I was teaching my kids how to do a donut on the icy roads and banged my rear wheel into the curb. I broke the alloy wheel, and now the wheel appears to be toed in, instead of toed out like the other side, any ideas on what could be bent/out of whack, and how to fix it. Car 85, 300tdt, thanks

guess that will teach you...................you may need an alignment shop tell you....becasue you did bend something.....jack it up take both back wheels off and look closely at everything going back and forth.....you will see a change most likely....rust flaked off or something.

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I take it you've replaced the wheel already? If so, and it's still toe'd in, take it to a decent shop before you do more damage or lose an axle! In fact, I'd take it in for an inspection anyway, unless you are familiar with W123 (wagon) suspensions and can inspect it yourself.

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pull back trunk lining and look at shock top mounting, compare to other side, are things concentric?

next take your digital camera and shoot some shots under car at rear suspension. compare sides.

but the car must be taken to the shop and inspected for safety reasons.

probably looking at bent lower control arm plus a readjustment of suspension on that side - little more serious than an alignment.

So I took it to one shop, the unauthorized MB specialist and they said I bent the trailing arm, quoted me 500 bucks for labor and a used trailing arm, a little suspicious I am, so I took it to another shop, the local volvos, vw, mixed foreign place and they said, we dont see any problems, I couldnt see anything myself so I m sort of lost. I know the suspension pretty well, and I was wondering if I just knocked a bushing out of whack on the trailing arm. Im going to look at the top of the shock when I get home. But the suspension is **** for sure now, the side I hit feels like it is driving itself. Anyhow, bushing??, or maybe worse, any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks Jimmy

We fix a lot of cars at this time of year that hit curbs, and if you think about what happened, you will realize that the damage is probably significant. You slid all 4000 lbs or so and concentrated all that force into a small portion of the car. Something has to give. I have seen whole torque boxes shift as a result of what you did. At the very least I'll bet you bent arms, ruined a hub and bearing and possibly did structual damage to the car. Sorry, but if you get away with any less consider youself very lucky. The only certain way to find the damage is to get it on a 4 wheel alignment rack and have all measurements checked. You can be off a sixteenth of an inch on a mounting point, and have it transfer to an inch or more at the wheel.

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Take your car to a frame straightener. These guys are pretty slick. They put your car on the frame rack....take laser point measurements...compare them to what you are supposed to have....pull the offending areas back in spec...then take another reading. They will give you before and after measurements to show you whats what. That will take care of the frame...and they will tell you what other items are out of whack as well. These guys specialize in collision damage, so they know what to look for.

Well your unauthorized guys had the answer. If you did this act and the steering wheel is now in a different position you DID bend the rear control arm and $500 is a major good deal for repairing it.
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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician