Advice Please!!

My wife drives a '92 Mercury Sable LS. 100,000 miles. VG Condition

Last week she was in an accident. A Honda Civic pulled out in front of her from an alley without stopping and my wife collided into the side of the offending vehicle. The side of the Civic was quite heavily damaged, but there was surprisingly little damage to my wife's car. The air bag did not go off. The front bumper was severely scratched and gouged, the licence plate was torn off, and the headlight assembly on one side was knocked loose. No big deal, maybe $500-$1000 damage.

The Sable seemed quite drivable although there was a little left pull in the steering (alignment?). Anyway, the next day I went to test drive the car and I noticed the heater wasn't working (blowing cold)...it had always worked fine before. I thought perhaps I had a rad leak. I checked and sure enough I was low on coolant. I filled it with water and the heater started working again. I drove around for a bit and then inspected the cooling system and couldn't find any obvious leaks. Everything seemed back to normal. A couple of days later the car starts to overheat. I pull over immediately and once it cools a bit I check the rad and it's low again. I refilled with water and it ran home ok, but I still didn't see any leak. I figured it for a slow leak and scheduled a repair ( for tomorrow) Today my wife called on the way home from work...the car is idling very rough. Then she calls again 10 minutes later...the car is overheating again. She pulled over immediately and waited for me. Again I see the coolant is low, but this time I check the oil and it looks like I have contaminated oil.

So I am concluding I have either a blown head gasket or a cracked block? Is this correct? Can a fairly minor front end collision cause something like this? If it is a serious engine problem I am anticipating a lot of grief from the insurance company (considering the muffler broke right off in the accident as well and they even gave me a hard time about that) Any advice appreciated. TIA

Reply to
wg bradley
Loading thread data ...

My wife was in a similar type accident, little damage to our van, a 93 aerostar, but a fair bit done to the other vehicle. Our van was actually parked and was hit from the front, dead on enough to cause my

2 kids standing inside the fan to fall over. The van seemed fine although 4 days later the transmission had to be replaced. The mechanic showed me the tranny after it was out and a couple of pins, teeth were bounching around in the tranny housing which eventually (over the 4 days) caused enough damage to crack the case. So, well I can't help you with your situation it's quite easy to see how these direct blow type accidents cause little (apparent) damage but in reality have done a fair bit. If you consider the fact that the energy being absorbed by your wife's car during the impact has to go somewhere.. If she were in neutral with her foot off the brake maybe things would have been better but who can plan that?! I'd have the car thoroughly checked by a reputal dealer/mechanic and tell them that you've just had an accident. This should make the insurance thing easier. Also, if you have any preaccident records stating the "health" of your wife's car (therefore problems the direct result of the accident) that will further your argument.

Good luck.

Cameron

Reply to
Cameron

A small leak will cause big problems. And yours is a big leak according to your report. Clearly the head gasket is blown at a minimum. This vehicle is worth nothing except salvage value. And the damage was caused by your continued use of the vehicle after the accident. The insurance company won't pay for your negligence.

Reply to
MaxAluminum

front of

scratched

assembly

damage.

(considering

I don't see how I was negligent. The insurance company asked me if it was "drivable" and I said it appeared to be, and they asked me to drive it in for inspection. When I took it to their inspection facility I told them that I thought I had a slow rad leak and they said they couldn't check it there and to instead have the shop look at it when you bring it in. The car was pulled over immediately when I was warned it was getting hot (before it rose into the "hot" range), and appeared to return to normal once more water was added. When are you saying the damage was done, and at what point was I acting unreasonably?

The other thing is this car was in extremely good condition for its age and fully loaded. If it is only a head gasket, isn't that repair less than the value of the car? I thought it was only a $1200 repair?

Thanks for you help.

Reply to
wg bradley

I agree with MaxAluminum, the damage was probably caused when you overheated repeatedly... and that isn't a small leak if you lose coolant that quick... I suggest you write that engine off in any event. You could pay all the money to fix the cooling system and the head (blown gasket or warped for instance) and find the block cracked... or at the very least find that the contaminated oil has damaged your crank bearings or something of the like.

If you are really attached to the car, try another engine, but... I wouldn't expect the insurance company to pay for it.. they tend to be difficult that way. Even more so because of your muffler... they'll just use that as an excuse to go off on a tangent about "pattern of misuse or neglect".

Good Luck.

Jason C.

Reply to
Jason Cluett

difficult that

Thanks for the advice. So it's not possible the damage was done in the accident? Because I had lost coolant the next day and I couldn't find any external leak in the cooling system.

Reply to
wg bradley

Yes, an impact can destroy an engine.

I drove 100 miles each way in a snowstorm last year to pick up and check out an engine with really low miles for a friend's Jeep.

The Jeep it came out of hit a tree and was too rusty to fix.

The engine was up on stands and I checked the oil. Full of metal flakes! I said to my friend, you don't want this engine. She was upset, but not as upset as the seller.

So we drained the oil through a sieve and magnet and tons of metal was in it.

At the very least the main thrust bearing on the crank was blown and tons of steel as well as bearing material came out. Maybe a chunk of piston too.

The owner gave her the new carb that was on it for her/our troubles and junked the engine. At least it wasn't a wasted trip.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

wg bradley wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

I'd also tend to blame a blown head gasket or cracked head on running without coolant before I'd think the collision would have somehow caused the engine damage (it ran fine after the collision and now it doesn't). You probably have a small leak in the radiator or a hose. Often hard to find as you have to build pressure before it leaks. With a 190+ degree thermostat in today's cars, the hot water will often evaporate before dripping to the ground.

Reply to
bobby

OK thanks guys...I guess we are screwed....she wanted a new car anyway. Cheers.

front of

scratched

assembly

damage.

(considering

Reply to
wg bradley

You were the victim here, WG. Make no mistake about that. Your wife did not cause the accident and it's no crime to be unaware of the mechanical implications. In good shape that wouldn't be even a $1200 car in my part of the world. I suggest making the best of it by trying to get reimbursed for the amount of the body damage from the insurance and perhaps parting the car out or selling it whole for perhaps $200 to the right buyer. Then, put the money toward something else.

Reply to
MaxAluminum

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.