Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi All.

Just got rear ended by a 100 series Landy in my NK Pajero. Good news is that the Landy driver is insured so I can claim the damage. I was able to drive off but the Landy was stuffed (looks like a write off). Other than obvious damage is there anything In should tell the repairer to pay attention to? Obvious damage is:
Tow Bar and rear bar bumper bent and stuffed (will need replacing).
Rear Door Bent but opens and closes fine (will need replacing).
Front seats bent (will need replacing).
Stereo and surround came out and broke.

Car has rear leaf springs and does appear to drive fine.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Raurrie

rear diff?

check not bent

You may need an air locker to fix it.

check the chassis.. if ur front seat is bent.. well i dono how that happens :S

My 2000 NL was sadly shunted up the rear by a Commodore. It did incredible damage to him, but because I did not have the brakes on at the time, all I received was a massive acceleration whoomph.

The front seat backs collapsed, and my wife and I both got whiplash, from which I still suffer to this day... The panel beater said that they could not get replacement seats for it, even though it was less than 2 years old. I finished up arranging for a pair of Recaro seats, which came to $3300 fitted. New seat frames to replace the bent ones were $1800 EACH!, plus the work to strip and refit the upholstery. This price did not include the ratchet mechanisms, which were still OK. Something fishy here...

My Pajero needed a replacement bumper bar, a new towbar, a new exhaust tailpipe and not even a scratch on the paintwork, other than the mounting for the towing hook (which I had to do myself because the panelbeater left it rusty). The Commodore actually touched my LPG tank, but it was only a touch.

They supposedly checked the chassis for straightness, but I doubt that they did any damned thing apart from accept the money.

The gearbox obviously had a whack because you could see a mark on the rear gearbox mounting. The dust shield on the tailshaft was dislodged and rattled until a smart local mechanic noticed it. A minor resetting and it was fine. The car has done nearly 20000 km and nothing has failed in the transmission area as yet.

Check underneath yourself, or get an independant mechanic to do so. Look for signs of a bent or crinkled chassis rails, kinks in the tailshaft and ripples in the body aroound the roof and rear door hinge mounts. BEst of luck to you.

date wrote: The front seat backs collapsed, and my wife and I both got whiplash, from which I still suffer to this day... The panel beater said that they could not get replacement seats for it, even though it was less than 2 years old. I finished up arranging for a pair of Recaro seats, which came to $3300 fitted. New seat frames to replace the bent ones were $1800 EACH!, plus the work to strip and refit the upholstery. This price did not include the ratchet mechanisms, which were still OK. Something fishy here...

ouch who fitted your seats bill gates?

I thought it was a ripoff, but the local panelbeater was getting nowhere (read not doing anything about it), and I arranged thru the Insurance assessor for the Recaro seats. I had to do all the chasing myself, buy the seats myself and then wait for ages until the Insurance finally paid me (and only then after a lot of prodding). I didn't believe the $1800 each, but the assessor told me the price,as well as the panelbeater.

I still have the seats - upholstery perfect, frames straightened, but I wouldn't trust them in another rear end shunt. I did a lot of calculation to see if the seats were defective, but eventually concluded that they met the design criteria, which was a specified torque on the frames.

Based on the assumed acceleration I received, I calculated the torque applied to the seat frame and it came to within a bulls roar of what the failure criteria was. I estimated that the car received a 2 g acceleration. The Recaro seats are apparently designed for a 9 g acceleration. I have a long back and am fairly heavy, and my seat copped the worst bending. The passenger seat was less bent, but it did bend just the same. The Commodore drive helped me push the seats back upright before we drove him back to his home.

It was a pity, because we were happy with the original seating, and my wife says the Recaros are not as comfortable as the original seats. I know that I can get out after a full day's driving and not have a backache, whereas in her Magna I do get aches and pains.

By the way, I still have the original seats - the ratchet and upholstery are in A1 condition. If anyone wants them, $100 and they are yours. The car is a 2000 NL Escape. Seats grey fabric.

howd you manage to damage the front seats?

howd you manage to damage the front seats?

Not sure who you are asking - raurrie or date, but date can answer for him and probably raurrie as well. The sudden acceleration after the collision caused fairly high g forces on the whole car. The seat backs cannot take more than a relatively light loading, and they collapsed. In my case, it was a Commodore, and I didn't have the brakes on, so most of the Commodore's momentum was transferred to my Pajero. Mind you, it did shear off quite a bit of the Commodore's frontal stuff, but it was quite a whack. I imagine it was the same for raurrie, only in his case, it was a 100 series landcruiser - bigger, heavier and higher. Most of the Commodore went under my car - almost halfway back to the windscreen.