Curb: 1, Gertraud: 0 ....Bummer - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

JawJee · #1 07-16-2009, 09:58 PM

Shucks fellas,

I've got some semi-rotten news. I got a call at 4:45 in the morning from my girlfriend, who drives the benz to work. She'd stayed up in Whistler the night before after having too many to drive after a game (she plays beer league baseball). She'd fallen asleep on the highway(!) and smacked into a curb on the shoulder where the highway goes through a suburb. The front left tire (newish Pirelli) was toast due to an ugly bulge, and the rear had been punctured through the sidewall. As well, the rim looks like some c4 went off next to it, and the brake softline caliper end fitting sheared off in the caliper.

Luckily, she stopped in a hurry before losing all the brake fluid, and just happened to be across the street from a Canadian Tire (affectionately called cr*ppy tire up here due to their combination of service, product selection, and overall standard of quality). So we drove it in there using the E-brake, went home and yanked the caliper and softline, as well as one of the wheels, off the parts car at home, drove back to C. Tire and had them replace these components, bleed the brakes, and mount new tires on the rims.

Here's the sticky part: the rear right wheel has wild negative camber now, and that corner of the car looks like it's riding slightly low. Also, there's an SLS leak near the right strut. Haven't pinned it down yet. Here's my list of theories:

1. Something in the SLS is damaged (like a line or the strut) and that's causing that side to ride low, and the camber is being caused by this.

2. The spring has sheared off, and the strut is the only thing holding up that corner. Seen this happen on a honda from hitting a curb hard.

3. The trailing arm is bent, and causing the spindle to sit at an unnatural angle.

4. The subframe/rear axle mount assembly is bent, cracked, has been shifted, or is otherwise compromised.

5. Some ungodly combination of the above.

So my question is, is there anything that I'm missing? It's awfully hard to tell if the trailing arm or subframe are bent, because they aren't very right-angley to start with.

My initial plan is to try and replace the trailing arm. If this corrects the problem, halleleuja! I'll post some pics soon.

Thanks all for lending your ears.

George

JawJee · #2 07-16-2009, 10:50 PM

Here's some pictures of the rim damage.