So Thursday night i take my car to the car wash and somebody cuts me off and slams on their brakes for me to hit them. Long story short, air bags deployed, seat belts are broken, hood destroyed, radiator is pulled back about 1 cm away from the serpentine belt, i need a new bumper, drivers side fender, windshield. and the car shows traction control fail, abs light, check engine light, stability control fail, and gear box fault. the TCF & ABS light were there previously and i know i have to repair my abs ecu, and the stability control fail is due to need of an alignment. But what is gear box fault? i drove the car half way home from the impound lot, 3 miles from my house, then rode the brakes as i was towed with chains. i have the car on my driveway and it starts but when put into gear it doesn't do anything. when you press on the gas it moves the rpms but not the mph even when in gear. i only have liability insurance and i plan on fixing everything myself and maybe with the help from a ase mechanic friend if cant complete that task but any advice is appreciated. I love my XJ8 (it may be a 99) but with a good wash and wax i would turn heads in my car. BTW this is my first car and im young but have invested lots of time and money in it, and plan on keeping this car. might buy a xjr and replace it later. but until then this is all i have.

 

Well, I am not looking at it, but I guess you wil find it will cost more to fix than finding another one. Sorry. If you decide to fix it, you almost certainly want to find a "donor" car that has the rear end totalled. You gotta figure out what your time is worth. If it is worth more than $4 or $5 an hour,go for a new one. Part ithe old one out to craigslist and ebay.

 

Since the airbags deployed, I'm guessing this was a pretty bad accident? Deployed airbags and a shifted radiator sounds like a bent frame could be an issue. The wheels may no longer be able to be properly aligned to spec. Body work on these cars are extremely expensive. Airbag deployment alone damages cars. Your sunroof may be damaged by the air pressure from it.


Try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery to see if anything changes with the transmission.

Its good you didnt get hurt.

Was the other driver uninsured?

Do you have any pictures?

 

your right the sunroof only archs up doesnt go all the way back, and ive found the body parts used on ebay, that need a little paint but all works fine, the front end is damaged but ill bend back as much as i can in order for all of it to attach the new parts. ill try adding some pictures later, but i came out fine nothing other than a swollen hand that went away after a day from the air bag blowing on the steering wheel. but i didnt think of the disconnecting the battery yet. but i have another steering rack, and the wheels are fine. i have some 20 in velocity vw825 rims on it. with nitto n7000 tires on it. but for the bent frame can be fixed with heat and some hit then welding for strength i think.

 

 

but the other driver had insurance his car was brand new had an 08 lexus 4dr sedan with 5 percent tints all around.

 

Unfortunately I believe you will find that it is damaged beyond what is economical to fix. Unless you can find one with a damaged engine transmission to move parts from this one over -- if they are Ok

For the windshield to have broken as well as the sunroof -- the whole car had to flex. You are going to find a lot out of alignment ...... Sorry

 

alright so i tried disconnecting the negative made the message disappear then if you moved the it into gear it came back, and when its in drive it my (driveway is a small hill) it ends up going backwards.

 

S#!% thats terrible but i found xj8 on craigslist it was for sale for about 500 and the front end looked great. it was basically parted but i cant go too wrong if i end up swapping parts over from car to car. i called up but they were closed. going to pray and try again tomorrow

 

Just out of curiosity, how damaged was the Lexus? Was his car in worse shape worse than yours?

Probably the fastest/cheapest way to fix this car would be to 'cut and shut it'. Terrible terrible thing to do tho, esp in regards to safety and alignment. Don't do that route.

 

i knocked his bumper cover off, and the silver bumper retraining part. and the trunk lid was dented about 5 inchs in. his car could be repaired easily. mines was the worse. my car isnt that bad tho, the damages stops at the tip of the front tire. it doesnt even touch the engine. or tires. im going to start taking it apart and post what i find with pics

 

Sorry to hear about your accident , glad you're ok .

 

OK, from what I can see there's a fair amount of damage. You have a big job to get it sorted. The one thing to look for and check once you have the damaged parts off the car, are the front chassis members running from the front bulkhead, if these are bent, the car is scrap. To check, you'll have to measure them against a flat floor. Nothing will line up if one or both are out of wack, and they cannot be straightened because they're deformable crush zones. I've seen this kind of damage before, and the car wasn't fixed, after a large sum spent on parts, so before you start spending, get the broke bits off and do the checks.

 

whats the bulkhead youve got an example picture of it???? i guess when i get home today from college ima start taking the whole front end apart.

 

^ Bulkhead = Firewall. The part inside the engine compartment below the windshield.

Another rough measurement you can take is.

With the front wheels pointing straight ahead, measure the distance between the center of each wheel at the front, to the center of each wheel at the rear, for both sides of the car.

They should be the same.

 

The bulkhead is at the windshield -- It's the whole section in front of the dashboard. Cars are designed to fold up to the bulkhead. Everything in-front, including the engine, is expendable to save the occupant cage around the passengers -- this cage is made from high strength steel. Everything in front of the bulkhead gets squished after the bumpers have been fully compressed.

To the best of my knowledge they no longer advise trying to fix the front rails. Way back in 1992 we had Lincoln Continental that sustained similar damage - it still had its temporary tags on it They cut the front off of it and installed a front replacement clip that came directly from Ford with all the necessary weld points -- Unbelievably expensive but the car gave us no problems for the two year lease.

You would need to take it apart and carefully inspect the alignment.

 

@ shoot-da-breeze. i feel for you-just had an XJ8 3.2 sport written off as "total-loss" here in the UK. my damage would not appear to be as bad as yours and the estimated repair figure was £6500! you can take a look at the damage is sustaineded here:

http://s1106.photobucket.com/albums/h378/12dja/

like you the accident was not of my making and fortunately i had a good insurance policy. i have now replaced mine, having removed the majority of the upgrades that i had made. its time to start over and this is a link to my next project:

http://s1106.photobucket.com/albums/...20XJ8%20Sport/

the thing to bear in mind, and i dont mean to sound patronising here, is that by the sounds of it you escaped unharmed from the incident. as sorry to say it as i am - you have that to be grateful for.....

good luck fella and i hope things work out ok for you.

Dom.

 

12dja - I like the tool kit !

 

"Tool Kit" So that is what is meant to be there? I always wondered what should be in that little hidey hole. I have never seen one, but I have not seen much. Am I missing much?

 

Years ago I tried to order one and was told they do not import them to the US - figured I would get one on a trip but never spent the time to go hunt down a dealer. They also made a "bulb" kit - that was a great value but almost never available - I think it was $18 - $20.