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Bad News Again


norcal505

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still pretty tired right now.

Last night around ten, some friends and I head out to the other side of town to watch the view.

Now, for the past few months, I've been having a problem with my steering, when I turned it would make noise, and it was noticeably rougher. It was also starting to loose P.S. fluid.

So last night, I'm going around a long curve at 25 mph obeying the limit, when all hell breaks loose. I feel the power steering start to fail, I try to counter act it, but it was very wet, and and boom.

I flew over a curb at ~20 mph.

Now, skip waiting 3 hours till 1 am when the tow truck finally shows up <_< , out in the wrong side of town, little sleep, and now.

Trying to assess the damage. Only a few days ago my local mechanic bet that I needed a new steering rack. Now, my Pass. side front fender is kinda bent (fixable probably), my foglight flew off, my bumpers crooked, and my perfect STI wheel is shit. I shed a tear for the loss. The wheel is completely off camber, c/c and pretty messed up. When turning the wheel, the wheel would rub on the inner fender, which is surprisingly fine.

This is completely my fault for ignoring warnings, and understating the issue. With the bimmer on stands, and the 240 at my relatives, I should have taken my bike. Now I'm paying for it.

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still pretty tired right now.

Last night around ten, some friends and I head out to the other side of town to watch the view.

Now, for the past few months, I've been having a problem with my steering, when I turned it would make noise, and it was noticeably rougher. It was also starting to loose P.S. fluid.

So last night, I'm going around a long curve at 25 mph obeying the limit, when all hell breaks loose. I feel the power steering start to fail, I try to counter act it, but it was very wet, and and boom.

I flew over a curb at ~20 mph.

Now, skip waiting 3 hours till 1 am when the tow truck finally shows up <_< , out in the wrong side of town, little sleep, and now.

Trying to assess the damage. Only a few days ago my local mechanic bet that I needed a new steering rack. Now, my Pass. side front fender is kinda bent (fixable probably), my foglight flew off, my bumpers crooked, and my perfect STI wheel is shit. I shed a tear for the loss. The wheel is completely off camber, c/c and pretty messed up. When turning the wheel, the wheel would rub on the inner fender, which is surprisingly fine.

This is completely my fault for ignoring warnings, and understating the issue. With the bimmer on stands, and the 240 at my relatives, I should have taken my bike. Now I'm paying for it.

Sorry to hear this. Hang in there! BTW, I bought a rebuilt steering rack from Brian Holm recently and it worked great. I think it was under $300.

-George

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Rob - your front frame rails bent down right before the cross member - you can see it kinked down in one of your pictures you sent out, and the inner fender is buckled. Middle of the picture in front of the cross member bolt - then see the kink in the inner fender above it.

4352065974_c3dafa61ca_b.jpg

Sadly - that's what also caused your dent in the fender - it needs to get pulled up and that dent would fix itself pretty much.

That's what's also tweaking the bumper crooked - so it should go back to normal once the frame rail is fixed.

It's a real easy fix, and since you have the body shop connection it should be cheap. Leave it as is and let them pull it out. Don't dissassemble it and don't do any more dent repairs - those are all clues they need for pulling.

Rabin

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alight rabin.

my control arm also got bent 90 degrees, and so is the strut rod.

how big of a deal/process do you think is the frame straightening?

so here is my quick checklist:

-straighten frame, as you said

-control arm

-strut arm

-new rim

-steering rack

-foglight

-front and rear rotors

-rear rotors.

this is gonna suck. <_<

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alight rabin.

my control arm also got bent 90 degrees, and so is the strut rod.

how big of a deal/process do you think is the frame straightening?

so here is my quick checklist:

-straighten frame, as you said

-control arm

-strut arm

-new rim

-steering rack

-foglight

-front and rear rotors

-rear rotors.

this is gonna suck. <_<

Sorry to hear about your car Rob. I hope that you can get it running and in tip top shape soon!

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Frame straighten should be real easy for a good frame guy. Lots there to hook onto, and once pulled out the dent in the inner fender well and the one in the panel itself will all but disappear. I'll defer to what the frame guy says - but from the pics it doesn't look bad. Should be way easier than doing the back...

As for the rest - ever thought about a parts car? Or hit up a wrecker and take the parts off that... I can pull off the strut assembly off a 505 Turbo really quick - trouble when working out in a yard is pulling tie rods and ball joint nuts off. In the garage I zip them off with air tools - in the boonies a socket can loosen the nut, but sometimes the tie rod just rotates and you can't do anything to hold the damn things. This happened recently when using black hazzard's front end on my 86' 505 Turbo so I could get it rolling. Luckily my buddy had a hack saw and I was able to cut the tie rod stud.

