Frame Damage

[SuperPoo]

Last week a Nissan Altima plowed into the rear of my '02 WRX wagon at 30+
mph. I wish I had taken pictures. My Subaru looked reasonably good, the
Altima looked like it was a total loss. However looks were not the whole
story. My WRX has frame and chassis damage. The body shop says the will have
to weld some mounts back on (sway bar I think.) and the car will have to
spend some time on the frame machine being straightened. I am not so
concerned with the welding but past experience has taught me that frame
pulling is not a precise science and cars that have been straightened are
never the same. The last accident I was in was 15 years ago and my car at
that time suffered similar damage to my WRX-- it was "repaired", it looked
good but wore rear tires out like crazy and never felt the same. (It was a
Nissan Z) The body shop is telling me I will not have these problems this
time, they swear the frame fixing technology is far superior to 15 years ago
and that my car will be like new. (The shop kept pointing out they use
lasers now!-- that is the same thing I was told 15 years ago.) Am I wrong to
be concerned? Will the car be as rigid, as straight? If frame damage is not
an issue then why does CarMax advertise that they will never sell a used car
that has had frame damage? And in these days of CarFax reports am I looking
at diminished value when I goto sell or trade my car? Thanks.

Steve

 

[BSackamano]

I can comment on the quality of modern day frame straightening. My '99
4Runner suffered extensive front, passenger damage bending the frame and
nearly severing a motor mount. About $8000 and a few weeks later, it was
very difficult to tell by looking anything had happened. I figured driving
it would be a different story, but it wasn't. It drives EXACTLY the same
with no unusual tread wear (this was about 40,000 miles ago). I don't know
about the impact on resale, etc, but I was amazed by the quality of the
repair.

 

[Al]

Last week a Nissan Altima plowed into the rear of my '02 WRX wagon at 30+
mph. I wish I had taken pictures. My Subaru looked reasonably good, the
Altima looked like it was a total loss. However looks were not the whole
story. My WRX has frame and chassis damage. The body shop says the will have
to weld some mounts back on (sway bar I think.) and the car will have to
spend some time on the frame machine being straightened. I am not so
concerned with the welding but past experience has taught me that frame
pulling is not a precise science and cars that have been straightened are
never the same. The last accident I was in was 15 years ago and my car at
that time suffered similar damage to my WRX-- it was "repaired", it looked
good but wore rear tires out like crazy and never felt the same. (It was a
Nissan Z) The body shop is telling me I will not have these problems this
time, they swear the frame fixing technology is far superior to 15 years ago
and that my car will be like new. (The shop kept pointing out they use
lasers now!-- that is the same thing I was told 15 years ago.) Am I wrong to
be concerned? Will the car be as rigid, as straight? If frame damage is not
an issue then why does CarMax advertise that they will never sell a used car
that has had frame damage? And in these days of CarFax reports am I looking
at diminished value when I goto sell or trade my car? Thanks.

Steve

If you're in Eastern Mass., go to Suburban Auto in Needham. They will do
an excellent job. The business is owned by a family friend.

Al

 

[Ignignokt]

SuperPoo wrote:

Am I wrong to be concerned? Will the car be as rigid, as
straight? If frame damage is not an issue then why does CarMax
advertise that they will never sell a used car that has had frame
damage? And in these days of CarFax reports am I looking at
diminished value when I goto sell or trade my car? Thanks.

I hate to be a nay-sayer, but I share SuperPoo's concerns about frame
straightening, and specifically *don't* share the confidence of either Al or
Mr. / Ms. Sackamano.

Years ago, I bought a used Mercury Sable station wagon for my wife. It had
about 50k miles on it and looked and drove great! A couple thousand miles
after I bought it, it started to develop a shake at about 60 mph that got
progressively worse with increasing speed. And it also got progressively
worse with additional miles! We took the car to a tire shop (that also does
wheel alignments) and they informed me that the tires -- which were
brand-new when we bought the car -- had been irregularly worn and were the
cause of the vibration. There was no way to salvage the tires -- we could
either replace them or live with it. We directed them to perform a
four-wheel alignment and bought four brand-new tires.

Well, three separate four-wheel alignments later, we finally gave up. And
the car still eats through tires. We no longer own the car. My conscience
wouldn't allow me to sell it to somebody without advising them of the
problem, which meant that I wouldn't get much to speak of from selling it.
So with around 120k miles on the clock, we gave it to my wife's sister, who
desperately needed a reliable car to commute to work. It's *very* reliable,
and so long as you keep it below about 60 mph, you can get a decent amount
of mileage out of the tires. And since sis-in-law lives in urban New
Jersey, the car doesn't spend much time at highway speed anyway. The car
now has around 160k miles on the clock, and is still going strong. So it
worked out well for her.

I never did learn the reason for this car's rubber appetite, but my guess is
an accident that never quite got completely straightened out. Further
investigation revealed what appeared to be paint re-work, but CarFax didn't
turn up anything about a wreck. My only explanation is that no police
report or insurance claim were ever filed. There are any number of reasons
why this could have come to pass, none of them legal.

My advice: Keep yourself very sensitive to possible frame misalignment
issues, and don't hesitate to be a fly in the oatmeal of both the repair
shop and your insurance company. You're already going to be out your
insurance deductible, and you're entitled to a "proper" repair. If the
thing is eating through tires or exhibiting any other new and undesireable
behavior, I'd be taking it back to get it fixed "properly" -- on either the
insurance company's or the repair shop's dime. And let *them* fight about
which is to shoulder the financial burden -- it's not your problem. And if
the insurance company eventually complains that a "proper" repair is either
not possible or too expensive, then mention to them that if this is the
case, they should have totalled out the car in the first place.

Good luck,

- Greg Reed

 

[Guest]

the results of the repair will depend on how bad the damage is and the
skill of the mechanic, if the frame is wery badly damaged you should ask
the insurance company to take the car and pay its value and buy another
one, if you decide to fix it you need to find a good bodyshop, there are
at least 10 sloppy ones to every good 1 so choose carefully, possibly your
insurance company can help you to decide, they will ofcourse all tell you
they are the best in the busyness and usually add that every one else are
idiots, you can ask for a printout of the measurements and check for your
self, the max error is 3mm ,after the repair the wheels need to be
alligned, this is done with a computer controlled wheelallignment system
and it is very acurate ,if there is anything wrong you will see it on the
printout, usually there is an asterix where the errors are, no errors are
normal, if you see an error on the printout you simply tell the mechanic
to finish the job
if the car is properly fixed by a professional it will be as good as new