When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I am a high school junior who apprentices at a european mechanic shop. I bought this as my first car less than a year ago. My dad got a new w211 wagon since his w210 costed too much to fix. Being the clean freak/master of mind control I am, I convinced him to let me drive his old car to work since I did not want dirt in my car. But, he did not have his new one yet, and did not want to drive the family dually, so he drove my car to get some groceries. After I got home from work, I was informed of the incident that had occurred. The body shop has informed me that there is underlying damage (will provide pictures). I am picking the car up soon and want to know if there is a possibility of other underlying damage and what questions regarding this I should ask and/or where I should inspect before taking delivery.
Attached are the photos of the accident scene and where they claim the trunk floor was pushed in. Also, the trunk and other bumper gaps do not line up.
Take the car to an approved MB body shop and you will have your answer in thirty minutes!! Remember the important word is approved not Buck Wheat Billy in Plains!!
As long as it drives okay and doesn't appear to be 'squirly', I'd keep the insurance money and keep driving it if I were you, seen more damage on my mountain bike than that.
you can leave it as-is (like suggested) and wait to see if uneven wear develops
on your tire tread. you can see if the steering continues to center okay. you
can have a four point alignment done. if alignment issues develop, you can opt
to have repairs done or go cheap, rotate tires and continue driving it to the ground.
you can bring to dealer and have laser/ultrasound alignment checks done to
determine the degree of frame damage (if any) just to satisfy yourself now.
you can't tell just by pictures you have the degree of frame damage...only that
they 'may' be
The pictures of the accident scene are about 2 months old and the pictures of the trunk area are from about 1.5 months ago when the car went into the bodyshop (ECR in Jonesboro, GA).
I'm asking what you guys think are important questions to ask about the repair (What type of sheet metal they used, what equipment they used to determine frame alignment, etc). I know a decent amount about cars, more so on diesels. I know very little on body work.
Once again, I apologize for the miscommunication on my part.
Technically the car does not have a frame. What you are seeing is damage to the uni-body. The rear suspension uses a sub-frame which is attached to the body in the wheel well area, as its most rearward attachment. I doubt very much that your distortion traveled forward enough to affect the sub-frame mount. Even if it did, a good body shop should have pulled the distortion out, so I would not expect a problem.
you can ask them whatever comes to mind. in all my years, I've never felt the
need to ask them the gauge of metalwork used. presumably, they use whatever
they invested in, equipment wise, to produce proper alignment, be it with a
measuring stick, ultrasound, or laser. depends on how big a business they are
and the level of commitment they put into owning the testing equipment. trade
info...usually behind the scenes though some folks are curious and wanting to be
informed consumer (or the engineer minded)
kind of like suspension alignment. you can use string, eyeball, laser, 2 or 4
point aligning/equipment. time, speed, precision = profits
Thanks Raymond!I always love informational booklets like these. I have bookcases full of them. So far the car looks fine. They replaced the cross members, the bent chrome strip and painted the bumper.
i'm a tech info junkie also. that probably explains why i paid $25 for that book
which is called the MB 1999 E320 Presentation Guide. It is <50 pages. THAT is
the kind of info I want to hear when shopping, and less so the "ooh, the mirror
has a low intensity reading LED directed to the passenger seat". It includes
crumple zone, engine and tranny insights etc etc
02-02-2017, 12:22 AM
