My Son was driving my 2000 C70 Convertible the other day with my wife in the passenger seat and he hit a curb. The obvious damage that I can see is that the aluminum wheel is broken and the lower control arm where it attached to the car at the front. The tire now rubs against the back of the wheel well sometimes so it is barely drivable to at least limp it home. Did I mention this happened one block from my house on my own street! The other visible damage is that there is a brace which looks like it has started pulling away from the frame at the point where it bolts to the frame. I'm not sure what to call this brace exactly, but there is one on each side and they run diagonally flat under the car and are about a foot and a half long and probably 1/2" in diameter. The one on the drivers side is fine, but I can tell there is something wrong with the one on the passenger side because it looks like it has pulled away from the undercarriage by about 1/4".

My car was in very good mechanical shape and has only about 57,000 miles on it & has the Turbocharged 5 cylinder.

At any rate, my questions are as follows:

1) What is that brace called?
2) Does that brace connect to the subframe (in other words to a component which can be replaced worst case, or am I looking at having to weld and drill & retap)?
3) At the connection point is there a replaceable bushing?
4) Should I be expecting to have to replace the entire subframe?
5) How difficult for me to do myself, and/or costly?

 

pics would help alot. sorry about your curbing man.

 

Update: Ordered a new lower A-arm and started going in to replace it and discovered that the subframe is definitely bent! Now the question is Does anyone know of a good source for a new one or clean used one? I live and work in the Northwest, (Seattle / Portland ) area.

 

What type of wheels do you have. I have a set from my 2000 C70 Coupe and I'm in N. Cal.

 

first do some research on here and see if anyone knows if the S70 or S90 shares the same subframe, cause i think the C70 is based off of the S70. then i's look for a u-pull-n-pay in your area to yank one from them. it would cost you almost nothing if everything worked out.

 

The S90 is a whole different breed.

 

so the S70 would be the one right?

 

The old c70 was simply a re-bodied 850.............not a 70 series.

r.

 

ahh, good info. now i'll go to the salvage yards looking for the 850s. which year 850s are common with the first C70s Reg?

 

Only the 98 is the same as the 850.
The 99 and up is the same as the S70's and different from the 850.
The 99 and up have a 4 bolt control arm compared to the 98 which has a 2 bolt control arm.

 

My wheels are the double spokes. I've attached a picture.

 

My biggest problem now is to determine ahead of time if I'm getting into too deep of water or not. I definitely know that the subframe is bent. It is basically crushed in about one inch at the points where the lower control arm connects to it. (Especially at the rear connection & lesser so at the front). I want to make sure that it is fairly easily repairable before I tear into it as I have the option at this time of submitting it to the insurance company, but I won't have that option after I tear into it.

It appears to me that all I have to do is replace the subframe, (found for $500 used), and the control arm on the right side and one or two rims and a little body work where the curb hit under the rocker panel. My cost should be around $1k, but I don't have a clue how difficult of a task this is. Also, should I expect a lot more damage? Aside from the bodywork, is this a weekend chore or a multi-weekend task, or worse?

 

I have a set of the same wheels. E-mail me at elav "at" sbcglobal "dot" net if you are interested and I can send you pictures.