Steering knuckle damage...?

[SyNtAxx]

So last Friday my wife backed into my Jetta with her Jetta. Long story short I don't feel its worth it to file insurance claims to repair. Both cars on on my policy and would count as 2 accidents.

No damage that I can see on my wife's care other than some scuffed paint on rear bumper cover. My car however isn't so lucky. No body damage thankfully but something is bent up front on suspension/steering. I can visually see the top of the tire on the drivers side leans in. The drivers front tire took the impact. The front of the car shifted laterally on the stone portion of my driveway about 6 inches.

I took it in for a quick alignment to see what they would say. They confirmed something is bent, and they suspect the steering knuckle or bearing housing as the bentley manual refers to it. They said the control arm was true and the strut didn't appear to be bent.

What else could be bent that would cause a tire to lean in at the top (negative camber?)? What is the book time to repair this? I wont be able to do this one myself as I don't have a bearing press and frankly the time.

Based on diagrams IF it is the knuckle I need to order it and a bearing kit. What about the hub? ABS sensor? (does it get stuck when trying to remove?)

Any info would be helpful.

Nick

 

[jasonTDI]

Get a new knuckle assembly to start with. I'd remove the strut and take a hard look at it though.

 

[SyNtAxx]

Get a new knuckle assembly to start with. I'd remove the strut and take a hard look at it though.

OK. Thank you. Any idea on book time for this job?

Nick

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I had a similar problem a few years ago when a woman turned left into my fender and driver's front wheel. Tie rod, knuckle, strut, ball joint, all damaged. The tie rod in my car was pretty badly bent so at the recommendation of a couple of gurus I replaced the steering rack. Extreme, perhaps, but I didn't want to come out of a hotel some dark morning to find a puddle under the car and no steering. If you want the alignment right without trial and error, I'd go ahead and replace the struts. And maybe the tie rod, unless the alignment shows the toe is fine. Once you fix the camber with the new parts you may find the toe is out.

 

[SyNtAxx]

OK. Thanks.

 

[jasonTDI]

What Peter said.

4-5 hours with the alignment for everything except the steering rack.

 

[davebugs]

I jsut sold the rack yesterday but I had the whole Kframe, LCA's spindles, struts, etc all as one assy from when I removed it.

I still have everything but the rack in good shape at the other end of the state off a 99 NB. If you wanna go that route and make a road trip in something big enough to haul it. Racks are like 50 bucks and easy to do with the Kframe out.