Bent LCA and spindle?

[2013SR5]

This has to be the lamest "off-road" accident ever but here goes....

Was driving down my street yesterday and a car was stopped waiting turn left. I thought I had room to go around on the right hand side, and when I started to pull around, my front passenger tire went strait into the ditch, and I fell forward until the lower control arm smacked into the pavement. Was able to put it in 4WD and back right out. Went home and noticed a scuff/scratches on the LCA right below the strut mount but nothing looked out of place. Driving to work though, I realized that my steering wheel was about 15-30 degrees to the left in order to drive strait.

Dropped it off at the shop first thing this morning and they're telling me that the digital inspection is saying the Right front spindle and LCA are bent and need replaced.

Not that I don't believe them, but man, I was going maybe 2 mph, and fell all of ~6 inches onto the LCA. Does that seem possible to do? I was planning on installing some 5100's after Christmas so I guess I'll just do the whole thing. But just curious how likely it is that the LCA is actually bent.

 

[Mybuddytmil]

I would take it to an alignment shop. Probably all thats wrong is you knocked it out of alignment.

 

[Jeremy556]

Take a look at the alignment cams. What usually happens is the little metal piece gets bent over, allowing it to go out of alignment. Bend them back and have it aligned, if so.

I doubt you bent your LCA if your tire was still inflated. Spindle, maybe, but still unlikely.

 

[Brownfaux]

I would agree with the above post. There's a reason there is LCA armor sold, and I believe Marlin Crawler is making a reinforcement kit as well for this same issue?

I guess knowing if the shop you took it to does alignments would help as well.

 

[Globetrotter78]

This has to be the lamest "off-road" accident ever but here goes....

Was driving down my street yesterday and a car was stopped waiting turn left. I thought I had room to go around on the right hand side, and when I started to pull around, my front passenger tire went strait into the ditch, and I fell forward until the lower control arm smacked into the pavement. Was able to put it in 4WD and back right out. Went home and noticed a scuff/scratches on the LCA right below the strut mount but nothing looked out of place. Driving to work though, I realized that my steering wheel was about 15-30 degrees to the left in order to drive strait.

Dropped it off at the shop first thing this morning and they're telling me that the digital inspection is saying the Right front spindle and LCA are bent and need replaced.

Not that I don't believe them, but man, I was going maybe 2 mph, and fell all of ~6 inches onto the LCA. Does that seem possible to do? I was planning on installing some 5100's after Christmas so I guess I'll just do the whole thing. But just curious how likely it is that the LCA is actually bent.

Maaaaan, I just spent all weekend dropping my truck off all manner of rocks and ledges and powering uphill over stone and mud and didn't bend anything. That said I HAVE heard that our spindles are "skinny" and CAN bend but that's usually from something faaar more wreckless. If the drop took all the weight of the truck straight and immediately onto the LCA I suppose it COULD happen as opposed to scraping and banging a little bit.

If pricey, see if it would makes sense to run through ins and then use the money towards upgraded versions.

 

[2013SR5]

Thanks for all the replies. Unfortunately it happened the day before I had an early flight out of town so I didnt get to look at it to closely myself. When they told me $1400 I had my wife go get it and bring it home. When I get back in town Im going to block up the front end and get both tires off so i can compare driver to passenger side by side and see for myself. If there's nothing obvious Ill probably just try and have a (different) shop align it and see how the results come out.

 

[Jetboy]

One more supporting comment. Can you bend a spindle? yeah, probably. But it's really fawking hard to do. Can you bend a LCA? I honestly don't think so without doing something catastrophically stupid (or fun?). I think the frame tabs will give first. I've beat the shit out of mine without any damage. Even the upper control arms that are much weaker are almost impossible to actually damage. I've seen one example ever - and that was on a race truck in stock class that had a weld break on an upper control arm in SCORE race.

Most likely it's just alignment - or you bend the steering shaft. It's not overly strong if you were to find a way for the steering link to hit something.

 

[2013SR5]

Update:

Finally got back in town and had some time to look at it. I took the tire off and inspected everything, and honestly, nothing looked out of place/bent to me. Threw the tire back on and took it to Pep Boys for an alignment. I didnt tell them why it was out of alignment, I wanted to see if they would have any trouble with it. They got it aligned with no issues and everything seams to be good as new. Pretty sure Im done going to the old shop that wanted $1400 to replace the LCA and spindle.

Here are some pics. 1st pic is how far out of line the steering wheel was driving strait down the street. You can see the scuff on the LCA where it landed on the concrete right under the shock mount.


Thanks for all the advice. Glad it was nothing major, just pulled the trigger on some 5100s and will be putting them on next weekend. Glad Pep Boys offers lifetime alignments.

 

[JSparky]

Smart move, glad it worked out!

I rescued my friend's jeep from 4WP the other day.. she took it in for flighty steering and they wanted to charge thousands to replace a track bar and ball joints. What she needed was caster correction via adjustable control arms or control arm brackets (she was lifted 4" with no geometry correction). Their quoted work would have done nothing to resolve the problem. We were set to install some JKS brackets but she ended up trading it in for a TRD Pro 4Runner!

Long story short, I can't stand shops that rip people off, especially when it's so blatant. Kudos.

 

[LandCruiser]

Figured that it wasn't bent. It's damn near impossible to bugger an LCA unless they rust and seize into place like mine did and they looked like hell compared to yours with the truck still tracking relatively straight.