Had to get my car towed to a shop recently.

Got AAA to come and flat bed the car. He ended up putting a strap on the lower control arm to get it up onto the flat bed. Since we couldn't get the lower grill out without being scared of breaking the plastic grill and cover.

My question is what kind of damage could this have caused any at all? I took the guys words in that moment but became worried afterwards once I put more thought into it.

Thanks!

Andrew

 

That's why there is a front towing eyelet (stored in spare tire well) on your car. Not to actually tow it, but certainly to get it on the flat bed.

 

I have that, getting to the front one proved difficult without breaking the grill pieces. Didn't find anything online ether to get the grill off. Back of the car at the time was blocked off too.

 

 

My bumper doesn't have that, it's in my lower grill according to my owners manual

 

Andrew, the center fin is supposed to remove and that will give you access to the hole to screw in the hook. I had to do this to mine and a little pushing on the center fin will cause it to pop off. If I remember right, you can grab the front edge of the fin and lift up and that will cause it to come free. Just remember that the hood is reverse threaded. So, it is righty loosey, lefty tighty.

 

I'll have to check it out once it's out of the shop, however can you tell me the dangers of the car being towed by the lower control arm? It seems to be steel, I just want to know what I should expect in terms of harm caused

 

Andrew, if they were just moving the car a few feet to get it on a flat bed, no issues. The strain is fairly constant and not all that great if the car is in neutral. If you are towing it down the road, then you can potentially have issues because of the jerking from accelerating, the tow vehicle taking off too fast, etc.

The lower control arm is pretty stout. Kinda has to be to handle all the pot holes that one hits in the life of the car. I really would not worry about it.

 

Thank you very much!