Hey guys,

A catastrophe has occurred. Make a long story short, a drunk driver ran a red light, to avoid it I drove off the road at around 30mph and JUST missed a telephone and trees. It was so close both of my mirrors hit into stuff. Anyway my cars seemed okay so I drove back onto the right side of the road and pulled into the shoulder. Of course the other driver didn't stop. It all happened so fast I didn't even realize what kind of car it was. I got out and saw dirt all over the car and was upset about the mirrors, but then I noticed one of my wheels wasn't straight and didn't look right. Had it towed to my house and upon further inspection, I noticed the lower control arm (I think that's what it is) is bent the upper one may be bent, and some how the strut SNAPPED IN HALF. I'm completely shocked that this happened.

So does anyone have any idea how much I'm looking at in repairs? Anyone else see any other problems from the picture? Anyone know any shops on Long Island?

I'm so upset I've only had the car for a month.

Anyway hope to get some good advice.

-Ron

 

Wow, it looks like you bottomed out really hard, did you simply go off onto the shoulder or did you go up and over a sidewalk? It probably won't be the cheapest fix, I wouldn't even know what to expect in terms of cost. I'd call my insurance company asap though.

 

That sucks! Sorry to hear that man, glad to see that you're okay. Did the cops catch the @ss hole?

 

Unfortunately no, I don't even believe the police looked for him. I was told by the police at the scene to avoid contacting my insurance company because this will be 100% my fault and as I am only 19 years old I can not afford to have my payments rise higher than they currently are (I rear ended someone in January 08 and I'm still feeling the ramifications of that one). I also have insurance in Florida which is another reason I wont be calling my insurance company on this one.

I didn't bottom out at all, that's why this is shocking me as odd. I went off of a paved roadway into grass at about a 45 degree angle traveling roughly 30 mph. Its unbelievable to me that my strut snapped in half like this. Could it have been damaged prior to this accident? The amount of damage to the suspension after such a small incident just strikes me as odd.

I'm hoping this wont be more than a grand to fix. Since I got this car I've put over $1500 into it on maintenance and such.

What a nightmare, seems like I can never catch a break.

-Ron

 

No worries, check out the rest of the suspension and if it's just the one strut replace both front ones and be done with it. If there is more damage I would suggest PM'ing member toyota2bmw, he found some sites where you can get near OEM components fairly cheap. Another option (that is still under $1k) is if the rest of the suspension is fine and it's just the strut, you can always get KSport coilovers - perfect mod

 

might as well get some coilovers in there now

 

you can also check a junk yard for used shocks/springs

 

Have a mechanic check your suspension, front and rear and check also if there is any body twist. From the picture it looks like the sway bar link is pulled off from its mount. which made me think your body twisted.

 

Wow....
That does look pretty involved. I took a very close look at the suspension components on my car recently and here's what I think that may need replacing on yours based on the photo. BTW, you always want to do the suspension repairs in pairs.

Replace:
Front Struts (2)
Sway bar links (2) - the one in the picture is clearly snapped out of the ball joint
Tie-rods (2) - this is the part that controls the toe angle which attaches to the steering rack

Inspect and replace as needed:
Lower control(tension) arms - there are 2 on each side. One front of the hub and one behind. I would say with a impact that broke the strut, there's a good chance that you have also have bent the arms.
Sway bar - since the sway bar attaches to the body's subframe and attaches to the links and the link gave out, I would say the sway bar may be safe but you never know.

The site I used to purchase my syuspension components was www.fcpgroton.com
Thier branded componenets are MUCH less expensive compared to OEM BMW but seems to be of equitable quality.

Good luck with everything.

 

Man glad you are ok, good thing you saw the dude coming to react.