So the other night I was driving down the road and there was some road resurfacing being done I saw a sign that said BUMP thinking the bump was ahead Iwas just fixing to start decelerating when bang I hit the bump the bump was where the BUMP sign was so my fault I guess there was not bump ahead just the BUMP sign it was a 4 inch or so 90* lip that I hit at around 45mph it felt like it hit hard. Anyway long story short there is no viable damage under the car the car did not bottom out suspension may have nothing looks visibly bent or broken. Car drives smooth just pulls left and the faster you go the harder its pulling left. Wheels look good not damaged and not warped or bent. I took it to the dealership for an alignment but they took 5 hours trying to get the alignment right but the front would not hold the alignment for what ever reason they were clueless as to why they said something was moving. They finally were able to get it to with in spec but you when you put it back on the rack its all out of spec again in the front. Does anyone have some suggestions on what it could be or what to check? 2005 z51 m6

 

Start racing in the NASCAR series?




Or bring it to an alignment shop to have checked.

 

Already took it to the dealership for an alignment but they could not tell what was wrong with it. This was their "corvette guy".

 

Time to take it to a "good" shop. A specialty Corvette or performanc car shop would be a good starting point. Someone who cares!!

It could be so many things in the front end: bent lower control arm, control arm mounting point bolts pulling out, bent/damaged ball joints, bent spindle, bent knuckle arms, steering rack inner tie rods where they attach to the rack, shifted sub-frame, the list goes on.

A good shop should be able to tell where to start looking by how it is out of alignment.

I would also take another look at the wheels.........they are probably bent as well........gradual bend in them.........ask me how I know!!

 

It is at my friends shop now and he is looking it over trying to figure out what it is. He has ruled out pretty much tires he swapped tires L and R and the pull did not change. Hopefully he finds out today what it is. Does anyone have anymore suggestions? Or pictures of what could bend or shift in this type of hit?

 

The upper and lower control arms are rather fragile when subjected to any forces other than UP and DOWN; and INSIDE and OUTSIDE, as they are properly designed to do. Front and rear forces like hitting a 4 inch high 90 lip at 45 mph (that's almost a like hitting a curb, isn't it?) are not part of the car's "normal sportscar usage". The good news is that these do bend backwards rather easily, which means your attachment points on the frame are undamaged. Your spring and anti-roll bar are probably fine, as is most everything else. But depending on how far rearward the arms bent, the shock might be tweaked. It doesn't like being bent!

How do I know all this? Two weeks ago a nimrod kid just barely sideswiped my parked 1489 mile Grand Sport. Brand new. Didn't even touch the paint. But because my wheels were turned outward and the tire out of the wheelwell at a pretty good angle, and with his dopey giant tires sticking out of his dopey whitetrash Honda CR-V, our tires met with him doing maybe 20 mph. The impact completely folded both arms backwards such that the tire was all the way back against the inner wheelwell panels. It also snapped the steering knuckle (the thing that hooks to the tie rod) clear off the spindle assembly. It also bent the mag shock ($1400). The tire and wheel were just fine. Anyway, not a pretty sight, and I thought of shooting the nimrod kid. Sanity returned and I'm not in jail.

But, the repairs are all bolt-off, bolt-on. No permanent damage of any kind.

So, quit messing around and get someone who has a clue to look at those wishbones. Maybe get a second Vette to go with you so some easy eyeball and tape measure comparisons can be made. I mean, it should be pretty clear to anyone that you've bent something up there. Hell, even my nimrod neighbor kid could see that he foooked my front end!

 

Id bet it was this or the camber adjusters

Also I had some issues with my suspension pulling in the past - turned out to be a missing leaf spring pad - that just takes a quick look to check out

Good luck!

 

**UPDATE**

Well after taking ever measurement imaginable and inspecting every part that could be inspected and finding no signs of damage of any kind or any out of spec measurements my friend took it to another shop for an alignment check to rule out a malfunctioning machine at the dealership. And sure enough the new shops machine saw the left pull and showed nearly every alignment measurement on the computer screen to be out of spec. The dealerships machine showed a right pull. They reset and performed the necessary adjustments and 45 min later I have a car again that drives strait as an arrow. The tech at the dealer ship said several times that he felt his machine was "lying to him" but was unsure. Service manager was contacted yesterday and right now the just offered a store credit which is not acceptable. Also he said he had the machine check out and updated after it took his tech about 4 hours to try to get my car aligned. The tech was also saying something was moving because the settings were not setting and would read out of spec if the car was moved at all and he was running out of adjustment trying to get the car in spec at the dealer. But the shop yesterday had no problems. I normally never take anything to a dealership because of bad experiences but thought they would be the best place to take my corvette to get the alignment done in the first place since they sell a lot of corvettes there to.

 

Glad for you! Write it up! Send it to Chevrolet, no matter if the dealer gives you twice what you paid. They were cheaping out on calibrating their machine. The tech knew it, but his management wasn't up to paying for it. These are very expensive machines, and not cheap to keep perfect.

 

Glad to hear that you got it sorted out, and that nothing was wrong with your car.

Boy, if I was in your place, I would be PISSED with that dealer........not sureafter all the grief they put you through I could remain civil. I think they owe you for all the time, effort and cost they put you through.