2017 Acura RDX AWD Advance Package – Electric Power Steering Diagnosis Help

I just got into a slight fender bender a few days ago. Was angled out of a parallel parked spot waiting for traffic to clear. A school bus apparently wasn’t pay attention to every other car going around me and decided to hit me.

Driver mirror flew off, Fender hit (frame not touched). wheel and tires show minimal damage (small scratches), and scuffs here and there.

The alignment is definitely thrown off, Car needs to be pointed at the 11 o’clock position to drive straight.

I am currently waiting for a police report and going through insurance, however, I would like to make sure I have all the damages known in mind before taking it into a collision shop.

I inspected the ball joint and there is zero play, Inner and outer tie rods look straight on both sides. Because the tie rods are connected on the rear end of the front wheel, and I was hit on the front end of the wheel (turned left) I don’t see how a tie rod could have been bent. (In theory it would have been stretched). Would the “stretching” if even possible? destroy the internals of the electric power steering rack?

I looked at the lower control arm, and there doesn’t seem to be any stress fractures, and both sides of the wheels seem to be pointed in the same direction (just steering wheel is not at 12 o clock when both tires are pointed dead straight).

Driving it back home, I felt no major alignment issues (wobbles or noises) aside from the steering wheel being not straight. About 20 minutes into slowly driving home, I received a christmas tree worth of lights – Electric Power Steering Failure, Vehicle Stability Assist Failure, AWD failure, Hill Start Assist Failure, Adaptive Cruise Control Failure. This seems all related to the computer realizing the steering wheel is not straight and cannot accurately compensate/work in the even of any of the issues that may arise for those sensors, hence automatically throwing a warning light.

I have replaced a power steering rack in a 07 honda civic, and it was straight forward. However, with electronic power steering, there is 100% a computer storing codes.

Would this issue be 100% an Acura/Honda Dealer repair only on the computer side – clearing codes, alignment, and recalibrating? How can both wheels be driving straight (or at least far as the eye can tell) and the steering wheel no longer aligned without something broken?

I am trying to figure out what would be all the parts broken, would the entire rack be replaced? Or would I definitely have a broken suspension component? Does anyone know of an affordable scanner that can scan electric power steering codes and clear them?

When completing an alignment after the fact, would I be restricted to doing an alignment with Acura with them calibrating the electric power steering? Or would a regular alignment shop be able to do it without touching the computer?

Thanks for any information you can provide!