Hey MBWorld, So heres the situation. Last night (October 9th) I let my mom barrow my car (she is also insured under my car) she was driving home at night on a one lane road and she was coming around a curve in the road and could not see what was past the curve. As soon as she goes around the curve she sees there is a deer in the middle of the road and tried to avoid hitting it. She was going about 45 MPH (which was the posted speed limit) and while trying to avoid hitting the deer she pulled the car to the right and ran over a no parking sign and the sign damaged the bumper, mesh, and cut up the bottom of the car pretty bad, there was fluid poring out everywhere. In the process of all this she also hit the side of the road which was sort of like a hill that had a tall curb like thing so the wheels and tires got pretty damaged. When she hit the curb she had slowed down to about 35MPH but she directly hit the curb with the right front wheel going 35mph and had a pretty harsh impact on it. She drove the car home after which was about a 3 mile drive and by the time she got home the temperature was past 120F in the red zone. The next morning when I was getting it towed to the body shop the tow truck driver tried starting it and it wouldn't turn on the first few tries and then randomly turned on. I have full coverage on the car threw AAA and they are covering the claim completely. My main concern was that I might have frame damage because of the impact to the curb and also any damage done to the engine because of the over heating. The shop I had it towed to seemed to want to do everything in there power to make sure the car isn't totaled (more profit for the shop I guess?). I asked him about the car having frame damage and or engine issues and the guy took a look under the hood for one minuet in front of me and said "nope doesn't look like any frame damage or any issue from over heating".

Now my question for you guys:
-About how much would the cost of repairs need to come out to for it to be deemed a total lost? (I assume around 70% of the current market value of the car right?)
-Can I still take my car from the shop and take it somewhere else to have it inspected more professionally for frame damage or over heading issues? If so any recommendations on were? Will the dealership inspect frame damage?
-How will replacing my wheels work because I have LM reps and they are damaged way beyond repair. The guy at the shop said he will contact big O and see if they sell similar wheels...Obviously big O doesn't sell LM reps lol

Any information or tips is much appreciated! Thanks everyone!
I have a few pictures of the car before it got towed away to the shop.. it looks worst in person then in the pictures by the way.

 

 

Body damage is minor but engine damage is likely.

You need to put a boroscope in all of the pistons and see if there is valve damage to the heads. Then do a compression test in each piston to check for leakage.

This is all very basic stuff.

Suspension rebuild is likely. New bushes and links. New bumper and rims. The rims can be easily fixed unless they are cracked.

The salvage value of the car plus the repair cost has to be above your cars value. So if you can get 20,000 then the salvage value can be 5,000 and the repair cost needs to be above 14,999. That Is how they figure it out.

 

hitting the curb is going to mess up the suspension more than the frame. control arms, endlinks, bushing, etc. you can always take the car to different shops. just get estimates and the insurance will usually pay out the average of the combined estimates or shop you decided to take it too.

 

Sorry to hear about your incident

In regards to your frame question, a little over a year ago my mom's clk was in an accident where, long story short, an elderly woman was learning how to drive in a parking lot, got confused and hit the gas instead of the brake and plowed through the benz taking out the entire front passenger side, shredding the tire and destroying the wheel in addition to ruining the suspension and the steering assembly.

The insurance company (farmers) sent it to their body shop, and they suspected possible frame damage so they sent it to another shop that specialized in frame repair, luckily there was none and the damage was repaired, although it was pretty close to being called totaled, not sure of the actual numbers, but if the frame had been hit it would have been toast.

Anyway, I'd suggest going ahead and taking it to other shops until you know what definitively happened to the car and taking it to whichever shop you want. And like benzmodz and phister said, and I have experienced, it is most likely a whole lot of suspension damage. Good Luck!

 

Sad day phister, yours was a true beauty and an inspiration to many..hope it gets fixed up nice or you get it totalled and buy another..........my advice would be to take to a benz dealer and let them do everything. All OEM no compromise...........

javvy

 

Unless you told them you had aftermarket rims and paid more in insurance for them, they will just pay for OEM rims for the damaged ones. They're not Santa.

