Frame Damage

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

Reply to
SuperPoo
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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.
Reply to
BSackamano

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

Reply to
Al

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

--

1983 Honda V45 Magna 2001 Chevy Astro AWD (wife's) 2004 Subaru Forester Turbo 5-Speed

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Reply to
Ignignokt

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

Reply to
Anonymous

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