Howdy! I have a '91 Cavalier VL. ~84,500 miles. Once upon last week, I turned too fast into a Taco Bell parking lot (which was covered in snow) and my driver's side front wheel struck (and bounced off) the curb at a pretty swift pace. Since that happened I get a pretty bad wheel wobble at speeds above ~45mph, and there's a pretty big gash on the face of my rim :-( I checked my tire out and its smooth on the surface, and based upon the large gash on the face of the rim, I imagine I struck said curb there.

ANYWAY- should I still be driving the car? Will my wheel fly off? Since everything on the face of it appears to be ok, what would be the issue? I'd stop by my mechanic about the problem, but he smells weird. So I'll start here.

Shanks!

-Rion J.

Ok first you probably could have bent the rims trueancy weight wise.To rule out possible steering components and even a wheel bearing problem my suggestion is as followed.Remove the front wheel and move it to the back and put a known good wheel on and torque your wheels to spec.Then test drive and see if the problem goes away on the front.If it goes away I would say you need the rim repaired or replaced and would look over the tie rods and general inspection of the front A arms and struts and stabilers links.I would inspect the area after you remove the wheel before you move a rear tire up front then test drive.Easy and could save some headaches and cost.Rims can be repaired and there are plenty of places that can do wheel repair these days locally(at least here) there are a couple.If this is a steel rim with a wheel cover just buy a new or used rim and be done.

Got it, will swap some wheels! Once I try it out I'll report back here!

While you have it in the air see if you can wobble the wheel by hand, toe & camber wise. If so check the wheel bearing and hub for ware.