You're right, though - the pics don't really give a great idea of the overall damage. I would take it to a shop i trusted instead of random one, though.

 

you will need to replace the control arms and rims and whatever is leaking. that's about it. no frame damage. fluid everywhere because it obviously punctured the heat exchanger up front.

p.s. if your mom drove 3 miles with that thing overheating with ZERO coolant...you most likely fried the head gasket. depends on how long did she took to drive 3 miles and stops.

unless you let the insurance know (by paying extra) that you have aftermarket rims. they are not liable to replace your rims. they will only pay out to the stock rims or whatever replacement for the stocks cost. you can always tell them to just cut the repair shop the check and you will find the parts for it on your own or have the shop find them for you.


btw hitting the deer would have DESTROYED the car. avoiding it was smarter than hitting it.

 

yoooo i'm so sorry man!

Someone spray painted my car today

 

That comes off really easy with laundry cleaner. Look it up on YouTube. Look at graffiti removal or paint overspray removal.

 

Thanks for your advice! The car is at the shop right now and i will ask them to check the suspension carefully and the engine also.

The car is un-driveable currently so towing it around to multiple shops would be difficult, I have had done work at this shop before to the coupe and sedan, they do good work, but they are very slow. Thanks for your advise phister!

Thanks for your advice and also sharing the story about your moms accident (hope she was okay after)

Im Not phister
But thanks for your kind words

I have had work done at this shop before and they were very good the first time I had work done there and just gradually got worst and worst each time.Thanks for your information and tip!

Thank you so much frank for all the info! Her drive home was about 5 mins or so. How could I go about checking the head gasket?

I saw on the picture thread, that sucks man Im sorry

 

Avoiding the deer was very smart. They kill people when they are launched into windshields. Mom did the right thing.

I don't see from the pics why there would be frame damage.

Your suspension needs to be assessed by a specialist. Any aluminum parts may be bent and can't really be repaired so they should be replaced.
GL

 

dang. sorry to hear bro. but based on your pictures it does not look like frame damaged. you might need an alignment or new endlinks.

 

Sorry to hear about that, Peydidy. I know it is a royal pain in the a$$, but as others have said, it doesn't look that bad. Your shop probably has a frame rack in case it can't be aligned but they might not even need to use it. Breath easy. I think everything will be ok. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Where did this happen? You live in the bay area right?

 

It doeesn't look that bad. Did your airbag deployed? If not don't worry about. Mainly your suspension, rods and arms will be damage. So if you notice alignment problems or tires are wearing down weird in the future you will know. For now.. fix it and sell it. How many miles u got on it? Your going to have more $$$ problems when you hit 100k+.

 

Your mom wasn't trying to race anyone was she? hehe j/k I always tell my mom when she takes my car out , to drive it hard and fast and if she does get in a wreck to mash the gas. I don't want no fender bender when she brings it back, but she is your typical asian woman who drives 1 mph and holds back traffic for miles.

 

Damn, dude. Sorry for your mom's mishap. I am glad your mom is ok. One of my favorite Pewter Benzes. Hope everything works out for you. I think everyone gave you the advice you need.

 

Thank you! and yes everyone has been super helpful and given a lot of helpful tips and information, which is why the w203 forum rocks!

Nope no airbag deployment, I currently have 76K on it, I was originally going to sell it at 70K but my job changed and I was required to do a lot of driving because of it so I kept the car. I think now its time to switch cars anyways so after everything gets fixed up I will likely sell it. Kinda sucks because this accident will probably kill the resale value also

Yes I live in the bay, it happened on foothill road in Pleasanton

Thank you for your advise and information I will update this thread as soon as I find out more info from the shop and insurance company

Thank you

I am currently trying to get the shop to agree to send it somewhere else to have the suspension checked out better. There are saying that they will do an alignment and if it doesn't align right then they will look further into possible suspension issues.