Is My Car Bent?

[petercronin]

Hi all, hopefully this is the right section. I was under my car yesterday trying to find a suspension noise when I noticed that some part of the structure has a gap in it, however the gap on the drivers side is around a quarter of the gap on the passenger side. Hopefully it'll be more clear in the pictures....

Drivers side:


Passenger side:


Can anybody shed any light on this? Is it normal or fixable if it isn't? The car drives perfectly fine, doesn't pull or make any unusual noises (other than the lower ball joint noise I was looking for). As far as I know the car hasn't been in any accidents and there are no obvious signs of repairs. The car is a 2011 reg full fat with cup chassis.

Also is that amount of corrosion normal? It seems excessive to me for a fairly young car.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

 

[chris1888-197]

Hi mate. The gap is between the front subframe and the cross member holding the radiator and stuff n place. It has aligning pins to align the 2 when refitting after removal. Wouldn't worry about it as when I removed the subframe l2 weeks ago found when putting the subframe back up there was a bit more of a gap on one side from the other. Prob been removed at some point. As for the corrosion mines was the same and I think maybe the undertray is trapping water corroding it.(just a thought). Wouldn't remove the undertary tho as stops damage , dirt and other stuff getting to the underside of the engine.

 

[petercronin]

Good to know and thanks for the reply Chris, you've put my mind at ease a bit. So there's no chance of anything becoming damaged from the misalignment?

 

[Matt197]

No idea about the gap but regarding the corrosion I think all are the same, rust protection is very poorly done if at all from the factory just painted.

When I had my MOT I was advised to get my radiator subframe and suspension component's protected before they completely rot, been looking into different options.

 

[chris1888-197]

Good to know and thanks for the reply Chris, you've put my mind at ease a bit. So there's no chance of anything becoming damaged from the misalignment?

Wouldn't think so mate, would just have a wee check make sure nothing is stretched like a hose or something like that. I would be more worried if it was the subframe misaligned as would affect tyre wear and stuff like that. As [MENTION=25476]Matt[/MENTION] 197 says the corrosion on the cross member is horrendous! Going to get something done with mine ie strenghened and maybe welded or somewhere for the water not to get trapped on it.