Hello everyone,

I hope this is the correct forum to post this in. If it is not, please let me know the appropriate one and I will post there.

Some idiot smashed into my car and hit the passenger front wheel. Now whenever I turn the wheel slightly to the right, (usually changing lanes) or when I am driving around 70 MPH, I start to feel vibrations/rubbing down by the pedals. I don't feel any vibration in the steering wheel.

After I finished pounding out the dents and put the wheel back on, it appeared to be turned slightly to the right, while the left passenger side was perfectly straight. This leads me to beleive that the car is out of alignment.

Before I pounded the dents out this morning, I asked a tire shop about the vibrating/rubbing issue. The guy at the counter immediately told me that it was the wheel bearing, without even looking at the car.

Is it possible this vibrating/rubbing feeling that I am feeling be a result of the alignment being off and not have anything to do with the wheel bearing? I am not sure how much faith I should put in the tire shop's diagnosis.

Thanks

(BTW --> bearings <-- Correct spelling?)

It could be alignment, bearings, or at the worst a bent knuckle, tie rod, or strut. Depending on how hard the impact was to the wheel. If you can get it a free estimate; I would take it to another shop to see what they would say.

For him to say it was a bearing, without looking, I wouldn't trust em. Most problems won't be able to diagnose without doing a visual inspection, test drive, or possibly an alignment.

Usually vibs would mostly be in the steering wheel if it was just tire balancing or alignment problem. If a tie rod was bent it would pull to one side while you were driving.

Try to get a free estimate, if not, alignment would be the cheapest if a shop was going to do the work. Any decent shop would be able to diagnose on a test drive or visual inspection. If they aren't, a skilled tech could tell during an alignment if a suspension part was bent, or bearing messed up.

yea the wheel bearings sound about right.. no big deal


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Thanks guys,

I guy from work is going to help me replace the bearing tomorrow. I hope that is all that is screwed up down there. The car pulls slightly to the right, but the alignment needs to be redone. When I have the the wheel straight, the left is parallel with the bumper, but the right wheel is tilted to the right.

What's a knuckle look like/do?