Hit a massive pothole, now things feel slightly 'off'
 

Hey guys,

Scanned through some related suspension threads but nothing jumped out as an exact match. If this is a duplicate then apologies in advance.

Basically we've had a bunch of rain the past couple of days. I was driving down an access road at night for work. Wasn't going too fast since the road was pretty narrow and it was dark, but then I came around a corner and saw that part of the road was washed away leaving a 5 or 6 inch lip back to the road surface. Slowed down to about 10-15km/h but wasn't able to get any slower in time and both tires ended up taking the brunt of the hit at what I believe was a slight angle. Wasn't a horribly hard hit but you still get that dreadful sounding thud and the bottom just barely scraped. Felt like hopping a curb.

Anyways, as I've been driving the past few days I've had no vibrations, noise, wobbles, etc... even at highway speeds, but something just seems slightly off in the steering to me. Without having obvious symptoms to track down I can't tell if it's in my head or an actual problem.

The weather was finally nice today so I went out and verified that my alignment is indeed still spot on, the camber looks to be fine and equal on either side, the lug nuts are still perfectly tight, if I push down on the fender or rock the car I don't hear anything, moving the wheel through its entire range doesn't cause any creaking or resistance, the coils and struts look and feel fine (if tugging on them qualifies), the tie rod still feels tight and looks okay visually, from what I could see of the control arms they look alright, so it doesn't look like there is any obvious damage aside from some scrapes on the underside.

Can you guys recommend anything that I might be overlooking that I can check? I'll get it up on the jack when I get the chance but having a few more ideas of where to look and focus would be a great help. Whenever I look for ideas on the web it's because of a specific symptom which doesn't really seem to apply here.

This is why I sometimes hate having this car as my daily driver and putting it into these situations that I'd never find myself in if I had another car. Has me wondering if I should sell it for the time being and buy a beater until I am in a position to have a FR-S/BRZ as a project car so that I don't torture it like this.

Anyways, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Starship, that really sucks when you hit something like that. Unfortunately, alignment issues aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye. If you can't find anything obvious, (and even if you do) I would take it to a good alignment shop and get it on a machine asap. If you can feel it's off, it probably is.

Yea alignment shop would probably be a good call, got a complimentary one when I bought new wheels with my civic last year, it was out a bit and I had no idea, barely any tho. And don't worry about dding the car, it won't stay showroom forever, but take care of it and it won't be in bad condition either, instead of selling and rebuying one, just enjoy it man, add stuff when you have the cash, HID's would be a good investment if you do a lot of night driving, the difference is mind boggling.

Yep, like suggested above ..... time to schedule an appointment at an alignment shop ....:thumbsup:

humfrz

Likely nothing a good alignment won't fix, get some camber bolts first so you can dial in the front a bit more for steering feel.

Check tire pressures too, might be dirt simple, but you're probably going to end up at an alignment shop.

Edit: you won't see a degree or two of toe, but you'll feel it.

Coming from a guy that is on his 18th alignment already. Just get it checked, usually a hit like that will throw off your toe. If it was a massive shunt be prepared to replace the tire as you will probably have sidewall damage or bulge appear later on.

If you don't have any vibrations thats a good sign. This is one of the good things about having a suspension that is all stamped steel and plenty of rubber bushings. Super compliant and plenty of give without bending or damaging anything.

People think thats a bad thing, but this is proof why its good on a street car.

OP, we're from the same area. I used to worry a lot about stuff like that, but there are only two seasons in the GTA: Construction, and winter. Neither will allow you to baby an 86, so you'll never have it minty fresh. Our neck of the woods just isn't super-low-sports-car friendly. Best solution is to stop worrying, and enjoy it.