Possible Frame Damage???

[nrfrkc]

What is the name of your state? Just moved from West Virginia to South Carolina
Car Make: 2007 Hyundai Accent GS

I was hit in the Taco Bell parking lot back on 9/28/07. She wasn't paying attention and STILL didn't pay attention and ended up rocking my car to the driver side and held it there for probably 30-45 seconds. Geico was the woman's insurance. So I called them and they got it into a garage to be fixed. The paperwork said that there was an alignment done. However, in March of this year, I had to replace the driver front tire from it still being a factory tire. While the mechanic had it in the air, he saw that the front passenger tire was being ate up on the inside wall. He told me to get the car into the dealer to have it looked at. About 2-3 weeks later, I finally got it into the Hyundai dealer. They said that they couldn't find anything wrong. Took it back to the mechanic who originally told me about it. Said that the tire was getting worse Took it back into the Hyundai dealer, still said nothing was wrong!!!! So, I have currently moved from WV to SC. Ended up having to replace all 4 tires. The front passenger tire was sooo bad that the metal was actually showing through on the inside wall. And....something was scrapping. Sounded like metal on metal grinding. But miraculously....tires are replaced and no noise!!! The guy who changed my tires said to get it aligned. Had it aligned today. Guess what...ALIGNMENT WAS PERFECT!!! Owner of the shop said he could lay his business on the line that it was something wrong with frame**************Is this guy making sense or not? And since it's a unibody frame...if they find something wrong, they will total it won't they? Please give me some feedback on this!!

Nacolle

 

[justalayman]

...if they find something wrong, they will total it won't they

Not neccessarily.


have you had a competent frame shop (actually a misnomer since there isn't really a frame) actually set this up on a frame jig and check for misalignment? That is the only way you are going to know if there is frame damage since it obviously is not visible.

 

[ecmst12]

Have you noticed the car pulling to one side or steering funny? If not, it could just be that something is bent where it shouldn't be and that is what was causing the tire wear.

 

[efflandt]

Without knowing how you maintain your car, it would be hard to tell if the tire(s) were damaged in the accident, tire pressure was too high or too low, or the tires were simply defective.

I had one set of tires that developed a blister on the inner sidewall the size of a large bratwurst (or italian sausage or your sausage of choice). But those were aftermarket tires and I got it replaced by the tire mfr's warranty (minus % of treadwear).

Most new cars don't have much if any alignment adjustments possible, other than toe. Improper toe would cause wear to both inside or outside edges of the tread. If toe was correct and camber not visibly off, tire wear should be fairly normal even if the car was crabbing.