do i need an alignment?

[Group A]

i was messing around in the snow and i was going sideways into a corner going about 20mph and hit the right rear wheel into the curb at approximately 10-15mph. it bent up the rim a lil bit, not real bad, but bad enough that im gonna get a new bottle cap for it. what my concern is do you think i hit hard enough that i need get a alignment or even worse bent something, like the trailing arm?

[JGood]

If you need an alignment, you bent something. That's what alignments fix. The problem is, on e30's the only adjusteable spec is front toe in/out.

You could get your alignment checked, and if it is out of spec on anything besides front toe, you'd need to start replacing parts.

Factory wheels are pretty strong. I twisted a control arm and tie rod badly by smashing my front wheel on a curb a few weeks after I got my license. The bottlecap barely had any damage, and I still use it to this day with the same tire. so if you messed one up pretty bad, you likely wrecked other things as well.

[ivo316]

Go to an alignment shop and have the projectors hooked up, they'll tell you if you bent something, sometimes even what you bent.

[silversleeper]

the bottlecaps are soft as shit! i did a 180 into a curb and the wheel tore apart. it looked like something chewed off 1/3 of the wheel.

[Mike325]

I hope it is not too serious to hurt anything. Let us know what you find out.

My mom slid into a curb at 20ish MPH and hit the front pass. side wheel. She drives a 99 accord. She needed a new control arm and the frame was tweaked a little:o She got the frame back to normal and the car rides strait now. I hope this is not the same for you.

Good luck.

[Group A]

well, the wheel isnt THAT messed up, but bad enough that i would go buy another one just to stay on the safe side. about 3 inches of the outter lip is bent/smashed in about 1/4 inch, and because of that the tire bead seats kind of crooked. i driven the car and it doesnt feel out of alignment, but since its the back its really hard to tell.

[ivo316]

Wet your street a little, then drive through the puddle, immediately check the tire marks on the ground, see if you leave two lines, if either one is thicher, you are misaligned or bent something.

[Group A]

thanks for the tip, ivo.