Lude Generation

So i lost control of my car tonight and hit a curb side on. luckily i wasnt going fast, if i had been doing the limit instead of quite a lot under i think i would have flipped it.

Anyway, my rear wheel is facing right in at the front on the drivers side (other side is straight) and the front was a bit out but i managed to get it against a curb and turn the wheel to get it about straight.

When i can get it up in the air tomorrow what should i be looking for? im guessing stuff is seriously bent, and im sure i will be able to see what is really damaged, but i dont want to overlook anything.

I think the most aggrivating part of the whole incident is that my 4ws light goes off every time since the smash....

Seeing as you've got 4ws, it's probably just knocked the tracking out, so worth seeing if you can pull it back in on the track rod, or maybe have to replace the track rod if it's bent.

I had similiar situation but I hit the curb only with rear wheel. Lower arm was bent balljoint went and I had to replace wheel and tyre. Quite expensive mistake

OMG, that's exactly how I wrote off my first Lude 11 years ago!

Side-on in to a curb; both wheels tucked under the body. Still managed to crab it home though.

Never heard of anyone else doing that before.

Sounds like yours isn't as severe though. Plus I didn't have LG to come to the rescue!

Let us know how you get on once you get it up on a ramp, & a few pics too.

Hopefully it won't be too expensive to repair.

Sorry to hear this bludge

Yep, only way to know really, is to look. Buckled wheel, bent track rods etc are the simplest things, potentially bent suspension arms or chassis mounts. Have you still got the breaker?

Track rods front and rear, worse case lower control arms too. Not to bad a fix just get it aligned afterwards.

I managed to bend a LCA back an inch, replaced it got it aligned and it was as good as new

Yeah i still have the breaker so hopefully i will have everything i need. will need new wheels though as the rear is trashed and i cant be dealing with rolling on those tiny oem wheels!

is there any chance of damage to the steering rack? the front was only out very slightly, and i managed to limp the car home so everything seems to be working ok, it was just hairy as the car was a bit all over the place.

Anything is possible, but damage to the rack is unlikely I reckon. Joints and track rods would go first.

Right, i jacked the car up and had a look but i cant see anything bent or out of place, or damaged.
I was thinking maybe the impact forced the front of the wheel in, and pulled on the 4ws track rod and caused it to pull out a bit causing the wheel to be at an angle when it should be straight? does this sound plausable?

Here are a shed load of pictures. the last 4 showing a full lock left then right from either side of the car and how the rear wheels end up, which makes me think its just pulled the 4ws really out of alignment.

I may be missing something though so hopefully the pictures are good enough for you guys to give me a verdict.

I bet it is lower control arm. And it just get bent more than it should be where is exhaust pipe. Been there some time ago with my previous prelude. Other side is stronger because arm is more les straight as no exhaust there. if you have spare one then luckily you can veryfi it quickly and for no monies. Replace it and it should be fine but still do tracking.
On this pic you can see like rust has different colour and I think that's exactly where is the problem