1998 Steering Replacement - Toyota Corolla, Chevy Prizm (1998-2008)

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, and since my kid just wrecked his 98 Corolla, It seems like a good time o join.

I am rebuilding the car after my son had an accident and damaged the suspension and (I think) the steering. It is a 1998 4 door Corolla LE with automatic transmission. The car hit the curb on the right side and broke off the hub on the rear and severely bent the wheel on the front. I pulled all of the wheels and nothing looks bent or damaged on the front. The problem is, the wheels are not pointing in the same direction. None of the tie rods are broken, so I would suspect that the steering is internally damaged. I have a manual and can get the steering unit from a salvage yard here locally. Since it is such a big job, I would like any input on anything else it could be before replacing the steering.

He also broke the right rear suspension, but did not damage the frame or shock towers. I am replacing that this weekend.

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and since my kid just wrecked his 98 Corolla, It seems like a good time o join.
I am rebuilding the car after my son had an accident and damaged the suspension and (I think) the steering. It is a 1998 4 door Corolla LE with automatic transmission. The car hit the curb on the right side and broke off the hub on the rear and severely bent the wheel on the front. I pulled all of the wheels and nothing looks bent or damaged on the front. The problem is, the wheels are not pointing in the same direction. None of the tie rods are broken, so I would suspect that the steering is internally damaged. I have a manual and can get the steering unit from a salvage yard here locally. Since it is such a big job, I would like any input on anything else it could be before replacing the steering.
He also broke the right rear suspension, but did not damage the frame or shock towers. I am replacing that this weekend.

You should check to see if the measurements on both sides match-up. You can do this with just a tape measure. You may also want to look at the frame to see if its bent. But it sounds like just an alinement problem.

You should check to see if the measurements on both sides match-up. You can do this with just a tape measure. You may also want to look at the frame to see if its bent. But it sounds like just an alinement problem.

The front wheels are visibly askew (more than a couple of inches). I have looked the frame over, and as far as I can tell, there is no damage. It just seems strange that they are that far out of alignment and I cannot see any damage.

How do the front control arms look? The bushings on them OK or they toasted. I've seen broken hubs plenty of times, but to break the links on the rear suspension - must of been a pretty hard hit. The steering rack is nearly solid inside - so there has to be something else bent pretty bad down there. Could be all the components bent a little, their cummulative would make the wheels point badly. Also be harder to see visually, as smaller changes everywhere is hard to judge with just eyeballing it. The factory body/collision repair manual has all the dimensions to compare the key lengths of components - kind of hard to find, but may be able to find an online source (usually have to pay for a subscription) to access it.

Thanks for the help. I replaced the rear suspension and then jacked up the front end as high as is safe. The right front strut is badly bent. The control arm looks okay except there is a very small dent. I am going to install new struts tomorrow and see how it looks. Some photos are below. The white dirt is from the towing yard.

It was a hard hit on the rear. From the story I got, he was taking a curve to fast, passing a car on the inside lane and he fishtailed into the car (Expedition) next to him and that caused him to lose control and turn into the Expedition forcing both vehicles across 4 lanes of traffic and onto the grass on the other side. It's a miracle that no one was killed or injured.

I haven't killed or injured him (yet). default_dry