hwo 2 tell if frame is bent?

[silvia Ks 91]

any ideas on hwo to tell if your frame is bent?
i had a little mis-hap last night. and went in to a ditch. and it was crazy hard for the tow truck to get me out. but it still drives straight. any ideas of how to tell if it is bent?

[Dousan_PG]

take it a shop that can check it
usually you can get a quote for free or for minimal cost

[zero.counter]

There is an old trick I used to use when I worked for a body shop eons ago. Find a good, dry space like a driveway. Wet all of the tires and drive in a straight line...carefully watching the tire thread. You can see if the frame is off by watching the wheel marks on the ground. If the tires are out of sync, you have a problem.

[WilloW]

Originally Posted by zero.counter

There is an old trick I used to use when I worked for a body shop eons ago. Find a good, dry space like a driveway. Wet all of the tires and drive in a straight line...carefully watching the tire thread. You can see if the frame is off by watching the wheel marks on the ground. If the tires are out of sync, you have a problem.

Thanks for the great tip man, I'm going to go try it.

[240Driver39]

there are also a series of measurements in the fsm if u dont feel like takin it to a professional...but..that being tedius and if it is off...well ur gonna have to take it to a professional anyhow..so i would just go to a shop..

[idlafie]

Originally Posted by silvia Ks 91

any ideas on hwo to tell if your frame is bent?
i had a little mis-hap last night. and went in to a ditch. and it was crazy hard for the tow truck to get me out. but it still drives straight. any ideas of how to tell if it is bent?

Jack the car up, take the rim/tires off, crawl underneath the car with a bright flashlight & inspect it for damages. Depending on how fast you were going at the time you went into the ditch, you should be able to spot any damage / scuffing to your car's underframe. While you're under the car, check your exhaust system too...you could have cracked one of the welds around your catalytic converter / resonator / muffler.
If the inspection turns out okay, then take the car for a test drive on a flat straight road. Check the alighment on your wheels first to make sure all your tires are even, then inflate all four tires to the same tire pressure. Once that's done, find a flat straight road that is level & even - you don't want a road with a slight slope...most have them for water drainage. While driving down the road, take your hands off the steering wheel for a few seconds & see if the car pull/drifts to one side. If it pulls drastically to one side then you might have some frame damage.
Chances are you didn't do any damage. The frame is pretty tough. I did the same thing a while back myself & learned a very important lesson that day the HARD way. I wasn't paying any attention to freeway traffic ahead of me when it abruptly stopped in front of me. I slammed on my brakes & locked them up in a sloping turn & went off road in my S14. After the towtruck wenched my car from out of the dirt, I was able to drive it home & inspect it. Bout the only damage I had was a scraped up front cross member, scratched up oil pan & cracked welds in my stock exhaust system. I was lucky...I came close to rolling my car on the downward slope of the hill I was on after I went off road. Most of my undercarraige damage came from the car sliding sideways off the asphalt roadway lip/edge into the dirt. Hearing the car scraping on the asphalt as i was going off road, then starting to slope downward as if it was going to roll was pretty damn scary. Boy was I glad the car stopped!!
Anyhow, hope this helps...
ID
"95 SE