dmanic

Hello all,

My Nephew owns a 1999 rx300 and he had a little accident the other day. Basically he 50/50'd a guardrail (meaning he drove on top of one for about 50 feet). Most everything seems to be fine except the steering and the rear tire is rubbing on the strut now. I tried driving it about 1/8 of a mile, and it was extremely hot. My question is, is there an adjustment on the rear tire for camber, or could he have possibly bent the strut. All the struts were only a month or so old before this.
Thanks

kiwi

month old struts will bend.

you should not drive this.

most vehicles only have a toe adjustment in the rear.

something is bent or broken, quite possibly multiple things.

Lastly, this forum is for 2nd gen, not first.

HtownBlue

You've got bigger problems than you realize. You need to replace strut and possibly a-arms.

dmanic

Thanks... I understand that any part new or old can be bent, broken or just plain bad out of the box. I was giving history on the car. I'm just wondering if there was anything other than the struts back there that would cause something like this. Sorry about putting it in the wrong gen, i don't know much about Lexus, so i took a stab in the dark. I appreciate any info i can get on this

kiwi

there could be rods and arms back there that may look ok, but are bent.

the only way to tell (i have done this for a living) is put the car on the alignment rack, see whats out, and replace one piece at a time until the vehicle is within specs.

it can get expensive

dmanic

Thanks kiwi...
Do you know how to tell if a strut i bent. To the naked eye they look fine. Both rear tires are rubbing. I can see where he hit. it looks like a crossmember that is attached to the rear diff, but i would think that anything that was bent up would pull the bottom of the tires in???

Rainbird

This sounds expensive. Does your nephew have auto insurance? If so, he should file a claim and have them deal with it.

kiwi

the struts could be fine, might just be a lower control arm, or maybe the knuckle is toast, no way to know until an experienced tech gets the vehicle on the alignment rack

dmanic

Just PL/PD. If it's going to be expensive, we will just send it to a salvage yard.