Hi all,

Decided to introduce myself here and also I am looking for a little advice. I recently purchased a 2004 S60R and I LOVE it!! I am sure that goes without saying Any how I was driving way, way, way too fast in the snow last week and the good old stability management that is such a joy to turn off (hence the reason I skipped that step) decided that the back end sliding was not the best way around the corner. I ended up tagging the curb and needless to say I did some damage. The issue is I am not able to find any bent parts other than the wheel however the alignment is way off, the steering wheel is not straight and its more than obvious there is something bent but I am not able to locate it. Control arm, inner and outer tie rods, ball joint, end link, strut all look fine. I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this type of issue after this kind of crash. Any advice or personal experience with this is much appreciated. I plan to replace both sides with the IPD HD front suspension kit anyway as the car needs it but if there is something else I need I would prefer to purchase that at the same time and I am not convinced any of these parts are actually bent.

 

it doesn't take much to throw off the alignment - the specs are to .1 degree, so being off by 1 degree would eat up tires, put the steering off center etc. Doing a quick bit of geometry suggests that 1 degree is about .2 inches (check my math here, I've been out of school for a long time) something you wouldn't see with a visual. You may be in luck and just need to get the car realigned but a professional inspection would help. Since you are thinking of putting in the new suspension, any time you unbolt suspension bits (like when doing struts) always get an alignment.

 

Thank you for the advice, I guess I should have mentioned I am a mechanic of 16 years and I do have a local shop that is very kind and will allow me to get on the alignment rack at will so I will be doing the alignment after the parts are installed. There is no doubt the alignment is off my honest fear is that I may have bent the sub frame or something else, I have never seen a car hit a curb and not bend tie rods or control arms. Has anyone else seen this with the car?

 

What part hit the curb, the front or rear? I'm assuming front from your posts.

 

Yeah it was the front that took the majority of the impact. I would say it was at about a 45* angle the wheel was flush with the curb upon impact and the back also made contact after the front but it was more incidental and hardly had a scrape on the wheel. I did not jump the curb with either wheel it was a bit taller than a normal curb, I had expected to see broken wheels when I got out as the impact was rather violent, I can only assume the sub frame or something like that may have shifted due to the speed and the fact that I can't seem to see any bent anything. I agree with mt6127 that even a small shift can screw up the alignment. It appears to have a few degrees of tow in I can see that the wheel on one side is straight and on the other side its towed in just a bit. I put the wheels on my tire balance machine the back is fine but the front is not fixable and is very badly bent and cracked in several spots. I can testify that if you are gonna be an idiot and crash do it in a Volvo!! I truly feel that if this had been any other vehicle I have ever owned it was not gonna limp home on its own. I guess I will order up the parts and toss it on the alignment rack, with my fingers crossed. When I had it up on my lift I did not see any damage to the sub frame, steering rack, or any other part the only visible damage is to the front wheel.