FAAAACCKKK

"Denver Is Stuck In The 90s" (denver80222) 12/17/2015 at 00:03 • Filed to: None

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I slid into a curb on ice tonight, Now my alignment is 5 degrees off and there is a small amount of play in my drivers side ball joint. The worst part? I cant afford to fix it for 2 weeks and I need my truck to get to work. Its safe to drive, but this is gonna wreak havoc on my tires

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/17/2015 at 00:08

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Alignment off 5 degrees? You mean the steering wheel no longer points straight?

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 12/17/2015 at 00:10

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Yup

DrJohannVegas > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/17/2015 at 00:11

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Front wheel? 5 degrees is >20x the normal spec toe measurement on your truck. The effect on steering is not trivial. Ask if you can borrow a work truck, or something similar. Be safe, please.

edit: I know trig, and I know degrees don’t work that way. 5 degrees at the wheel is huge, though.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/17/2015 at 00:11

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Yup. That’s a bent tie rod. At the best. How fast did you hit it?

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 12/17/2015 at 00:16

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Dunno

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > DrJohannVegas 12/17/2015 at 00:24

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I kinda have no choice. I work 40 hours this week and I have $50 in the bank + my credit card is maxed out with a $300 bill. (Its my first credit card, dont judge my insanely low credit limit). I can try to convince my mom to let me drive our Odyssey, but that thing gets 14mpg as opposed to my ranger’s 16mpg.

And I get paid tomorrow, but it’ll only be about $350

DrJohannVegas > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/17/2015 at 00:46

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I know how this feels. I also once slid my car (admittedly, not a Ranger, but rather a mid-90s Saturn, by far the most road-worthy of the kinda-crappy cars I owned at the time) into a curb and messed up the steering. I, too was faced with this very choice.

Here’s the thing: in my mind, and I haven’t done the math here, the slight decrease in fuel economy outweighs the risk of another accident from the pretty bad steering issue you have going on here. I know that the thing to do seems to be “deal with it for now”, but let the wisdom of age and witnessing suspension failure tell you: take the Odyssey. It’s the long-term choice.

I would, by several orders of magnitude, prefer reading a post about you fixing your truck to a post about how things went horribly awry. Please don’t let a small mistake snowball into a much bigger mistake.

As for the credit thing: It’s all good. You’re smart to start now. As long as you make good decisions, the complex (but occasionally capricious) credit rating market will reward you when you decide to buy a house. Good luck with everything.

facw > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/17/2015 at 03:54

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Done that. Was lazy about getting my snow tires on. Hit a curb, bent a tie-rod, had to wait two days for the repair. Learned that lesson.

I agree with the others though, it sounds pretty iffy to drive, if you can borrow a car from family, do that. You don’t want the decreased control, and you definitely don’t want to risk it failing completely or your tire overheating and blowing out.

Jayhawk Jake > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 12/17/2015 at 07:35

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2 MPG when gas prices are at their lowest in 10 years is hardly worth getting hurt or further damaging your truck over. Just hypermile the thing if you're that worried about efficiency.