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Nasty near-collision / WTB: 1 snowflake wheel



Had a lovely surprise yesterday.. was cresting a hill at 35 mph in the
right hand lane. Someone was turning left in the left hand lane and there
was a blue Taurus stopped behind them. Just before I passed them, the
impatient person behind them pulled out in to my lane about 30 feet in
front of me without accelerating. I slammed on the brakes and they locked
up... I was going to rear end them so I cut to the right. Curbed the hell
out of the wheel and ended up with the whole right side of the car on the
sidewalk.

The other car drove away before I could get out to yell at the
very-old-man driver. I was too shocked to get the plates. I have bare
minimum insurance so the whole thing is my loss.

Haven't gotten under the car with a straightedge yet to check the a-arms
and tie rods, but the definite damage is to the passenger side front wheel
and tire. Serious scuffing about 170 degrees around the lip of the wheel
and a large chunk of rubber missing from the sidewall. About 6 inches of
the lip is actually bent and broken inward.

The camber looks alright from eyeballing it but like I said I won't know
for sure until I get under the car (it's 40 degrees F outside right now so
I'm putting it off). The thing that scares me though is that the car now
pulls to the left when I let go of the wheel. Could this just be due to a
bent rim or does this mean I have bent the suspension or chassis in some
way? I wouldn't normally be too concerned but this happened at 35 mph, not
parallel-parking speeds.

Anyway, I don't want to keep driving around on a bent/mutilated rim so I
need to replace it ASAP. The thing is .. I don't have any money so even
$25 a wheel seems like a lot.

The wheel in question is a 14 inch "snowflake" type that I believe came
stock on some Rabbit GTIs. I don't care about appearance too much so if
you have a set of several wheels I'd gladly buy your "ugly duckling" if
it would save me a few bucks. Obviously, I'm not interested in seriously
curbed or bent wheels :)

If anybody in WA has one of these they'd be willing to sell me cheap,
please send me an e-mail..

Thanks..

-Toby