So driving home the other evening, I swerved to avoid one of Bavaria's giant indigenous creatures. Long story short, I hit a curb at about 20MPH. HARD. The wheel, surprisingly, is less bent than I thought. The vibrations in the steering wheel do not manifest till about 55MPH. However, I noticed that I had about a degree of POSITIVE camber: not good with stock shock tops!

The wonderful German BMW dealer put it up on the rack for me for free. After looking for a bit, you can see how the control arm is bent slightly. I am guessing this is causing the alignment issue. Also, where the control arm bushing knuckle bolts to the chassis, you can see where it moved about an 1/8 of an inch due to the impact.

The dealer says they recommend replacing the entire steering rack as well as the control arm and ball joint. I am wondering if I need to call BS on that. I know Germans are super paranoid when it comes to their cars. You can't do ANYTHING without replacing every nut and bolt. What is the consensus here? I did not feel anything abnormal in the steering but the wobble due to an out of round rim. Is this something I should use my insurance for and replace it all? Or just replace the arm and ball joint and call it all good. Thoughts?

Thanks!
Chris

 

Do they recommend replacing the steering rack because it's damaged, or because it may have been damaged? I'd go with the control arm and rim.

 

I agree with Eric. Lots of things "may" get damaged every time we hit the road. I think the dealer is obligated to give a worst case scenario estimate for liability reasons. I don't blame them, but buyer beware.

 

+1

I agree, start with the affected control arm and see how it goes. The ball joint may need to be replaced as well but it's pretty cheap fix. You will also need an alignment once this is done.

If you still feel vibration then your steering rack may need replacement. Pray that isn't the case since it's not a cheap replacement.

 

I got the car back from the dealer today, FINALLY, after having the wheel, lower control arm, and ball joint replaced. I feel NO vibration in the steering. However, they could not get the camber to come in to spec the way I want it to. Right now, after an alignment, it is sitting at a positive 0.23'. The range provided by BMW is -0.25' to +0.25'. They have it set up for minutes, so I am not sure how this correlates to US system.

Anybody have any thoughts as to what could be causing the camber? At this point all I can think of is a) the tie rod or b) I bent the chassis or sub-frame of the car. This really stinks....

 

If it is in range, it can't be that bad. I would ignore it for a DD. Over time as you do various maintenance you will figure it out.