My S40 Badly Damaged!

[sprout99]

should fix for less than £350 and saves your insurance

[SonyVaio]

Originally Posted by Zeb246

Update:

Been to a few garages, and most of them said it could be the bushes that is bent/damaged.
Have booked in my car for a 4 wheel alignment at 1pm today.

Zeb,

You need to get the garage to explain a little better on what the damage is. What bushes are they talking about? Bushes don't get bent.

It is already too late if you were seeing about an all wheel alignment at 1pm as it is now gone 20 past 3. Any reputable wheel alignment place should look over the car and ensure all is well prior to them doing the alignment. This check SHOULD show that your car in its current state cannot be aligned, any damage you have HAS TO BE fixed prior to any alignment.

Even if the alignmernt place straightened everything up just now, the problem you would find is once you had any work done the car would need to be aligned again! Not only this but you'd also find after work being done your steering wheel is now pointing 30 to 40 Deg to right as any replacement parts has straightened everything back up to the way it should be and in effect the alignment plae has actually put your steering out and not corrected it?? If you cathch my drift?

Course of action:

• Get wheels checked out to see if buckled or not
• Get report done on actual suspension and parts to see what needs replaced
• Replace relevant parts (wheels too if buckled)
• Get all wheel alignment done

You've got a nice S40 there Zeb, it won't take too much to get it back to its former glory. If money is tight and things then in future you may want to think about good quality part worn which you can pick up with still 6 or 7mm for about £50 a corner? You'll get good quality rubber with good tread but at budget prices. I'm not a fan of part worn tyres but I think they are still higher in my list than budgets or re-treads though.

HTH,

[Zeb246]

Got the car 4 wheel aligned, he wasn't a dodgy garage, very honest and explained every single thing underneath the car.


Here are the results:

IMG_0794 by Zuhayb Pics, on Flickr

The garage adjusted the steering wheel, and the rear wheel. He's done a temporary fix to the car, but did mention 3-4 months time I will need to change rear tyres as the inner tread will have an affect. The wheel has been straightened out for now, but is still a big risk driving the car. The parts I need is the suspension arm, which I have ordered 2 for £45 inc bushes and kit on ebay.


75% chance the suspension arm need's replacing, and 25% replacing the hub axle.

Labour will cost £75.

[SonyVaio]

Originally Posted by Zeb246

Got the car 4 wheel aligned, he wasn't a dodgy garage, very honest and explained every single thing underneath the car.

He may well have been nice and explained everything but you've still had work that was completely unnecessary and the garage knows it. He should have advised correctly and accordingly which should have been:

"Sorry Zeb, your car is need of a suspension arm and possibly even a wheel bearing (hub). You'd be best of changing the arm first to see if that fixes things if not you'll need the hub too. Only once this work is done can you then get the alignment done otherwise the alignment work is futile!!"

SO basically he has still taken your money and done a job that he knows is 100% going to be undone the second you start to replace the suspension arm.

The garage adjusted the steering wheel, and the rear wheel. He's done a temporary fix to the car, but did mention 3-4 months time I will need to change rear tyres as the inner tread will have an affect.

What exactly was done as a "Temp Repair"?

If everything is straightened out and put to correct setttings then this should elongate your tyre life expectancy NOT shorten it?? 3 to 4 months?? Again this says to me the alignment was a waste of time.

The wheel has been straightened out for now, but is still a big risk driving the car. The parts I need is the suspension arm, which I have ordered 2 for £45 inc bushes and kit on ebay.

If the wheel is straight and all is well aparently by the aligment then why would it be a risk driving it? The whole fact that parts are required and need to be changed amplify the fact that an alignment should never have been done in the first place.
75% chance the suspension arm need's replacing, and 25% replacing the hub axle.

I think that would be a fair assumption, I think you'll be unlucky if you need a new bearing/Hub too. I've just thought! Does the garage mean the actual hub carrier or the hub itself? The hub itself is the wheel bearing and your looking at approx. £200 ish for a Genuine Volvo one or approx £60 ish for 3rd party part, the hub carrier which the bearing/hub sits in is not as expensive and a Genuine Volvo one can be bought from ebay for £50. There is one on ebay just now but I think it is a Right Hand knuckle as opposed to the Left Hand you'd need.

Labour will cost £75.

Answers above in red, I think 100% the alignment should not have been done and you should have been told that it was futile having it done as any work would be undone the second you put a spanner to the car to replace the parts.

Just my opinion of course.

[Volvo6]

The wheel has been straightened out for now, but is still a big risk driving the car.

So you won't be driving it then I assume...?

I wouldn't risk it, get everything replaced that needs to be and then obviously another alignment. I agree with others insofar as doing an initial alignment before repairing the damage seems pointless but it might give the mechanics a better idea of what bits are actually bent and what's not with the wheels straight.

For what it is worth the actual monocoque of the S40/V50 is incredibly strong compared to most cars. This is good because it keeps damage like this to replaceable suspension parts rather than bending the shell out of shape.

[138gat]

Soooo from the top;

Zebedee clouts the kerb on the Magic Roundabout after swerving to avoid Postman Pats cat which is being chased by Dougle who has escaped from Florence, meanwhile Fireman Sam is cleaning up the spilt fuel reported by PC Plod blah, blah, blah jackanory

come on Zeb own up to your mistakes were all friends on here and we've all driven like plonkers before.

hope you get sorted without too much red face !!

[Zeb246]

I got the car aligned because the steering was positioning left 30-40 degree out, whenever I drove the car straight. It was impossible to drive the car on the road, as the rear end was very twitchy when cornering, and the mechanic found out the problem (N/S lower suspension arm).

I'm not going to drive the car until I get her repaired, going to wait for the part's to arrive hopefully this week.

[keithjeb]

Originally Posted by SonyVaio

Answers above in red, I think 100% the alignment should not have been done and you should have been told that it was futile having it done as any work would be undone the second you put a spanner to the car to replace the parts.

Just my opinion of course.

Or, being a bit more sceptical about it, its been adjusted to be massively out of spec still (hence the comment about tyre wear) but not obviously detected by an assuming buyer as anything more than wheel damage.

[SonyVaio]

Zeb, I would still be concerned about the front end??

That steering wheel was well out of alignment with it being tilted so far to the left, this sort of outage can only come from damage. You need to get this investigated as I suspect you have a bent track rod and/or track rod end, possibly the drop link too.

The steering wheel may have been straightened out but the undelying problem will not have been. This could potentially cause the car to be dangerous to drive and unstable at speed.

There has to be something wrong with the front too.

[gmain1967]

Agree with comments and observations of SonyVaio.

There was no point in doing an alignment check and adjustment, given that things are bent. Better advice would have been "x, y and z are bent/need replacing, after which 4 wheel alignment will be required". Personally, if you can do without the car or have an alternative you can use, I'd leave it off the road until fully repaired. Not temporarily, but fully.

There is another angle to this of course - if any part is "temporarily" fixed or however someone wishes to put it, what if there is a subsequent problem/claim at which point defects or sub standard repairs become evident?

Most insurers I am familiar with have "preferred" and "authorised" repair shops whether it be mechanical or body. Not sure where you'll stand if you replace the rear suspension arm yourself - and that's not a slur on your mechanical abilities.