Front Steering Rattle

[MaxBell]

Hey all;

I have a new E30 that I pick up a few days ago, and in my excitement I drove it into a curb. (wet road + heavy foot = steering rattle)

I hit the curb going about 20 kph, and the curb was about 3 inches tall.

Getting worse by the day, I have a weird rattle in my front left wheel (the one that hit the curb first, almost head on. It is a knocking noise that happens mostly when I go over bumps. When I jack the car up, two things happen:

1) The strut makes a little bit of a groaning noise as the weight is taken off of it.

2) When there is no weight on the wheel, I can wiggle it left and right about a 1/2 inch. There isn't really any up and down movement though.

Off hand, does anyone know what this could be? I'm thinking wheel bearings, but I'm not sure. I'm going to be at the meet tonight, maybe I'll just ask around there.

Cheers.

[DYMO]

check your tie rods

left and right play usually means outer tie rod. (up and down is ball joint).
bearing would be play all around, and vibration that increases with speed

[SamE30e]

Has the wheel noticeably moved? Could be bent strut housing, inner or outer ball join, or tire rod end.

[Ceeker]

check your brake caliper; could have snapped something loose from the impact. a rattling may be the pads chattering. 1/2 inch of play from left to right is nothing. Normal wear. might want to check the anti sway bar link too. When you lift the car feel around for anything loose out of the ordinary. pull on stuff with you hand. look for anything which might look out of place or broken. Truly hard to diagnose over the internet. (Grin)

[MaxBell]

Thanks for your help guys, I'm putting it up on jacks tonight and getting dirty.