Question about steering after a bump...

Hello,

Sods law isn't it... I was out and about playing in the snow without a hitch but yesterday a spot of black ice on a 90 degree bend near my house sent me straight into the curb at about 30mph. When I set off again, my steering wheel was 45 degrees out of line (pointing to the left) and my 110 was wondering a bit. On examination, the track rod seems to be slightly bowed but my local garage said that it didn't seem bad enough to warrant a new rod and has reset the tracking to compensate for the bow in the tube. They also explained that my steering wheel was still slightly out, so they adjusted it by removing the steering wheel and then sitting it straight on the splines.

Should I really replace the bowed track rod or will it be alright now that the bow has been compensated for. Also, would removing and repositioning the steering wheel as opposed to adjusting the drop link effect the return-to-centre or create any other problems?

Thanks,
-Pos

i would change a bowed track rod if it was mine

Yep what he said ^^^^^

I bent my mine recently whilst whinching though a small landslide which was blocking a lane, we straightened it back out again at the side of the rod, but I have now put on a heavty duty one

Once a bend has been put in it it will then bend further with less input than initial .
Also the steering should have been adjusted to the steering wheel , not vice versa ,as you will now possibly have less lock one way than the other . HTSH

I would like to agree with the previous replies and suggest you may want to change your garage.

New track rod, it come straight for a reason! Also the next knock it gets will probably bend it in half. I have seen that happen at a pay and play and it took hours to get the vehicle out

Agree with all of the above, especially for the minimal cost of a new one. I had a very slight bend in my drag link and i never noticed how bad it made the steering till i fitted a new one, and that was with the tracking etc... adjusted to compensate.

Any pics??

Once it's bent it will have lost it's strength and only get worse, imagine what would happen if it bent even more when you driving down the motorway.

For how much they cost, you'd want to be as safe as you can be. Would you take your kids out in it knowing there's a problem with the steering??

Thanks for all the replies. I was thinking along the same kind of lines. I think I will have the new track rod installed, I had one in the back of the motor just in case they needed it anyhow. I had a bit of a prod and poke around earlier this evening and so far I have found that the ball joint on the end of the drag link (not the drop arm side) has play in it. The drop arm ball joint also seems to be moving quite freely although there doesn't seem to be any slop in it. It is going on the ramps tomorrow night to see whether or not anything else looks suspect...