Old news, but if you havn't read it... this is what happened (I was driving home last night and turned left onto a steep hill and hit a saturn head on. My car was just barely over the yellow line, but unfortunetly their car was pretty much on the yellow line. My new headlight got shattered, the front bumper was cracked and caved in, fender is bent, window washer resivoir popped open (Scared the crap out of me, thought I was leaking more important fluid) and one of my Nitto's got a small piece cut off of it (not deep enough to pop it). The impact wasn't too bad, no airbag deployment, and infact I didn't even notice the CD skip. I drove the car home (only 2 miles) after exhanging information and the police report and the whole way home I drove about 20 and it kept pulling to the left and I could hear some grinding. When I got home it turned out taht I had dragged a huge freaking branch all the way home (must have gotten stuck under the car when I pulled it off the road)so I'm hoping that was the source of the grinding noise I was hearing, and hopefully the pull to the left as well.)

NEW INFO: Today I took off the bumper and fender to get a better look to see if I could do without the new core support, I don't think I can, it's bent up pretty bad. I also refilled my power steering resivoir and started up the car. When I started it up it bogged down a bit for a few seconds then was idling very strangly. I imediately went to the muffler and saw that there was a little bit of white smoke coming out of the exhaust! I'm really hoping that it didn't just look like white smoke since it's cold outside, or if it was infact white smoke. I let it heat up for a few minutes and it started to idle OK, not perfect. When I turned the steering wheel I still heard that strange noise, I drove it down the driveway and back and the steering made that noise the whole time, and it feels too loose. I'm **** out of luck because I have VERY little money right now... what do you guys think I should do???


More pictures down the page and info on page 2

 

- have replaced two power steering racks, when they went bad they made a squealing/screeching/grinding sound when turning the wheel

 

Sorry to hear about that...maybe the noise could be because you lost some power steering fluid on impact...like one of the hoses busted? When one of my other cars started making wierd noises while turning the wheel, it ended up being that I was way low on fluid. Start by checking that I guess?

 

Could just have pushed the fender into the belts or the lines. Definitely check the fluid level before you start the engine again as running without fluid will ruin your pump, and subsequently the rack.

 

yeah the resevoir is right behind your headlight and next to the driver side fender. if your washer fluid busted than it's possible youdid some damage to the resevoir lines and pump as well.

 

Cool, is it hard to replace the resivoir, pump, or lines? I'm trying to get my car running ASAP. I really wish it wasn't raining so I could get some pictures up to help...

 

no..and actually, i just rolled mine, and i took the power stering fluid resivor with both lines off of it...if you pay shipping, you can have it.
just PM me

 

more pictures

 

These wouldn't all fit in one post...

 

That's really not bad at all. Looks like you can replace the lights, fender, bumper, and hood and straighten the rest out. Doesn't seem like anything hit the wheel to mess up the alignment/suspension. Does your A/C still work? May have broken one of those lines.