TL;DR: Hit a pothole, got car aligned, car is still pulling to the right. What should I check?
While travelling to the east coast from Texas, I hit a gnarly pothole which knocked my car out of alignment and slightly bent one of my turbine wheels (thankfully the tires were okay). To go straight, I had to hold the steering wheel so the angle sensor was reading ~7° but the car was not pulling any direction. I could release the steering wheel and the car would drive straight despite the crooked wheel.
I received a wildly expensive alignment at a VA Service Center (attached) and shortly after leaving, I noticed the car was now pulling to the right but much less dramatically than 7° thankfully. I was on vacation and wanted to get back to it so I scheduled an appointment back in Texas for when we returned to address this and several other issues. Upon returning home, I got the bent turbines swapped for my all-season 19" Tempest wheels and the issue persisted. I had the Service Center visit 2 days ago and the car was returned to me with no change in the steering at all despite being charged another $274 for an alignment and the tech saying that it wasn't pulling...
I poked around the suspension components several times since the pothole and just today noticed one of my sway bar link bushings is in need of replacing (attached as well) but I seriously doubt that's the culprit (I'll schedule some mobile service for that).
Is there anything else that I should check? I scoured the forums looking for potential issues/fixes and have found a few, but my car doesn't seem to have any of them.
One of the most frustrating parts was I had finally resolved a long-standing steering issue and had the car aligned 2 days before this happened. It felt brand new for those 2 days and I miss it lol
While travelling to the east coast from Texas, I hit a gnarly pothole which knocked my car out of alignment and slightly bent one of my turbine wheels (thankfully the tires were okay). To go straight, I had to hold the steering wheel so the angle sensor was reading ~7° but the car was not pulling any direction. I could release the steering wheel and the car would drive straight despite the crooked wheel.
I received a wildly expensive alignment at a VA Service Center (attached) and shortly after leaving, I noticed the car was now pulling to the right but much less dramatically than 7° thankfully. I was on vacation and wanted to get back to it so I scheduled an appointment back in Texas for when we returned to address this and several other issues. Upon returning home, I got the bent turbines swapped for my all-season 19" Tempest wheels and the issue persisted. I had the Service Center visit 2 days ago and the car was returned to me with no change in the steering at all despite being charged another $274 for an alignment and the tech saying that it wasn't pulling...
I poked around the suspension components several times since the pothole and just today noticed one of my sway bar link bushings is in need of replacing (attached as well) but I seriously doubt that's the culprit (I'll schedule some mobile service for that).
Is there anything else that I should check? I scoured the forums looking for potential issues/fixes and have found a few, but my car doesn't seem to have any of them.
One of the most frustrating parts was I had finally resolved a long-standing steering issue and had the car aligned 2 days before this happened. It felt brand new for those 2 days and I miss it lol