Help with a nearly dead VR6

[descb600f 0]

One of my mates has managed to knacker the front end of his car.

The handbrake gave up as he was loading his kid in the car, he managed to slow it down as it rolled down his drive but the front off-side wheel struck the gate post.

Ever since this there is something seriously wrong with the car.

The steering wheel is about a quater turn to the right as you drive in a straight line but more worrying as you turn to the left it tries to snap the wheel out of your hands.

He has taken it to a National Tyres (best he could do as he was on a 12 hour shift) and they had it up on the ramp and could find nothing wrong despite having driven the car and agreeing something is seriously wrong.

When taking it off the ramp the mechanic felt something "drop" on the front end and recognised the symptoms.

He thinks there has been a problem with the car and that the very slow impact into the gate has killed the bearings in the hub.

He is saying that it is more than likely both hubs are away and he is going to need new hubs discs and calipers.

Seems a little extreme to me but not sure.

The only other thing is that they noticed what looks like slight rubbing on the inside of the suspension from the tyres.

He is now trying to work out if it is worth fixing (they reconed about £500 per side) or sell on as scrap/repair to somebody willing to put the effort in as he'd hate to see the car scrapped.

It's a 1997 R reg with only 75K miles and 2 owners from new it has been relatively well looked after and would be a nice car for someone all your ideas would be gratefully recieved.Oh yeah it has the Recaro seats in it.

Ta Des

[legvw 0]

Is there play on the bearing when its jacked up? That could show up a knackered bearing. Has he had the tracking checked? The knock could have put the tracking out, by sounds of the rubbing, the camber of the wheel is making it rub the strut.

Have a look at the opposite wheel and see if they both look the same when you look at the front of the car.

[descb600f 0]

When you have the wheels straight it look fine but with the wheel turned to the left the off side wheel is at a funny angle. There is signs of rubbing on both sides around the bottom of the spring on the piece that supports the spring (dont know the name for that bit)

[legvw 0]

Try jacking it up and physically wobbling the wheels to see if theres movement on the bearings.

I just can't see how a slow impact would cause both bearings to fail? They're quite solid bearings, they hold the hub and wheel on at 70mph+!

Have you had a look at it yourself?

[DanH 1]

my thinking too! think how hard people hit kerbs and potholes....callipers discs and bearings?? when the wheel hit the gate post? my 1st thought was tca, tie rod and strut.....although i am no mechanic..... cos when it hit the post i bet it wrenched the wheels over to full lock.

[Bigjobbo 0]

I would get a second opinion off a bodyshop mechanic, for the wheel to be moving out of your hands at speed, something will be bent, and visibly so. If it was an insurance job i would hit it for a full side, plus rack.

[descb600f 0]

If it goes to the insurance they will just write it off.

We have considered this and try to keep it to sell as a repair or scrapper ourselves.

There is no obvious signs of anything when it's up on the ramp.

[Bigjobbo 0]

So the wheel rubs on the strut on turns, which is probably why the steering is pushed back. If your trying to keep it cheap, get a full side from the scrappy.What is the setback like?

[ingham 5]

sounds like hub carrier to me

[VR6Pete 1,455]

There's an abundance of spare parts about at the moment, so should be able to fix it up quite cheaply by sourcing parts from the classifieds section