HI There,

   I have a '96 C280 (right hand drive) that had an accident a couple of
nights ago that crashed into the pavement while turning into a corner and
was avoiding a dog that refused to went away from the road at about 40kms
per hour, at the time the left front wheel hit the pavement, with no or very
little body work damaged.

   The crashed was a bit serious, as the mechanic told me that the lower
control arm of the front left is bended, the drag link is dislocated and the
torsion bar  (which linked to the steering) is also bended. I also damaged
the alloy wheel even some of the alloy is dropped off at the scene. The
other parts are look (only by visual inspection) okay so far, especially the
suspension, the shocks and the other arms that link to the suspension. It
was the spring that bended a little to the rear because of the dislocation
of the wheel hub. I turned manually the wheel hub myself, but it seems
smooth, with little fraction. It seems the only big problem is to replace
all the joining sections which hold the front left wheel.

   I have the following questions:

1: Is it true that we have to replace the lower control arm first, and re-do
the wheel alignment before we can check if there's further problem(s) with
the front left wheel?

2: Will the incident damaged the whole suspension of the front-left wheel
(or even the right front)?

3: Will the incident affect the driving performance (in terms of the
steering, the size of the turning circle, turning stability at both low
speed and high speed, steering response, etc) after the replacement and the
repairment?

Any reply will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,
Joe.