quick fix for bent rear axle/ hub? (please advise!)

[tylerwatts53]

Hi folks,

I was rear-ended in my '07 Yaris sedan a few days ago. The other driver clipped my right rear corner, and utterly smashed the right rear rim. When I put the spare on to drive it home, I noticed the right rear hub was significantly bent in at the front due to the collision; in other words, the right rear tire now has maybe 1/2" of toe-in. Naturally, this makes the handling not so great--although the car is still driveable--and of course is going to tear up that right rear tire in short order.

I'm looking to keep this baby road-worthy at minimal expense--I just don't think it's worth fixing up perfect (shop quoted $4900), especially because the car is probably not worth the repair cost (car has 186K miles). So I just want to hammer the body dents out a bit, put a new tail light and bumper cover in, and just keep driving it like that (I don't care about cosmetics!).

I'm thinking that to take out the toe-in and straighten that right rear hub I can pull the hub bolts and put a washer or two between the inner face of the hub and the axle flange on the front 2 hub bolts. I should be able to get the rear wheels parallel this way, but I would be increasing the rear track width (pushing the right rear wheel out maybe 1/4").

Any thoughts? Is this safe? Will it mess up the car's overall handling/ driveability, or is this a good idea to keep the car going without dumping a lot of money into a whole new rear axle assembly? Thanks.

[tylerwatts53]

OK, here's another idea--similar to my initial thought but perhaps safer...

Browsing around this forum I discovered hub spacers: http://www.penguingarage.com/HubSpacers/Spacer.html

OK, so I'm thinking I order myself some of these, and have one machined to basically a wedge-shape, tapered toward the front so as to eliminate the excessive toe-in on that rear wheel. I would also think to install one on the other side so as to maintain the same rear-to-front tire track ratio?

Again, any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm tempted to make myself some shims with washers (as suggested in my initial post), but these look like an actual "engineered" solution that I'm also thinking about.

[Exiwolfman]

i would say go to a junk yard and find rear axle...4 bolts per hub and 2 for shocks and 2 from body to axle providing that nothing is rusted and stuck u should be able to do it and would be more cost efficient than ur idea...call around see if u can locate what u need .

[ex-x-fire]

Yep, swap out that rear axle. Heck, if you don't want to do it yourself find a shop that will.

[tylerwatts53]

Good advice, guys! I found a good rear axle beam at the junkyard for $300, and spent the afternoon putting it in. Also hammered out the dents and put a new right taillight housing in. Now I'm driving with confidence. :thumbup:

[Exiwolfman]

Good advice, guys! I found a good rear axle beam at the junkyard for $300, and spent the afternoon putting it in. Also hammered out the dents and put a new right taillight housing in. Now I'm driving with confidence. :thumbup:


:w00t:

[yougojay]

Good advice, guys! I found a good rear axle beam at the junkyard for $300, and spent the afternoon putting it in. Also hammered out the dents and put a new right taillight housing in. Now I'm driving with confidence. :thumbup:
That's great! I give you guys a LOT of credit. Doubt I'd ever tackle something like that. :w00t: