Was driving home from work the other day, and I didn't realise it was wet snowing. Summer tires, apparently a little too hard on the gas around the corner put me in the position of either sliding towards oncoming traffic, or hopping a curb and hoping I didn't hit the telephone pole. Well unfortunately, i hit the pole. $2700 to get my rear inner fender pulled, skin cut and rewelded, painted along with the 2 doors I had to replace. I have to purchase the rear fender myself.

If anybody could give me a hand on matching this part, I am not sure what exactly it is. I think it is the upper control arm/bar, but before I order it I just want to make sure. Also, does anybody know what a rear fender will cost me and where I could pick it up?

In the picture with the fender, the hinges are bent and twisted and pulled the inner fender right out.

In the picture with the suspension, the hollow bar was attached to the stubby bar behind the left side of the rotor.

I still owe 8k on the car, bought it a couple years ago with low k's as my first serious car. I would realy hate to have to give up my 8, so I'm hoping I can get this fixed asap. I'm located in hamilton, ontario canada if that makes a difference in where I can get the fender.

Pictures wouldn't resize and I don't know how to change the image size on my camera, so I had to post off-site links to the pictures so they don't ruin this thread and make it massive for you all.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2pq6zas.jpg
http://tinypic.com/r/25ut8jc/6
http://tinypic.com/r/2ikws2a/6

 

Your "rear fender" isn't really a fender. Its part of the structural integrity of the unibody. Its not something you can easily replace. It would take a body shop extensive work to repair it and probably would involve a donor car for body parts. Its hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like the door frame is bent inward.

Have you put an insurance claim in? You're looking at several thousands of $$ form what I can see. The control arm should be the least of your concerns right now. I believe it is technically called the rear upper lateral link.

 

Since the car is already rusting underneath just don't bother repairing it. let them total it and buy something that wasn't driven in the winters.

 

What is sad
My car is not winter driven and both my rear quarter panels are rusting out.

 

The control arm is priority so I can drive it to the bodyshop, and my quote was $2700 for the car to look like it did before. Assuming that I am providing the part. I'm curious to whether or not the shop will be able to fix it to make it as strong as it was before the accident. Is this going to handle differently etc.

I'm really hoping not to have to buy a parts car for the 8, I am going to phone Mazda today to see if they can get one in for a reasonable price. Tho I will wait on a reply for my previous question before I actually order it. I'll go out and buy a new car if it's going to take from its handling capabilities.

 

So if I understand correctly, 2700 is just for the labor? What part are you providing? The control arm only or whatever is need for the body as well?

As far as the car driving and handling like it did before... I personally have never wrecked a car and had it repaired that extensively. I have heard though from others though that the car "never feels the same" Of course it all depends on the damage. Don't take my word as set in stone based only on a couple pics.

Make sure you have the rear subframe inspected closely as well. For the hit to be hard enough to literally break the control arm in 2 pieces, chances are something else will be bent as well. Look closely at the mounts for the control arm, the other control arms and bars down there as well. And the subframe itself.

I wish you luck but know this. The suspension in any car is very resilient to up and down movement in forward and backward motion. But when it takes an impact from the side it is weak and things can bent and break easily.

 

Hey man, I checked out underneath. It looks to only be the upper control arm that was snapped and nothing else is bent. For repairs, I have to replace the quarter panel, which is only 422$ from mazda suprisingly, so 2,700 + 422. That would fix all of the body damage, and I will have to buy and fix the suspension myself which seems like cake.

 

I would inspect the whole rear cradle. Just because it "looks" fine it doesn't mean it is.
Having a suspension link fail while driving is scary.

As I already stated the car is rusting underneath, this could be a nice chance to fix the issue before it is too late

 

The fact that it "looks" fine means nothing. Can you look at a car and determine that the alignment is off? If you hit hard enough to break a control arm, you most likely at the very least bent another suspension member(s) and/or mounting points. You need to have a professional check it out. Worst case you can replace the broken upper control arm then have it put on an alignment rack to determine if it can be properly aligned. Permanent changes to the suspension geometry will definitely make the car never feel right again.