Saturday, January 29, 2011

Lotus damage assessment

Week before last I hit a curb while turning left onto Kuhio Street in Waikiki. I heard a loud bang as the car lept into the air, and when it came down the steering pulled to the left.

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I went back today to get a photo of the evil curb. Looks innocent enough, but at the time it was a dark and stormy morning. Unpainted, no lights, no reflectors. Left turn from left lane of a one-way street onto a wide street. You can see the island just to the left of the crosswalk. Today I cold see a lot of black scuff marks where cars have hit it. Traffic engineers are supposed to make safer roads, not obstacle courses.

The first thing I checked was wheel movement. LH slight vertical wobble, RH perfect. Could be hub bearing play.

Next came wheel runout. Both prefect. Off came the wheels. The photo sequence shows the damage visible without disassembly. (I usually reduce to 800x600 but I left these full size to allow zoom-in.)

LH

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Lotus110129-04 Lotus110129-05
RH

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Lotus110129-08 Lotus110129-09
LH
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RH
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Anti-roll bar - slight bend near LH end. Looks serviceable.

LH bar mount - badly bent. This is what hit the curb. Also need new bushings.

Both LH lower A-arms bent.

Tie rod boot - torn.

Tie rod end - lose.

The bottom of the LH shock is 2" aft of hub center. The RH side is slightly foreward, could be due to raised front.

Hub bearings - good.

A-arm inner bolts - no sign of damage, check when apart.

Frame - no damage.

Body - no damage, but one photo revealed possible hit inside air intake, not from this.

Trunnions - nothing obvious but should be checked after disassembly. Both sides should be painted.

Should replace those original brake hoses.

Put the wheels back on and parked. Now to find some parts.

posted from Bloggeroid

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