1992 Saturn SL2 Probably unfixable or to costly but my last

WOLFVYN

MEMBER
1992 SATURN SL2
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
12,000 MILES

Probably a lost cause, but maybe you can help me out here a little.

Last night while he was driving my car my brother hit a patch of ice while making a left turn and ran into a snow bank. We got the car up today and my father says the chassis is bent and it looks like the right front wheel was moved backwards. There is a visible ripple in the metal. My father also says that he thinks something else may be broken, loose or damaged because when you turn the real you can feel it's not right. It's very loose and he says he can feel or hear a clunk noise or something.

here are the symptoms:

It pulls to the left while driving and any time it hits anything rough on the road it becomes erratic and difficult, practically impossible, to control.

According to my father we would have to repair the sub-frame, replace what ever part is broken and then do a wheel alignment. Even then he says we might find that it's beyond the tolerance a we can fix with an alignment. Now we don't have all the tools for that. I do most of the normal maintenance on my car, but from what he said this looks like something beyond my means to repair.

what do you think? Is my father right? Is there any other way to fix it? How much do you think it could cost?

Obviously I'm not driving it anymore, but it is my only vehicle and I can't afford to buy a new one. I could only afford this one because I was able to get a super deal on it for about $500 (Thank god for craigslist). I'm pretty screwed I think so any advice would be great.

I can't upload a picture now, but I may be able to later. Thanks for your time.

3 Replies

SATURNTECH9

MECHANIC
30,869 POSTS

Sounds like u have a bent subframe thats replaceable best place is find one at a junk yard maybe u could get one for a 100 or 200. To replace that u would need a engine support to hold up the engine and transmission. Otc makes one called the stinger thats the one I have and it costs just over 100.U may also have a bent lower control arm and maybe a bent strut or tie rod end.U will have to just look at it and see whats bent. If its only got a 120,000 miles and its in good shape I would get all the parts at the junk yard and replace the parts. Hope this helps u might want to get a list together for parts needed and price them out at the junk yard or pick apart if u have one and see what ur looking at to fix it. Let me know if u have anymore questions and some good pics on here wouldnt hurt ethier.