Going out on a limb here. Keep the guns lowered and uncocked.
The missus looked down whilst driving and hit a big-ass pothole. I established this whilst driving and all steering warnings lit up. Steering was also well off centre. Called my beloved with an indirect question: so how big was the pothole you hit? She is a sucker for honesty: I am so sorry (along with long excuse and more apologies).
Took it back home and found the left lower control arm was bent. I got a price on a replacement from BMW and an estimate to fit. Not crazy amounts, but I wondered if a simple heat application could save my fear - nay terror - of potholes. So I placed the control arm on a jack (with the weight of the car 'left-front' acting as its own 'press'), and gently applied heat from a small canister type blow-torch to the area in red with greater focus on the red arrow - I applied heat for a few minutes, carefully monitoring any bending movement. The control arm bend slowly straightened up ... near perfect.
Sent the BMW in for alignment and assessment and established the toe and camber were slightly out, which was corrected.
A concern of control arm integrity (internal compromise) is reasonable. A repair of this nature evidently carries risk ... I await an avalanche of criticism
In my defence, the wheel alignment company is going to repair my slightly buckled rim ... they use heat (just saying ) 
30cm ruler for perspective ... bigass pothole for sure
The missus looked down whilst driving and hit a big-ass pothole. I established this whilst driving and all steering warnings lit up. Steering was also well off centre. Called my beloved with an indirect question: so how big was the pothole you hit? She is a sucker for honesty: I am so sorry (along with long excuse and more apologies).
Took it back home and found the left lower control arm was bent. I got a price on a replacement from BMW and an estimate to fit. Not crazy amounts, but I wondered if a simple heat application could save my fear - nay terror - of potholes. So I placed the control arm on a jack (with the weight of the car 'left-front' acting as its own 'press'), and gently applied heat from a small canister type blow-torch to the area in red with greater focus on the red arrow - I applied heat for a few minutes, carefully monitoring any bending movement. The control arm bend slowly straightened up ... near perfect.
Sent the BMW in for alignment and assessment and established the toe and camber were slightly out, which was corrected.
A concern of control arm integrity (internal compromise) is reasonable. A repair of this nature evidently carries risk ... I await an avalanche of criticism
In my defence, the wheel alignment company is going to repair my slightly buckled rim ... they use heat (just saying
) 30cm ruler for perspective ... bigass pothole for sure
