Elantra in a crash -- help! Advice needed.

Hey all!

My beloved 2003 Elantra was recently involved in a front end
collision. The damage was mostly confined to the front driver's side
fender and quarter panel, and the worst of it was that the front
driver's side tire was pushed back about an inch, so that it was
almost touching the wheel well. I just got it back from the repair
shop and was told they had to replace the control arm, spindle and
strut. The tires themselves are only a year old, and in great shape.

I took the car to a trusted local mechanic for an alignment and he
double checked the work the body shop had done, noting they had fixed
the problem with used parts. As far as he could tell, he thought they
did a decent job. After the alignment the car drives fairly well,
though I can feel a few more bumps in the road than I did before. But
there is one problem giving me some serious concern: when I make a
very hard right, the steering wheel and the tires basically stay put
and I have to more or less "force" them gently back into place. Left
turns and a soft right are no problem, but the steering wheel and
tires don't respond well at all after a hard right.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? I asked the local
mechanic and he's thinking the parts they used were faulty, but
wouldn't even hazard a guess beyond that. Between friends and sites
I've found online, I've heard everything suggested from bushrings to
tie rods, from ball joints to a faulty steering rack, and my head is
spinning.

I'll bring it back to the body shop soon, of course, but I wanted to
go back armed with at least a little information, a suggestion or two
for them to check out, something they perhaps missed. Forgive me being
an obvious novice. I'm not great at all with cars, and this is the
first accident of this kind which I've ever had in over 20 years of
driving.

Any advice, guidance, insights at all would be greatly appreciated!
And if I need to clarify anything, please ask away...

 

My beloved 2003 Elantra was recently involved in a front end

It seems like the first issue is the question about repairing the car with
used parts. If you're certain that's true then I would think bringing it to
the attention of the body shop would be the place to start. Regarding
alignment, perhaps the frame also needs to be checked?

 

Repairing cars with used parts is both common, and an approved practice.
Insurance companies are not bound to use new parts to repair cars. They are
obligated to restore a car to its pre-accident condition. For a 2003
vehicle, the use of used parts would be very appropriate.

The steering wheel not centering properly sounds most to me to be a strut
bearing. Pretty common symptom.

The OP made no reference to alignment problems.

 

A very thorough alignment check should be done by a shop with the to
credentials in alignments. Hopefully, the shop that did the alignmen
work checked the toe, caster, and camber, as those are all important, bu
steering axis inclination (and also possibly included angle) is als
important in this case.

I never got that deep into alignments, so I'd need to do some research t
refresh myself (or even do some new learning), but there are othe
potentially bent parts that could be causing this issue.

The only time I saw a car where the steering wouldn't recenter on its own
the issue was with the steering rack

 

It seems like the first issue is the question about repairing the car

I've never heard of repairing cars with used parts unless they are
specifically offered, usually as a cost saving measure. Even if one cannot
make an issue of the fact the parts are "used" it seems like a good idea to
confirm they are fully functional and not responsible for the problem the OP
is having.

 

It's not so common in your basic break/fix environment, but it is a daily
occurrance in collision repair. Don't take my word for it, ask any
insurance adjuster.

That's true, but as the OP stated, the parts and the work appeared to be
good as reviewed by his trusted mechanic. Could still be an adjustment
somewhere, could be a bad part, could be a lot of things. Hard to tell from
where I sit.