I hit a lane divider, now my car pulls to the left. Will I do further damage by driving?

Will I do permanent damage to the ball joints, wheel bearings, or steering by driving with the truck out of alignment?

Like an idiot I drove over a concrete lane divider, didn't think it would do any damage. Now the truck pulls to the left, and I have to drive with the steering wheel cocked to the right to be able to drive straight.

At least it does not shake when I drive. I know at the very least I will "cup" the tires and wear them out early, but I can't afford to fix the damn alignment right now. What are your thoughts on possibly doing damage to the steering by driving like this? Thanks

 

Sorry to hear about the problem. Hopefully a first gen guru will be along shortly!

At what speed did you run over the lane divider? If you were at a slow speed / crawling then the issue may be a strong warning that something in the front steering/suspension is about to go tango uniform.

 

I hit it about 20 miles and hour. It was a jack ass move...won' be doing that again. I just can't afford to get it aligned right now, but also don't want to do even more damage.

 

Likely tweaked a tie rod. If there's no shake you probably won't damage anything, just the tire wear you're aware of.

 

I would not reccomend continuing to drive it until you at least have it checked out and make sure nothing is about to come apart/fall off and cause total loss of control.

If it's just out of alignment sure you can drive it but you will wear the hell out of the tires but I would suspect something got bent/broken from the hit for the alignment to shift that much.

If something is bent/broken then I wouldn't consider it safe to drive until it's properly repaired.

 

I'd start by inspecting the suspension components to see what is damaged. You could also try to do a string alignment at home which is free but not sure how that will work if you have busted parts.

 

My thoughts (wild guesses,) As mentioned have you looked at it closely? Costs nothing but time to jack it up and roll under.

First concern would be a damaged ball joint. These trucks have issues with them already, they arbitrarily break off at the ball. Were they ever swapped out for OEM ball joints? Any vertical movement when you try to pry them with a long crowbar is telling.

I think that would be the only real safety issue, if it's cracked or on it's way it could snap off at any time.

I don't have good news on the pull though. As mentioned it could have bent or damaged a tie rod but they're pretty stout. You'd get off cheap if an outer tie rod end is bent/cracked/otherwise damaged.

Mine had a pull to the right since I bought it. Turns out it was the steering rack. As mentioned the OTRE's are stout and could easily transfer the impact inward, damaging the rack internals. Forgiving other damage, this would be my first suspect.There is no real way that I know of to diagnose this, the one I replaced was solid without any apparent damage, but it was toast anyway.

Get it on good jackstands and have a look, that's where you start.

 

what does your steering wheel look like?
straight or cocked a lil bit to one side?

how about your rim?

 

was the divider like this K-Divider?

 

That does not look safe to run over!

 

Just go get an alignment

 

Seems like it might be a false economy to put off an unaffordable alignment and instead toast a more expensive set of front tires.

 

Some alignment places can do a pre check and let you know what needs to be done. They outright deny an alignment if somethings bent.

 

Thanks for the good advice.