I bought this car 1 month ago exactly with 15,500 milages. I now have 17,000 milages. I did some normal driving and some drifting with the car.

I let my cousin drift my car and he crashed the car. He lost control and drove over the sidewalk bump. A big thud sound came, and after a quick inspection, we realized that the front right tire popped. Its a Michelin tire that came with the CPO. Tire pressure was 35, I checked few days before the crash.

My cousin got the tires replaced and paid a full tank of gas, good guy. He also gave me 50$ in case alignment issues occurred.

The car no longer goes straight, it always pulls slightly to the right.

Is this normal? And how much does an alignment cost on this car? I got a quote at the dealer, the inspection cost alone scared me off.

 

Your cousin may need to give you more $$ especially if you plan to take the car to the dealership for service! A local shop might charge $50-$75 for an alignment. I was able to get an alignment on special for $99 from a Lexus dealership (https://www.lexusofroute10.com/servicespecials/). Usually an alignment at the dealership is anywhere between $100 - $200. See if you can get your preferred dealer to match that $99 price.

Since the issue you are having is likely a suspension problem, you may need to pay out of pocket for a diagnostic fee which they may not charge if they are able to bill the problem to Lexus corporate as a warranty-related issue/fix. The simplest solution is to get an alignment and balancing and see if that helps.

Otherwise, if the alignment doesn't help, there may be other suspension damage that isn't obvious after your cousin hit the curb that will need to be looked into.

 

If you hit a curb, you need, at the very least, an alignment. You should also have the front subframe alignment checked, as well as the tie rods and all of the articulation points in the front suspension to ensure that you did not tear a bushing, blow a ball joint, or, in an extreme case, round out a control arm eyelet or bend a strut tower/control arm. If severe damage is found, it may be prudent to inspect the steering rack mounting points as well.

Sliding a car into the curb is the equivalent of hitting a wheel with a 4000lbs sledgehammer at whatever speed you were traveling. If the wheel was turned into the curb and rolled up onto it, the tire, spring, and damper will have absorbed much of the impact and you are less likely to have suffered serious damage, but if the wheel hit the curb perpendicularly (on the face as opposed to the tire), the entire force of the hit would be distributed through the suspension members and mounting points (bolts, bushings, and eyelets).

Good luck. I am interested to hear the results of the inspection.

 

Pulling in any direction is definitely not normal. Best to have someone check it, you wouldn't want the issue to cause bigger problems down the road. Hopefully its nothing too major.

One more thing; if you're gonna drift/swing the car, at least post some videos so we can check it out! Just kidding.

Good luck, let us know outcome.

 

I hate to say this but you may be out of pocket on this one. If he hit the curb, he may have bent several suspension components. I'm thinking lower control arm, tie rods, maybe even the steering rack.

 

It’s not a drift car to begin with. Even if you do alignment, you still have to do zero point calibration on the ECU sensors etc etc.

Maybe time to sell the car to prevent expensive repair costs down the line with all the suspension components.

 

Why would you drift an automatic and a GS350 at that lol

 

Selling may be hard if nothing gets fixed. They'll probably give it a quick test drive and notice something is not right. Even if there are underlying issues that you try to cover up.

 

Interesting.