Yesterday I went around a bend in the road and it was extremely icy. My car lost control and slid across the road and my front left tire ran into a curb. I kind of bounced off and I just kept going for another 100 feet and then I decided to pull over and check it out. First I realized I had to hold my stearing wheel upside-down in order to drive straight. My rim looked scraped up but my tire wasn't flat. I turned my car off and realized I couldn't get it to start back up and the gears weren't working. What could this be?? Help please!
2007-02-14 04:31:46 · 5 answers · asked by eagles2008 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
I just recently had my car repaired (one last bit to fix, tomorrow) from a similar incident -- I slid on a patch of ice and smacked a curb with my left-front wheel.
In my case, the steering wheel was only about 45 degrees out of alignment; the rim was also seriously scraped. The shop that worked on my car found that some of the suspension pieces were broken and others were bent. I suspect that my wheel is also bent, as there's still a vibration at 60 mph even after replacing the broken suspension pieces, so I have a replacement wheel (and new tires) to go on the car tomorrow.
But that's just the steering issue. Your problems with starting and with the gears aren't something I experienced, but I can offer some possible explanations -- difficult without knowing what kind of car you have, let alone actually seeing it, but it will give you some idea of what might be involved.
If your car is an automatic, you may have damaged the shift linkage during the impact. This would prevent you from moving into Park, which would prevent you from starting the car (there's an interlock in most automatic transmissions to prevent you from starting the car in a drive gear -- keeps people from running through the back of their garages in the morning.)
You may also have pushed the half-shaft -- that's the shaft that connects your transmisison to your wheels -- into the transmission on impact. That's not likely, as it would have immobilized your car the instant you hit the curb, and you went another 100 feet or so before pulling over.
You will need to have this car looked at by a professional mechanic who can actually see the car and determine the damage. Based on what they had to replace on my car, he's likely to tell you you'll have to replace such components as the steering knuckle, hub, control arm, and possibly tie rod. But let the shop make that decision, they will be the ones looking at your car and checking out the bent and broken pieces.
Best of luck...
2007-02-14 04:58:00 · answer #1 · answered by Scott F 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like you've bent your chassis, and maybe broken or bent your track rod end. I don't know why it wont start and why the gears wont work, but I'd get it to a garage asap, sounds like a big bill's coming your way or you've maybe written it off!
2007-02-14 04:39:18 · answer #2 · answered by julia 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, you knocked your front end alignment out. The other part of your question is hard to say. Call a wrecker and have it towed to a repair shop and get it fixed.
2007-02-14 04:43:15 · answer #3 · answered by Fordman 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it sounds like you hit the curb realy hard you might have done some dammage to the front end and could of dammaged the tranny
2007-02-14 04:42:00 · answer #4 · answered by dan m 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We REALY need to know what you drive....
Year.
Make.
Model.
2007-02-14 04:39:32 · answer #5 · answered by Mr. KnowItAll 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