Driveline vibration after rear tire gouge
 

On the way to get my exhaust done, I was just thinking to myself - the car is sooo nice and smooth doing 65 down the road.

When I pulled out of the shop, there is a steep curb, my rear tire caught my fender and bent it, and gouged the tire.

On the way home I noticed a vibration around 60mph. It fells like its from the rear of the car.. not in the steering wheel or anything.

My guess is I bent an axle. What does everyone think?

Here's a pic of the fender damage. It also took a good gash out of the tire... I had the tire balanced and it's still the same.

Could this bind have 'sprung' my driveshaft or bent a u-joint?

Help

http://onfinite.com/libraries/1694990/eb5.jpg

How fast where you going when this happened? It takes a fair amount of force to bend and axle.....

Hard to tell but how big of a chunk is there in the tire?

What type of rear suspension?

I was backing out and wan't going fast at all. It was a little slice taken off the edge. I don't think its the axle and the tire has been balanced now..

Tubular uppers and lowers, coil springs/shocks.

Here's an old pic before the exhaust work and rear discs

http://onfinite.com/libraries/1675667/db5.jpg

I still have the factory driveshaft and ujoints.... maybe the bind put pressure and tweaked one of the joints or something?

I love the use of that drip tray..

Thanks for your feedback.

Check your control arm bushings. You shouldn't have that much deflection.

You might have just thrown a wheel balancing weight off...

I think he had that wheel balanced, not sure about the other rear.

Did the curb incident cause the issue or the work the shop performed on the car?

Could the driveline balance have been disturbed by the shop?

I would bet you lunch the vibration is coming from the tire and that something happend to it internally to cause the vibration, even though it's been balanced. What you did shouldn't have harmed the axle or u-joints I don't think. Got access to another wheel and tire from a buddy to put on there just to test drive it?