A friend spun in "black ice" that was not there for me 10 minutes previously. Anyway, 22 vehicles were involved. Her vehicle only hit the right curb with the left rear wheel, which gave the wheel some serious positive camber. No airbags deployed. The wheel would not return to neutral camber.
I looked underneath, and saw that the flimsy upper control arm was broken at the bolts (bolts were on the ground under the car), the end link was bent, the sway bar was bent, and the wheel bearing was damaged.
The collision shop gave a quote of $16K. This includes 1 used rear wheel, 1 wheel bearing, a set of shocks, a sway bar, end links, a knuckle, an upper control arm, and fixing the frame/mount area. And an alignment.
This is using toyota parts. They wanted to replace all 4 tires, as well.
Took the car to a friend, who says he can fix it for $2,200. The timeframe is the same. Mostly the same things as above, but 2 wheel bearings, upper and lower control arms for both sides, and minor frame work are included. Yesterday, I tested the strength of the sway bar. The old one bends over my knee. The control arms break with a tap from a hammer. The new parts are all aftermarket. The new sway bar will not bend over my knee, the control arms are much more substantial, and the knuckle does not need to be replaced.
This only solidifies in my mind the flimsiness of these vehicles.
The friend is OK, but I cannot convince her that there was no black ice there.
