Car hit while stationary, does severe tire slant = bent axle?

edited to bring all text in view

my 2004 was involved in a hit and run accident the other night. I came out of the apartment to find it like this. The car seems to have been hit square in the driver side quarter panel. The rear doors still operate as normal and the rear hatch just scrapes the tail lamp just a bit but seems normal otherwise. What worries me is the passenger side rear tire. You can see it looks slanted and it appears the passenger side wheel got wedged up against the curb. The wheel and the hub are parallel. Does the entire rear axle needs replacing? Can the axle be straightened? Could it be possible that the suspension just got tweaked in some way to look like that? I haven't tried driving it yet.

 

Thanks very much for all the advice. I was switching insurance since Gieco almost doubled my rates slowly over 8 years without notifying me despite no accidents or tickets. Unfortunately i took my time getting new insurance since i had no need for the car and i didn't have it when this happened. I could do this myself but i'd have to do it on the street if i did so i think i will just take it in. Thanks again.

 

Oh thanks, ill have a look at those. I had a look underneath the car and just to replace the rear axle beam looks super easy. I mean there is only 6 connections to the frame total and they are all small'ish sized bolts and two of those are just the struts connections, just need a strut spring compressor for those. The hardest part looks like all the little brake line fluid connections, not sure how that'll be working with with all electronics. I have bled brakes once before, but with an old 1979 Olds.

 

Thanks valde3, no compressor needed, great. Thanks scona, will do a search.

Its pretty funny, my investigation into techstream software started me off at a $1,300 proposition and ended up and $20, or even less, from Ebay, new. More research needed.

 

Okay, i replaced the rear axle beam, the point where the hubs mount to the rear axle were definitely bent. Super easy job. Highly recommend doing this yourselves if ever in need. Turned out it only had 4 major connections to the car, two being the struts. The main two connections to the frame had nuts that held themselves taught after being tightened a bit, and so didn't even require me to hold the nut while tightening or loosening the other side. For brake bleeding, i learned that the rears don't require any special procedures (that i know of) and require the system to be in full operational condition when bleeding, so it was just a matter connecting a $7 one-man brake bleed kit and depressing the brakes using my jack handle weighted with the jack itself, then opening the bleeder and closing it when the air stopped running. Very quick. I followed the advice by one of the geniuses on this forum to siphon up the brake fluid in the reservoir first then filling with new fluid of course before bleeding. As always i recommend using 3 or more jacks to make the job safe (and feel safe), i used 4 jacks. Thats what i do anyway, makes me feel safe to push and pull at will.

The brake drums were a pain in the nice person to get off the new (used) axle beam. For those that don't know, to get off a stuck brake drum, just put a proper metric sized bolt through the holes in the drum faces made for exactly that purpose. I borrowed metric bolts from the base of the hybrid battery pack within the car and then didn't put them back because thats how i roll (no im kidding, i put them back).

I got estimates to fix the damage between $5,000 and $10,000 due to the internal heavy metal being crushed somewhat to, beyond the quarter panel. I can't afford to fix the damage and only ever afforded the car in the first place with some money my grandma left after she passed away. I just moved to Longview from Seattle and have been trying to get a job for 6 months and am currently a parasite to my Mom's bank account which is major source of depression right now not knowing how and when i will be able to pay her back with a minimum wage job. Chris Randall, from car-part.com was nice enough to respond to my concerns about the rust and damage i was seeing in many other rear axle beam sale pictures and found a one off a 2008 with drum brakes in Nevada we assumed would have very little rust on it. $200.00 plus $25 for shipping was all they charged.

I also did manage to push the dent in the quarter panel about half way back to normal using a $20 8lb. sledge hammer and some 12in. 2x4s. I used string to hold the wood in place for each strike, using a make shift hook tied on one end anchored to the rear hatch well, string going under the wood, then back up over the well and all the way to the rear driver door catch where i wrapped it around that multiple times and it held with friction. Also some coat hangers to help maintain the position of the 2x4s.To get the rest of the way, i'm going to use some heat (carefully) on the next sunny day. The interior metal damage has effected the safety of the car and so i will have to notify a buyer about it when i sell it, so even if i fit it on the cheap, i will have lost a ton of money i think.

The hammering has separated the 1/4 panel from the internal parts, but when its all pulled, i'll just use the waterproof expanding foam to seal it then a 50 gallon drum of polish should make it all look like new. Pretty sure. I'm not a scientist.