Time for some fixing on an old car. Could use some advice.

[thecoolnessrune]

Well me and the girlfriend went from Madison, WI to Bloomington, IL to enjoy lunch with my brother. On our way back about 30 miles into the return trip I notice a very harsh vibration coming from her steering wheel. I tell her to slow down (she was doing 80) and once we were around 30 the car was almost shaking itself apart. We pulled off at an exit and it became very apparent that something was wrong on the passenger side wheel / tire. Pulling next to a house was lucky, as the donut only had 15 psi in it and the scissor jack looked like it had never been used in its life. It was completely rusted and seized up. So, cutting through all the crap about getting the tire refilled and borrowing the strangers jack (Thank God he was there!), the car ran the rest of the 130 miles on the donut (at 50mph the whole way). So now the following questions remain:

Is the donut done at this point (reliably). Should I see about replacing it or throw it back in the trunk and hope its all good?

How can I tell if the tire is the problem or the wheel? I think the wheel is bent, as the wheel cover looked as if it was forced slightly off the wheel. Should I just take it to a decent shop and trust them not to try to take me for a ride?

I reckon we could have went as far as 15 miles with something wrong (At 80mph it wasn't too apparent at first that there was a problem, but I think it was definitely getting worse as we drove onward), so in such a case, should I go ahead and have the wheel bearing replaced? And if so, should all of them be replaced (they never have been)?

Where's the best place to pick up a new / refurbed steelie? I know about rockauto, but I thought I remember a link being posted about utilizing a salvage yard search engine but I couldn't find the thread. That certainly sounds like an option though if anyone could post the linkage.

Will this be a decent replacement scissor jack for the car or would there be a better suggestion. Remember this would be a replacement *emergency* jack for within the car, so I imagine a scissor jack would be the best solution or should I be looking at a bottle jack?

Just trying to figure out a good course of action for obviously as cheap as possible, since its a beater car anyways.

Car in question is a 1997 Mercury Tracer LS with 133k miles. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

 

[jlee]

www.car-part.com is what you were thinking of?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

That's the place! Thanks jlee!

 

[CraigRT]

That car uses a pretty common wheel/bolt pattern. You could probably just go to any yard and find a good wheel to match. Saturn wheels are the same as the ones on the car. 4x100. I've seen Escort GT rims on Saturns.

Just a heads up..

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Hit up car-part.com for a local yard. Steelies should be pretty cheap - got a complete set for my 98 Cavvy for $80 to wrap winter rubber on.
Edit : Dang it! Ninja-ed by jlee :S

 

[Bignate603]

If you go to a junkyard to get the wheel you can always ask if they have a jack for your car that isn't seized. Also, they might have a replacement donut that they'll let go cheap.

Also, any tire place worth a darn will be able to tell you if your wheel is screwed up. Go in there, tell them that you're that you need a replacement tire but you need to make sure the rim isn't damaged first. Many won't charge for a quick look but they may if they have to remove the tire from the rim.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Thanks for the posts so far you guys. You're right, the salvage yards are *definitely* gold mines and will let me get the replacement on the cheap.

The other question for me though is if the steelie got bent, can I assume that the tire is fine, and have it mounted on the replacement steelie? Or should I get a new tire? What's the chances that a Steelie from the yard will come with a decent tire already on it? As long as it doesn't appear dry-rotted and has partial air inflation to prevent sidewall cracking, it should be good permitting that there's tread on it?

And lastly, where do I dispose of the bent wheel?

This forum is awesome, I appreciate the help everyone. The girlfriend's parents are going through a death in the family, and since its cancer, its not pretty. It's almost all over (I expect death within the next 2 days), but in the mean time its left everything ran on razor thin margins not to mention disabled 1 of two cars. And the other car is always away with one of the family members staying with the dying family member. So right now we only have the car with the donut to ship us around for medicine and food supplies 😛

 

[Bignate603]

Thanks for the posts so far you guys. You're right, the salvage yards are *definitely* gold mines and will let me get the replacement on the cheap.

The other question for me though is if the steelie got bent, can I assume that the tire is fine, and have it mounted on the replacement steelie? Or should I get a new tire? What's the chances that a Steelie from the yard will come with a decent tire already on it? As long as it doesn't appear dry-rotted and has partial air inflation to prevent sidewall cracking, it should be good permitting that there's tread on it?

And lastly, where do I dispose of the bent wheel?

This forum is awesome, I appreciate the help everyone. The girlfriend's parents are going through a death in the family, and since its cancer, its not pretty. It's almost all over (I expect death within the next 2 days), but in the mean time its left everything ran on razor thin margins not to mention disabled 1 of two cars. And the other car is always away with one of the family members staying with the dying family member. So right now we only have the car with the donut to ship us around for medicine and food supplies 😛

Like I mentioned before, I would recommend taking it to a tire shop and ask if they'll inspect a tire and wheel to see if it is safe. Where are you located? There might be somebody here that can recommend a good place to go. I've personally had good service from discount tire and terrible service from pretty much every single tire place associated with a store that did a bunch of other things besides tires (pep boys, walmart, etc).

As for disposing of a bent wheel, it's just a hunk of metal. You can recycle it pretty much anywhere. When you pick up the replacement rim from the junkyard they'll probably take it off your hands to sell as scrap.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Like I mentioned before, I would recommend taking it to a tire shop and ask if they'll inspect a tire and wheel to see if it is safe. Where are you located? There might be somebody here that can recommend a good place to go. I've personally had good service from discount tire and terrible service from pretty much every single tire place associated with a store that did a bunch of other things besides tires (pep boys, walmart, etc).

As for disposing of a bent wheel, it's just a hunk of metal. You can recycle it pretty much anywhere. When you pick up the replacement rim from the junkyard they'll probably take it off your hands to sell as scrap.

I'm right near Madison, WI. I wonder if YoYo visits the garage section 😛

I'm looking around and there seems to be lots of tire places. Some are rusty hole-in-the-wall type places and other's look pretty nice. I can't really find any first-hand knowledge of the places yet though. We haven't really had a bad tire situation or bent rim issue before 😛

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[Bignate603]

I'm right near Madison, WI. I wonder if YoYo visits the garage section 😛

I'm looking around and there seems to be lots of tire places. Some are rusty hole-in-the-wall type places and other's look pretty nice. I can't really find any first-hand knowledge of the places yet though. We haven't really had a bad tire situation or bent rim issue before 😛

Thanks for the suggestions

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=disco...rby8Bg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&ved=0CBAQ_AU

There's a discount tire in Madison. I'd probably start there.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm right near Madison, WI. I wonder if YoYo visits the garage section 😛

I'm looking around and there seems to be lots of tire places. Some are rusty hole-in-the-wall type places and other's look pretty nice. I can't really find any first-hand knowledge of the places yet though. We haven't really had a bad tire situation or bent rim issue before 😛

Thanks for the suggestions

I don't, but I search for variants of my name every once in a while to see if I missed any references 😛

 

[BUTCH1]

www.car-part.com is what you were thinking of?

Wow, never even heard of that site, awesome!..