Hi everyone,

I spun out in the rain did a 180 and hit a curb really hard with the left rear wheel at about 90 km/h. I took the car to 3 mechanics, they all agreed that nothing is bent and pointed out that I needed to replace the RIGHT wheel bearing. The third mechanic did that, then I took the car for an alignment. The alignment mechanic told me that left rear bushings are seized and that the wheel is so bent that he doesn't want to touch it because he might break something. He was only able to align the rear left toe from 2.35 to 2.3 degrees.

He suggested that I need to replace the rear left spindle, shock, lower control arm as well as the bushings for camber and toe because he is not sure which part is bent.

Should I get a 5th opinion?? 3 of the 4 said there was nothing bent but it seems to me the alignment specialist had the right equipment to diagnose this problem.

I found a guy with an SC for parts. However, he told me that the wheel bearing on the left rear suspension is busted. Can I replace the parts listed above and keep my current wheel bearing? I'll get a new wheel bearing if I absolutely have to.

And finally - I was quoted 1150 for labor only to fix all this! After spending 1200 on replacing the right wheel bearing and a set of new wheels, I am willing to do this on my own.

Does anyone have a step by step process of how to do this repair?

What part of the rear suspension should I buy from the scrap guy??

I am in love with my SC and I need it to be back to normal...Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

My two cents. If it were me, I wound just replace those parts for piece of mind, and saftey.
Side note. Do u know what caused the spin out? Hydroplane ? Suspension? High boost. :-)

 

High boost

I agree, I need to replace them. I need instructions on how to do it though...Any ideas? Step by step with pictures/diagrams would be great.

Thanks for replying.

 

Download a pdf file for your SC's repair manual. There are alot of them for free by searching in google. That's what alot of people on here do.

 

It's not too complicated, just a bit tedious.

First, make sure to take off the ebrake cable, Follow the thick rubber cable that comes out of the hub towards the center of the car and up to the front of the car through the top of the tranny tunnel. Unhook it like you're unhooking a throttle cable and take the brackets off that hold the cable up. (make sure your e-brake is disengaged or this part will be pretty damn rough)

Follow the abs wire into the trunk through a hole/grommet and unplug the gray plug that's inside the trunk (you'll have to peel back some of the trunk liner to find it)

Get something like a pitman puller and take off the ball joints of the uca (up top), lca (towards the back of the hub/spindle), and the toe rod (towards the front of the hub). The traction rod is secured to the hub via a 19mm bolt/nut at the very bottom, so loosen that and you can take the hub out.

For the shock, you'll have to peel back more of the trunk area to get to the top mount of it, 3 12mm nuts. Just make sure to have the lca or shock supported so that the shock isn't pulling down while you loosen the nuts.

LCA will be held on by an eccentric bolt at the back of the subframe (19mm), which is also the arm that your shock is also bolted onto, so just unbolt the shock (19mm), and the sway bar (14mm and possibly some kinda allen wrench) and the arm should come free.

The bearing in the hub can be pressed out. It cost me $180 at a local pep boys for the bearing and the labor.

To be safe, I'd take pictures before you start so you have something to use as reference for re-installation. gl, and have fun. those ball joints are stubborn pieces of...........

edit: i kinda forgot a pretty important part. Your axle nut is a 32mm so you'll have to take out the cotter pin, the nut cover thing, and then loosen the nut and bang the axle out of the hub somehow.