- 3,915
- California
- gdwest1
Ok, so heres the issue. (I know I talked about this in "What did you do to your car today" But i didnt want to spam that up with my issue
I have a 1992 Geo Tracker (Same thing as a Suzuki Vitara, Samurai, Sidekick, or Escudo) 4x4 LSi Convertible 5 speed manual. I've always been told by many people that such a vehicle was a fine item to take off-roading, and the suspension was fairly ideal for such adventures.
I was off-roading up in the mountains by where I live. (Lewiston, California if you must know) I was on an unpaved road, attempting to sharpen my skills at driving in treacherous or sub-ideal conditions. Parts of the road were totally dry, packed dirt, and other parts were covered in snow.
So I'm going about 35 on what was a dirt section, and there was a turn approaching. I go hard on the brakes, only to find that the "Dirt" had become Ice, that was much the same color as the dirt. Naturally, I locked up all 4, and turned to the right.
Why did I turn the wheel? Well, there was a bend approaching, and there were no guardrails. It would have been a pretty miserable fall. Catastrophic, requiring me to walk 10 miles back to where I was saying, needing a Winch, other truck, or tow truck to get out? Yes. And then having to repair the damage from the trees it would have hit.
So I turned right, Into the cliff face which was sloped at about 55 degrees. Rather than bring the vehicle to a stop, my car actually drove up onto the cliff for a few moments with both right tyres. It proceeded it bounce off, and then began to slide, with a bit of left spin back on the icy surface. I cranked hard left, because it felt like the right thing to do.
I finally came to a stop about 4 inches from the edge of the road. I did think that the front of my car was partially off the road, so I pulled the parking brake as hard as possible, jammed the foot brake, hoping it wouldnt slide off the road. I restarted the engine, jammed it into reverse, and dumped the clutch at about 4000 rpm while letting off both brakes.
Convinced that I was safely back on the road, I stopped the engine, got out, and took stock of my situation. Firstly, I looked at the right-front, expecting it to be caved in. After a careful inspection, I realised there was no body damage apart from a small scrape on the front bumper and the License(Registration) plate was bent quite badly. (It is fastened to the bumper, but the bottom hangs off by about half the height of the plate).
The side of the mountain had been slightly defaced by where I presumed the vehicle had hit it. The road surface itself was slippery to walk on, which was unexpected as I had been on the same bit of path about 30 minutes prior to the incident. Granted, I should have seen this as a possibility in a Alpine region in the winter, at about 17:00.
Anyways, I got back in my car, and turned the wheel to the right, and got underway. This is the first time I noticed the issue with the Steering wheel. It was off by about 170 degrees, anti-clockwise (Nearly upside-down, but not quite, Bottom-middle pointed to the right). I returned to my relatives, and telephoned my Father. He said that it may be that the steering rack was damaged, or it could be just badly out of alignment. Either way, I should shop around when I get home from my relatives and get a front-end alignment and ask them to check the Front suspension and steering rack. I went out and checked the front suspension myself multiple times, and everything seemed to be in its place, and symmetrical with the wheels pointed straight.
Nothing appeared to be broken, so I decided it was safe to return home in 2 days on a 30 mile-stretch of State Route 299, going east towards Redding. (By itself, 299 is a lovely driving road when you get a break in the traffic. Fully paved, some sections with multiple lanes which allow for more ideal driving lines, etc.) On my return journey, nothing appeared to be wrong or dangerous about the handling of my vehicle. The only thing wrong was a visually-distressing steering wheel.
So today, (the day after i got home) I went to Les Schwab, a Local-ish business with shops all over the West Coast, which my family has used for years. $56 and 50 minutes later, the man came out and said he had finished aligning the front end, and that he had tried to center the steering wheel, but couldnt. He suggested I try to take it off(Im 16, ffs.) and re-align it myself.
For some strange reason, at that moment this sounded perfectly reasonable. I got home, and my Father had already left for work. My mother thought this also sounded reasonable, but thought I should look online first to see how to do it(No, I was going to set about doing it with no instruction....). So now, I post a piece of this in the thread mentioned at the beginning of this one, and people start to tell me to take it back and make them do it. Will that be easy? Should I get my father to come with me? Any advice? Ideas? Suggestions?
