Bad Weekend...

[Installshield 2]

I know I haven't been around a lot lately, been really busy with school still...and this doesn't belong in here, but whatever...

So I have had my driveable engine out all fall getting ready for the standalone isntallation...I wanted everything ready to go for spring...I recently bought a new clutch and installed it...then decided to reinstall it on the driveable more or less stock engine (just to see how fast I could do it, and to break it in a bit...I was going nuts after not driving my car for that long)...So I get the old engine and new clutch on Friday night last week...

Everything works great...I get to drive around all day saturday...Go out with some friends saturday night to a pool tournament...and this bar has the tables under ground with no windows...so I stay until about 1a.m., get beat by a biker dude, and get the guys ready to go...I walk out side...and about 4 inches of snow had fell...the bus and taxi service is about 2 hours delayed...and I have to pick up my fiance at work in an hour and a half...

oh...also...I still have parada spec 2's on the car...

So I get about 1 block from my apartment after nearly an hour of trying to find a level route to my place...I drift out of a down hill turn across the road...and slam a flat curb sideways at about 10 mph...destroyed two wheels...at least my front left strut and strut mount, probably that control arm again...I haven't been able to get under my car yet to see anything else...good thing is no body damage though...the right front tire is still connected to the rack and everything, and there are no funny noises coming from the steering column. But when the steering wheels is pointed straight, the right front wheel is at least 15 degrees off from the front left. also the castor of the front wheel is nearly an inch back from where it should be...

if anyone has any experience with an accident like this on a 3rd gen protege let me know...I will slaughter someone if the sub frame is all bent and crap...but I think its less than a thousand dollar problem, if I do the work myself other than an alignment...

 

[Breeegz]

damn tough luck...

I'm crossing my fingers for ya.

 

[Aricjm15]

most likely the A-arm, I worked with a guy that replaced 3 on his MSP. from what he said they are not to horrible to replace. I will try and get a price on a new one for ya.

 

[viVid]

damn... guess you should have only gone 9 mph!

I did the same thing with my Escort a long time ago. I ended up bending the crap out of my strut tower. To bring it back into alignment, the dude at the shop I took it to took a torch to the swaybar and bent it. Saved me mucho dinero... hopefully the strut towers are a little stronger on these cars.

 

[Lord_Zath]

That sucks man. I had a feeling as soon as you said "took the car out" that somewhere later was "car encountered snow".

Last winter I slid into a curb at 30 mph on stock Dunlops. I got lucky - only thing damaged was the front right tire. At the last second, I turned the wheels into the curb and the car slid/drove right over the thing. I was real lucky there wasn't a hydrant or pole where I went though. The whole car ended up two feet onto the grass. And about 5 minutes after I moved the car off the curb and drove it into a parking space, a minivan did the same thing. If I had been 5 minutes later... damn.

Anyways good luck getting everything straightened up again!

 

[low_psi]

Yea, its prob just the A-arm. They are thankfully easy to bend, which keeps other components from breaking aswell. I paid $215 for a new one a few years go and it took about 30min to replace.

 

[Installshield 2]

thanks men...Yeah, from what I can tell the strut tower itself appears to be ok...the strut mount may have some trouble though...the strut mount studs on the top of the tower look completely fine...but underneath the wheel well I can see a little of it pulled down...and the strut itself is angel about 15-20 degrees out of whack...if you know what I mean...but the strut tower, and tower bar appear from the engine bay as if nothing happened at all...I have seen some accidents where the tower gets the business end of the accident, so I was terrified at first to look under the hood...

 

[MazdaGecko]

s*** sorry to hear this INst....Hope everything will be k with repair...
SAme thing happened to me up here in Quebec... was lauching form a dead start at a stop going direct into a "s" but slipped 2 turn straigth into the side ways.

Result i had my stock 15s....scrap one front wheel cap and needed an alignment..... suspension was fine hopefully and didnt had my 17s!

Fix your baby and give it a hug for me!

 

[Gen1GT]

Aw Jamie, that sucks man. But you're smarter than that! How could you not have had winters on?

 

[Installshield 2]

oh forgot to include that part...yeah I do have winter tires...tried to put them on thanksgiving day, and one damn tire wouldn't hold air...it kept losing air right around the tire/wheel lip seal...So I took it to a shop on Friday, after Thanksgiving...They told me it was "dry rotted" on the sidewall and could not be repaired...whatever...So I order a new tire from Tirerack that day...get the tire in, go back to have it mounted...and they say the following: "It is ILLEGAL for us to mount one winter tire on a car, we will only do two or four tires at a time...we have to assume your other 3 winter tires are in the condition of this rotted one...so you need to purchase another tire from us..."...whatever...That sounds ridiculous...but the winter tires do have 4 winters on them...So I decided to just buy 3 more just to replace them anyway later that next week...all of this was before we got any measurable snow...I wreck on saturday...My other three tires came Monday of this week...damn it....

 

[Lord_Zath]

That's always how it goes.

 

[tyusha]

Damn Jamie.... I had a similar accident two winters ago.... but there was also a little bit of body damage.... yeah my a arm was toast and so were the endlinks and the strut.....