So,
My 22 year old son drives my 99 xjr. He apparently was not paying attention when he ran out of road and struck a curb with the right front wheel and tire at about 40 mph. The car had 123k miles on it, but was in excellent condition.

I had it towed to the dealer's body shop where they kept it for two weeks before calling me to say that my insurance was going to total the car. They put the value of the car at 9k, and estimated that repairs would cost about the same. My insurance company paid me 8300k, and let me keep the car. I have a 2003 xjr and wanted to keep it for parts.

When I intially assessed the damage to the car, I could see that the right front frame had struck the curb. It also appeared that the starter motor was broken, as were the motor mounts. The right front wheel was smashed, and the tires were all damaged. The right front wheel had been pushed to the rear of the wheel well.

I let the car sit for several months. I woke up a couple of months ago and had a thought. Maybe the car was repairable. I figured the frame was bent, and that was that. It never occured to me that the car was built with a subframe.

I crawled around under the car again, and decided to give it a try. I ordered new bushings, new motor mounts, new ball joints, new sway bar links, and new front and rear subframe mounts. I bought a used subframe off of ebay, and got a used starter motor. I spent $1400 in about ten minutes on the internet. I also bought four new tires for another grand.

It took about half a day to remove the old subframe. Disassembling the old subframe was straight forward, but the coil springs were tought to deal with until I got the right spring compressor.

Replacing the bushings and ball joints was a full day's job, using a 12 ton press, a torch, and a ball joint press kit from Harbor Frieght. It was alot harder that I thought it would be.

I reinstalled the subframe without the lower control arms or springs installed, as I had no helpers, and was doing this in the dirt. Putting the springs in was a trick. I got it all together and back on the ground. I put on the new tires, and got it aligned.

It is like new. I have to get it inspected at the MVD this week, and will register it.

I will say that it was harder than I thought it would be, and I have alot of experience working on Jaguars. I did find some help from some of the posters on this forum, and apprecaited the help.

 

Good story and happy end . I appreciate your perseverance and tenacity . You could let your car get totalled by insurance but you chose harder way .
Kudos to you , happy safe driving

 

This is the kind of post I really enjoy reading. I've just recently stripped a front subframe for a complete rebuild so know exactly the work you've done.

I'm a bit miffed your lad didn't help with the rebuild, seeing as he caused the grief!

So the car has now got a salvage title? is that how it works over in the USA? What did the insurance people charge you to keep the car? Also, how's the gearbox behaving post shunt? No airbag lights to deal with?

Enjoy the car!

 

What insurance company do you have?!!? Holy cow you made out like a bandit!

A 123k mile '99 XJR can easily be bought for a few grand less than the 9k assessment AND they let you keep the car for $700-off assessed-value, that is crazy!

 

No problems with the transmission. No airbag problems. To get the settlement from the insurance company, I had to get a salvage title. Now I go back to the MVD and get a restored salvage title, and register the car. What it means is that the car that was allegedy worth 9k is now worth 5 or 6k because of the title issue. I am keeping the car forever, so it does not matter to me. As for the insurance company, don't worry, they have cancelled all the discounts, doubling the cost to insure the car. I figure they willl gen the money back in four years. Good for them.

 

It takes surprisingly little actual damage to "total" one of these cars. This is because repair costs are so high and resale value is so low.

 

Once they saw the subframe .... that was it. Very expensive part ... plus all the labor.

Back in the mid 90's -- I was nudged in the drivers side rear bumper by a guy speeding in the right lane ... I was exiting and he hit me before I got fully onto the off-ramp sending me into and over the curb. The road was wet with leaves so I sort of spun around a bit.

Anyway -- My VDP was only a couple of months old ..... needed a new rear tail light and the rear bumper repainted also new wheel and hub on the rear drivers side .... all the rest of the 18k bill went to the front suspension -- and I don't think I did any damage to the exhaust and nothing to the under carriage of the body except they lower valance ... it can get very expensive.

 

No doubt, that's a big bill.

 

Just got back from MVD with a street legal registered car. Runs great. They did an inspection that took about an hour with two enforcement officers. They hunted down secret vins to make sure I didn't steal parts. I was suprized that they put that kind of effort into it. I am glad they did, but I was suprized.