Cross members first thing to fail hitting curbs?

[Kingo]

G'day
A mate of mine bought a VN S2 S pack manual that was defected.
Took it to regency and the guys there listed a few things including a bent radius rod.
Seems as though the car had taken a hit on the left side.
On closer inspection, we noticed that the radius rod was fine, but it was the cross member that was actually stuffed.
Anywho, fixed it all up and got it through.

Just last night, the same mate, same car, did a silly thing and ran up a curb at a bit of speed.
Popped both right hand tyres and guess what, bent the cross member.
It is pushed in at the front where the radius rod bolts on about 4cm.
Are these things made to break before other parts?
The front right tyre is now pushed back in the wheel arch so that when you turn the tyre rubs on the guard.
What else could he have possibly buggered up hitting a curb?
The camber of the wheels is now all over the shop, pulls to the right, and the steering wheel is off centre to the left quite a bit to drive straight

[88GreenVN]

The Z bar. Front chassis rail. Top strut mount and if it slapped the gutter with any side force at all the panhard rod mount can bend too.

[fazz1977]

I'd be checking tie rod ends, ball joints, the whole damn lot. I used to drive a mitsubishi that had fron end damage as result of a slight curb hit, was destroyed after that. After 3 front end rebuilds I replaced it with the VP.

No car likes hitting a curb at any speed. I'd be looking at everything.

[Kingo]

Oh boy

It was actually a median strip/turning lane thing.
Hit it like this, pretty much going straight, but the gutter parts were on an angle, the left side was nice and angled, but where the right side hit, the median strip gutter thing was pretty much straight up and down.
Imagine hitting a gutter on an angle, but the left side hit one of those 45 degree gutters, and the right side hit a 90 degree gutter.

He's feeling quite sorry for himself today
Looks like next weekend's going to be fun pulling out the engine, changing cross member and assessing damage.

Could have stuffed back end too by the sounds of things. Although I think the front end took the biggest hit, the front right tyre actually exploded into bits
If only he'd totally stuffed it, I coulda had his manual... darn haha

[Boonz]

have you tried loosening off the crossmember bolts and adjusting the position of it??? it can help a little bit sometimes depending on how bad the damage is

[Kingo]

Well today we just went and picked it up and drove it back to his joint, too damn hot to do anything (40 odd geez).
Had a quick squiz at it and you can see that the cross member is totally rooted.
The left side is normal, and you can see where the radius rod bolts on, the square front face of the cross member comes out about 5mm-1cm, but on the other side, that same square face has been pushed into the cross member about 1cm or so and the gap between the rubbers/cross member/radius rod washer is enough to stick your thumb in.. so i reckon a trip to u-pull-it is in order.
Last one was like $40 from memory, and they guy was like "what is that??"

[88GreenVN]

When my VN hit a gutter (preavios owner) it pushed the strut up in the mount and had to be bashed down with a sledgy and a block of wood before they could do a wheel alignment. The front wheel was still a few mm back but the car went straight down the road and is not chopping out tryes. So I have left it. I almost changed the x member. but decided to wait after the cost was explored. Now I wont do it. Cars good.

[Boonz]

might ahve to go see an engineer and get some advise if its only that that is bent... you could do a dodgey job and use a big slide hammer and oxy torch if you dont want to swap the whole x-member over

[Kingo]

The cross member is no worries changing over, its a weekend job and only $40.
I'm more worried about the other things that are more than likely rooted.
The fact that the tyre is pushed right back in the wheel arch (can't even get your hand between the tyre and the guard) seems bad.
Considering how much the cross member is pushed in, and the wheel seems pushed back more than how far the cross member is pushed in...
Bent strut?

[Boonz]

bent strut mount and lower control arm...possibly a collapsed lower ball joint could also make it look alot worse than it really is

[Kingo]

Cheers, well I have a nice list of things to check out next weekend.
Coz knowing him, he would be happy just changing the cross member, but if you are going to do a job, you might aswell do it right.
Especially seeing the engine has to come out anyway, might aswell do everything while there's plenty of room to work with

[VNCalais98K]

haha, i slammed a nissan exa sideways into a curb at 60 kliks.

Its such a crappy car that all the rear end spot welds broke before any of the suspension did.

No damage to any of the components, but the wheel sat in 45 degrees purely because the rear end turned to mush.

We ended up grinding an oval into the strut brackets so we could "adjust" the alignment enough to have the wheels sitting driveable, but even so the car would struggle to turn one way, and fall through a corner the other way.. it was hilarious...

Of course then we took it to the city and spent 15 minutes doing burnouts down hindley until it popped a head gasket...

Haha... i spent 12 months rebuilding the engine and swapping in the turbo and ####ed it all up within weeks...

Live and learn, ive matured now... :P

[Kingo]

G'day all again,
Just an update, got everything all fixed.

Turned out the cross member was pushed in and the radius rod on the right side was bent also.
Got a cross member from u-pull-it for $11 and a radius rod for $5.
Slapped it all together in about 3 & 1/2 hours, now it drives like nothing ever happened.
Not bad for $16 and an afternoons work.

Didn't need a wheel alignment or anything, tie rod ends etc were all fine