Hit a curb with 335xi

Hello, I am new to this forum. I got caught in a snow storm with my 2009 335xi the other day with my summer tires on still and hit a curb at a low speed with my back passenger side tire then the car swung and just grazed the front passenger tire.

I had the car flatbed towed home and installed the winter tires and inspected the suspension. You can visually see the passenger side rear tire is bent in and the lower control arm bushing appears distorted. When I drive the car it is all over the road and it feels like the rear passenger rim is really distorted even though I put my good rims on with the winter tires.

It seems really odd as all the linkage arms and control arms are straight and nothing appeared to have moved on the alignment bolts from the jolt.

The AWD light came on when I drove it with the summer tires to a nearby parking light after the impact, but is off now. I think the rear drivetrain gearbox may be damaged internally just by the way the car is driving.

Can't get into dealer until November 25th and am kind of at a loss with trying to figure out what the real problem is, besides keeping my summer tires on too long!

Any ideas or help would be apprecriated. Thanks

Have you called your insurance agent yet to report the collision?

sounds like you have a control arm or worse tweaked. possible you distorted the suspension mount points. nothing you can really do except not drive it till you can get it flatbedded to the dealer.

I haven't report this incident to my insurance yet. I will be contacting them Monday morning.

The car has been delivered to the dealer and I am hoping they can get it in to at least have a look at it this week.

Thanks for the response. Hopefully there isn't too much damage!

I know this thread is over a year old, but interested in the outcome. Same thing happened to me last night on my way home. Luckily I was a block from my house and was able to get it back into my driveway. Same car... 335xi but 2008. I'm a DIY guy, but need to get some input on dealer cost for this type of fix, so any help would be appreciated.

it appears the AWD didnt help too much in the snow

Originally Posted by hondo402000

it appears the AWD didnt help too much in the snow

summer tires + snow= threads like these! AWD will be of little help.

Agreed... All AWD is good for most of the time is getting off the line quicker. Doesn't help you stop, turn or become a better driver (obviously). I'm going to jack it up tomorrow to see if I notice anything obvious. Worse case scenario is that I DON'T see anything obvious which would make estimating cost impossible.

Originally Posted by 71Tuxedo

Agreed... All AWD is good for most of the time is getting off the line quicker. Doesn't help you stop, turn or become a better driver (obviously). I'm going to jack it up tomorrow to see if I notice anything obvious. Worse case scenario is that I DON'T see anything obvious which would make estimating cost impossible.

Unless the damage is severe, spotting a bent control arm, strut or tierod end is difficult for anyone other than an expert. I do a lot of alignments for body shops and it is amazing the number of cars which cannot be brought into spec because of damage which was not visible to the body shop estimator or the insurance adjustor.

So I got under the car this morning... 19 degrees, but sunny :-). Good news is I see the damage, bad news is that it's the bracket that is welded to the main cradle. Its the mounting point for the lower control arm... or what appears to be referred to as the track bar. I have pictures to share so I can get some real opinions, but couldn't see how to post from my folder. Looks like an insurance claim is in my future, but my fear is that whoever they send me to fix it will repair rather than replace... which is fine, but then there would be no reason to make a claim as it doesn't seem to be too difficult to straighten. BMW on the other hand would most likely replace the whole cradle I would think. My deductable is $750, and the cradle itself is around $800... which would of course be marked up 100% and then all the labor of course.

I didn't want to hijack the threaqd... but it seems as though the original author was 1 and done, so I kept it simple and used this.

I'm only updating this to provide some info for the next poor guy or gal that does this. My car will be done this week. They (Collex) will be replacing the rear frame cradle and some of the rear suspension, not all. Total cost was quoted at $1892. Not nearly as bad as I thought.

Originally Posted by 71Tuxedo

I'm only updating this to provide some info for the next poor guy or gal that does this. My car will be done this week. They (Collex) will be replacing the rear frame cradle and some of the rear suspension, not all. Total cost was quoted at $1892. Not nearly as bad as I thought.

New or salvage parts?

Cradle is most likely a used part... They stated that they would utilize a used piece if available. That and 1 reconditioned rim were discussed up front. Everything else is new.