If you do decide to pull them off at a wrecker - put a jack under the tie rods BEFORE you start loosening the nut. Crank it up so the weight of the car is on the jack under the tie rod - then crack it. That extra pressure should hopefully prevent the tie rod from just turning when the nut cracks loose. Also clean the crap out of the threads on the tie rods and soak with PB Blaster or something. The rest of the bolts for removing the arms are real easy - never had a problem.

Also - the bolt that holds the lower suspension arm to the cross member is a bit different. Undo the nut, then smack the bolt out as it's got a knurled shaft at the other end. It should just have a round head on the bolt end which is the give away.

If you can find a decent 505 in the wrecker - all that stuff you need should be cheap. Paying for someone to take that stuff off for you will increase the price a lot.

Good luck man...

Rabin

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Thanks Rabin.

We have a family friend who owns a small independent Volvo shop downtown, and he has some good floor space inside. He's helped me with various installs, etc... You don't know how much I'd like to get a parts car, but we live in an area with HOA, and they're complete jerks. Our family already has four cars, and they bitch enough already.

For me, the hard part is going to be the frame straightened, as I will need to have someone else do it for me.

I have a quick question for you though, you're saying that small tweak in my frame is causing everything? (except for the broken rods)

I wanna know if my bumper is also salvageable, and the bend is just the frame releasing its weight off on it...

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That would be my guess Rob - with it tweaked down the way it is, the frame rail is tweaked down and that rail holds the front bumper shock. That's what's causing the twist in the bumper. DON'T take it off as it'll be a bugger to put back on.

I'd get it driveable by replacing the suspension arms, then take it to the body shop as is. They can then pull the frame rail back up, and then give it a wheel alignment.

If you were more experienced you could probably get close with a steel I-beam under the car. Chain the cross member to the I-beam, then use a bottle jack between the i-beam and the frame rail to jack the rail back up. The chain would hold the car down and the jack would force the rail back up. Jack until the kinks are gone and the bumper looks right.

For the cost though - frame shop shouldn't charge more than $100 to $200. Same guys that did the work on the back is where I'd go.

Rabinh

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yeah guys. just got quoted on steering racks, and it looks like the price is going to kick my ass ...worth almost as much as my car (to the common man). I'm gonna try and look for some used racks now.

Rabin, would you care to enlighten me?

i'm hearing a lot of terms around, from these pictures, exactly which parts do you see needing replacement? (from a best guess)

post-95-1266386259.jpg

post-95-1266386294.jpg

post-95-1266386330.jpg

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DUDE! First - WTH are you doing jacking the car up there?! lol

The jack points on the 505 are at the front on the cross member. The rectangular slots is where you hook the jack into - at the back those slots are right in front of each rear wheel. You jacked the car up in a totally non structural area and you can see the floor deforming.

OK - now for your front end damage, go to a wrecker and pull the whole corner off. I'd replace the strut as well as it took a massive impact to twist those arms that way. Pulling the strut with the arms in place would be cake. Three bolts up top, one bolt at the cross member under the engine, and the one big nut under the rad.

Since your rack is toast - it'd be a good idea to pull that as well.

If you pull this out of a turbo car, do the whole front end and get the upgraded brakes, stiffer anti-roll bar, vented brakes, and quicker steering rack. May as well upgrade the car with all this work...

Rabin

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haha, yeah i know these pics were taken by my dad, im up north right now...i think he's a little too old to realize what he's doing.

as for the tear down- there are barely any peugeots in the yards these days.[hopefully] with the help of a board member's parts cars, i can just grab the individual parts i need. as much as i'd like to harvest a turbo car, they're just extremely scarce now.

so lets see, tie rod, control arm, strut, steering rack. sound about right to you? lol shame about the strut, i just got it like 5000 miles ago :P

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Oh no, SO SORRY about the car! I'm not an expert by any means but it doesn't look that terrible. Is that rim a right-off or could it be "restored"?

My worst nightmare is getting into an accident with mine that would make it a write-off; it's not like these cars are exactly [easily] replaceable.

Good luck with everything!

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  • 4 weeks later...

lol my rims a gonner. i have chunk of it sitting on my bookshelf.

I probably have everything you need. Not from a turbo car but an 87 STX. It is getting into serious mud season here and the spot where the car is isn't good for working on it till it firms up a bit. Don't know how fast you want the parts.

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