I have a 1992 Geo Tracker (Same thing as a Suzuki Vitara, Samurai, Sidekick, or Escudo) 4x4 LSi Convertible 5 speed manual. I've always been told by many people that such a vehicle was a fine item to take off-roading, and the suspension was fairly ideal for such adventures.
I was off-roading up in the mountains by where I live. (Lewiston, California if you must know) I was on an unpaved road, attempting to sharpen my skills at driving in treacherous or sub-ideal conditions. Parts of the road were totally dry, packed dirt, and other parts were covered in snow.
So I'm going about 35 on what was a dirt section, and there was a turn approaching. I go hard on the brakes, only to find that the "Dirt" had become Ice, that was much the same color as the dirt. Naturally, I locked up all 4, and turned to the right.
Why did I turn the wheel? Well, there was a bend approaching, and there were no guardrails. It would have been a pretty miserable fall. Catastrophic, requiring me to walk 10 miles back to where I was saying, needing a Winch, other truck, or tow truck to get out? Yes. And then having to repair the damage from the trees it would have hit.
So I turned right, Into the cliff face which was sloped at about 55 degrees. Rather than bring the vehicle to a stop, my car actually drove up onto the cliff for a few moments with both right tyres. It proceeded it bounce off, and then began to slide, with a bit of left spin back on the icy surface. I cranked hard left, because it felt like the right thing to do.
I finally came to a stop about 4 inches from the edge of the road. I did think that the front of my car was partially off the road, so I pulled the parking brake as hard as possible, jammed the foot brake, hoping it wouldnt slide off the road. I restarted the engine, jammed it into reverse, and dumped the clutch at about 4000 rpm while letting off both brakes.
Convinced that I was safely back on the road, I stopped the engine, got out, and took stock of my situation. Firstly, I looked at the right-front, expecting it to be caved in. After a careful inspection, I realised there was no body damage apart from a small scrape on the front bumper and the License(Registration) plate was bent quite badly. (It is fastened to the bumper, but the bottom hangs off by about half the height of the plate).
The side of the mountain had been slightly defaced by where I presumed the vehicle had hit it. The road surface itself was slippery to walk on, which was unexpected as I had been on the same bit of path about 30 minutes prior to the incident. Granted, I should have seen this as a possibility in a Alpine region in the winter, at about 17:00.
Anyways, I got back in my car, and turned the wheel to the right, and got underway. This is the first time I noticed the issue with the Steering wheel. It was off by about 170 degrees, anti-clockwise (Nearly upside-down, but not quite, Bottom-middle pointed to the right). I returned to my relatives, and telephoned my Father. He said that it may be that the steering rack was damaged, or it could be just badly out of alignment. Either way, I should shop around when I get home from my relatives and get a front-end alignment and ask them to check the Front suspension and steering rack. I went out and checked the front suspension myself multiple times, and everything seemed to be in its place, and symmetrical with the wheels pointed straight.
Nothing appeared to be broken, so I decided it was safe to return home in 2 days on a 30 mile-stretch of State Route 299, going east towards Redding. (By itself, 299 is a lovely driving road when you get a break in the traffic. Fully paved, some sections with multiple lanes which allow for more ideal driving lines, etc.) On my return journey, nothing appeared to be wrong or dangerous about the handling of my vehicle. The only thing wrong was a visually-distressing steering wheel.
So today, (the day after i got home) I went to Les Schwab, a Local-ish business with shops all over the West Coast, which my family has used for years. $56 and 50 minutes later, the man came out and said he had finished aligning the front end, and that he had tried to center the steering wheel, but couldnt. He suggested I try to take it off(Im 16, ffs.) and re-align it myself.
For some strange reason, at that moment this sounded perfectly reasonable. I got home, and my Father had already left for work. My mother thought this also sounded reasonable, but thought I should look online first to see how to do it(No, I was going to set about doing it with no instruction....). So now, I post a piece of this in the thread mentioned at the beginning of this one, and people start to tell me to take it back and make them do it. Will that be easy? Should I get my father to come with me? Any advice? Ideas? Suggestions?
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