped the sub-frame on that side to fit a new thrust arm and all went well. There is no physical sign of damage to it! Its really doing my nut in at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who has posted here and for the links to various sites. I still can't find out yet how much it will be to get a jig job done if thats what I need? But I suppose this would tell me what the problem actually is? Anyone have any ideas on the costs involved?

Putting a car on a jig is quite a job, you may expect to have to pay for 3 hours labour for getting the car on the jig, and on top of that the cost of hiring the jig brackets for your car, so a few hundred pounds just for starters.

I take it that the hub carrier is not the part that's bent?

 

[nick mercedes]

BTW nick mercedes, in advance, I have requested a price on www.euromerc.co.uk for a rear sub-frame. Just waiting for a response.. ;-)

I replied to your e-mail a little while ago.

It maybe a bit preamature getting a subframe, as it might not be the cause of the problem.

 

[skymastor]

hub carrier???

I assume you mean where the wheel fixes to the assembly? All this looks good and the wheel spins up OK. Besides, I have replaced all the arms connecting to the wheel hub and all went OK. Even the guy's at 2 garages who inspected it reckons all is OK with the wheel assembly.

I now have your mail and price. Thanks for that. So the way forward would be to have the vehicle measurements taken to determined the actual cause? If so, does this mean the time consuming and expensive jig work or is there a quicker and cheaper method?

 

[television]

There are tools made by Draper where you can do cross diagonal measurements. this one is simple

Do a search on chassis alignment there is plenty out there

 

[nick mercedes]

I assume you mean where the wheel fixes to the assembly? All this looks good and the wheel spins up OK. Besides, I have replaced all the arms connecting to the wheel hub and all went OK. Even the guy's at 2 garages who inspected it reckons all is OK with the wheel assembly.

I now have your mail and price. Thanks for that. So the way forward would be to have the vehicle measurements taken to determined the actual cause? If so, does this mean the time consuming and expensive jig work or is there a quicker and cheaper method?

Drop the frame and measure the mounting points is one option.

 

[television]

Drop the frame and measure the mounting points is one option.

That is one hell of a job

 

[fredfloggle]

I am at a bit of a loss with this one, this car has had a fairly major welt and despite the well meaning of the help you are receiving , I still don't know why you aren't claiming on your insurance -

Believe me I've slipped from grace a few times in the past and the only time I wouldn't put the car into a garage and let the insurance deal with it was when I wasn't really kind of properly covered or TPFT and this is a new car so I would assume that the car is covered.

Forgive the cynical approach but a car with buckled wheels and a bent subframe needs some proper money showing to it , either that or a gallon of diesel and a swann vesta.

 

[skymastor]

I am Aat??

Forgive my ignorance..

 

[fredfloggle]

Forgive my ignorance..

coba lagi.