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Would pulling a car out of the mud by a wheel spoke damage anything ?

Nickyweg

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Hey! So I had my car winched out of the mud over the summer after swerving to avoid something in the road.

Basically they tied a rope to the wheel spoke and winched the car out. I involved me holding the wheel at full turn on each side. Because of how much force I had to put on the wheel, I’m unsure if this would have bent something. It was slow and gradual.

There doesn’t seem to be any strange tire wear and the alignment is still fine per the dealer.

The only oddity I noticed is that the steering wheel is easy to make bounce back and forth at low speeds but I’m not sure if it always did that.

I drift and need slight micro corrections on the freeway, but it seems to only have jolts to one side or the other when I’m going over road bumps or ruts.

Anyone think this winching could have messed anything up?
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atomicpunk

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Pulling the car out of the mud using the wheel could easily do damage, at a minimum get the alignment checked, that would easily show damage.
 
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Nickyweg

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Pulling the car out of the mud using the wheel could easily do damage, at a minimum get the alignment checked, that would easily show damage.
The dealer checked the alignment and said it was still good
 

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AZRobert

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You could have a tire shop put the wheel on a balancer - there is usually an arm that they use to check offset but it can also be used the make sure wheel is still true and has no run out.
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greengoblinmach

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Maybe check the steering rack. Not sure if there was enough force to damage anything in there but if you had to crank the wheel pretty good, maybe?

You’ll want to lift the front two wheels off the ground and turn the wheel lock to lock slowly. Feel for any roughness. Additionally, if there’s serious damage, you may notice the steering wheel is not totally straight after returning to center after a lock to lock. Or the steering wheel is straight but the wheels aren’t.

You can always align it back but the second you skip the damaged gear within the rack itself while steering, it will be out of whack once again.

I doubt this is the case as this type of damage is usually seen after an impact to the wheel. I have personally seen damage to the internals of the rack that can be originally thought to be alignment/suspension issues - want to reiterate that my experience is primarily AFTER an impact to the wheel from a collision scenario.

Just a thought..
 
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Nickyweg

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Maybe check the steering rack. Not sure if there was enough force to damage anything in there but if you had to crank the wheel pretty good, maybe?

You’ll want to lift the front two wheels off the ground and turn the wheel lock to lock slowly. Feel for any roughness. Additionally, if there’s serious damage, you may notice the steering wheel is not totally straight after returning to center after a lock to lock. Or the steering wheel is straight but the wheels aren’t.

You can always align it back but the second you skip the damaged gear within the rack itself while steering, it will be out of whack once again.

I doubt this is the case as this type of damage is usually seen after an impact to the wheel. I have personally seen damage to the internals of the rack that can be originally thought to be alignment/suspension issues - want to reiterate that my experience is primarily AFTER an impact to the wheel from a collision scenario.

Just a thought..
No roughness or clicking. The only thing, and I’m not sure if it’s always done this, but the steering feels kind of “bouncy” at low speeds ?
Like if I jiggle it a little to the left it’ll jiggle back to the right and vice versa.
 

KingKona

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Your suspension can handle tremendous forces in all directions, so it's virtually impossible to damage anything by pulling it out of the mud that way.

If it was, we'd all do suspension damage every time we hit a bump while cornering.

Relax, it's fine.
 
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Nickyweg

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Your suspension can handle tremendous forces in all directions, so it's virtually impossible to damage anything by pulling it out of the mud that way.

If it was, we'd all do suspension damage every time we hit a bump while cornering.

Relax, it's fine.
I was thinking steering more than suspension
 

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KingKona

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I was thinking steering more than suspension
Think about the forces exerted on the steering rack when you're turning/cornering, and hit a bump. Just like the suspension, the steering is tough.

Was the car pulled out by the FRONT wheel? Or the BACK wheel? You never said which.
 
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Nickyweg

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Think about the forces exerted on the steering rack when you're turning/cornering, and hit a bump. Just like the suspension, the steering is tough.

Was the car pulled out by the FRONT wheel? Or the BACK wheel? You never said which.
Front
 

JustSomeGuy

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Tow truck companies pull vehicles by the wheels onto flat beds all the time. It's usually through the wheel so most of the pressure is on the wheel and not a spoke, but if you have stock wheels (or quality aftermarket ones) it's not at issue to pull on a spoke.

Of course, if you set up the rope and have the tow vehicle floor it so there's a very abrupt yank on the spoke it could pull something out of alignment, but that doesn't seem like something you would do anyways...
 
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Nickyweg

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Tow truck companies pull vehicles by the wheels onto flat beds all the time. It's usually through the wheel so most of the pressure is on the wheel and not a spoke, but if you have stock wheels (or quality aftermarket ones) it's not at issue to pull on a spoke.

Of course, if you set up the rope and have the tow vehicle floor it so there's a very abrupt yank on the spoke it could pull something out of alignment, but that doesn't seem like something you would do anyways...
The only bad part is that the wheels were at full tilt in both directions to angle of being pulled out
 

JustSomeGuy

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The only bad part is that the wheels were at full tilt in both directions to angle of being pulled out
As long as it was pulled out slowly without any jerking it should be fine. I don’t blame you for having it checked, but it’s a relatively common practice.
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