mitchntx

I think I understand this comment ...

The inner tie rod being knocked over the rack in the steering box IS a big deal. However, it would probably only affect toe, not camber/caster.

If you curbed it hard enough to bend and LCA, you probably bent the knuckle as well.

I had a Honda give me a glancing blow on the front wheel. It just barely scratched the center cap, to give you an idea of the force the car took. It never even scratched the paint on the fender!

Anyway, it did bend the knuckle.

And how you tell is when on an alignment rack, the tech should check for radial runout of the knuckle. That is how much angle change there is when the wheel is turned lock to lock. This is NOT typically checked and has to be asked for.

I imagine that if you look at the camber adjustment on both sides, you will see that the side that didn't get curbed is in a normal range of adjustment and the curbed side is all the way out to the edge to compensate for the bent knuckle. Or, worse yet, the untouched side is all the way IN and the side that got hit is all the way out.

Realize, these cars adjust in 1/10ths of a degree. If the knuckle was bent 5/10s of 1 degree (1/2 of a single degree), it would be all out of adjustment and you would never be able to see that minute of a bend with your eye.

A new knuckle runs about $160 and is a 45 minute job to replace ...