M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => Engine + Driveline => Topic started by: highlandmiata on April 13, 2007, 11:27:32 PM
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So my car stopped before my engine did today. Totally my fault(in a non-legally-binding sort of way, of course).
(new car syndrome. it is not a miata... plus i was not paying attention... i'll admit it.) In addition to a little bit of crushing o n the front end and an airbag deployment, my engine decided to shear its mounts and push forward 2-4 inches... the driveline still seems to engage, though the shifter is really stiff, as it is no longer aligned... I was going to get a new exhaust anyway, so I am not worried about the damage there, but did I total my car today? something is keeping the car from rolling well, and it made some noise as I was pulling it off to the side of the road... any thoughts? (btw front valance is unscathed, as is the bonnet and the fenders. the bumper def pushed in some, moveing the radiator some, but no real damage. really just worried about that engine movement...
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Hate to say it, but you or someone else who knows E30s is going to have to look at your car in person to answer that question.
Do you have a way of putting the motor/trans back where they belong on new mounts? I'd look at that as a start. I'd say it's likely that the shifter is binding because the motor/trans assy is not in the right place. Probably also is the cause of your car not rolling well.
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What did you hit, and how fast? Any pic's?
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The airbag deployed? And there is no damage to the valance? Wow.
I'd say with an airbag deployment and a shifted engine, you have totalled it, unless you are handy with your dad's TV repair tools (does that date me?). There is going to be some structural damage, unless your motor mounts were balsa wood. That is what will be expensive to fix.
Whereabouts in DC are you?
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I am near friendship heights in far NW DC. the car is at the shop in kenwood, waiting for the guy to get around to looking at it (I had it towed there after 6 on friday.) He looked at it briefly and was not very optimistic, particularly regarding the "frame underneath the bumper." the motor mounts are completely shorn apart(like you can see that the top halves are completly seperated and forward of the bottom halves.), but the M42 ones are the hollow liquid filled ones that are notoriously kind of weak right? I am willing to put it back together sans bag, as I realize they are spendy, and the only thing it did was give me an abrasion on my arm, I never came anywhere near hitting it.
The accident was at 4pm friday heading southbound on georgia ave, right in front of the main gate at walter reed. my speed was somwhere in the 25-30 range before I started braking, so prob 15-20 when I hit. the other car's bumper was higher than mine, so the bumper is twisted up, and like i said, basically no damage to anything but it and the grilles, which were already not perfect. the other car's bumper cover became loose, yet still fully attached and mainly undamaged.
I'll try to go take some pics in a few. anyone who is local and wants to take a gander, offer an opinion, or offer to fix for real cheap can call me at 206.618.5297, or roll by the shop (it is right behind the Mcdonalds on river road in kenwood.)
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pictures are uploading at http://picasaweb.google.com/sims.jason/crash I think
which apparently you need a google account for...
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Totalled.
By the insurance company at least. Its definetly repairable but is it worth it to you or not. I'm assuming you were at fault in the accident? if you have just liability let them fix the other car and repair yours yourself. Dont let them total it. It's easily a 1500-2000 repiar to do it correctly(maybe more). Blue book on the car to low for the insurance company to fix it.
Another choice is part it out, or swap parts to another shell. Or let the insurance company total it and still buy it back and part it or fix it youll still have a salvage title. Its up to you there many options.
My choice would be let the insurance company fix the person you hit you fix your car on your own. I work at a body shop so my descision might be a bit biased.
Good luck
Used parts are your freind(especially the air bag parts)
HUnter
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Well, it's not that the airbag that will be expensive. I've got one I could let you have for a very reasonable price... :D
It looks like the radiator core support may have been tweaked back, which will require time on a frame puller if they can pull it out, otherwise they will have to cut and reweld. The parts are still available from BMW, but time is money...
Your valance is bent as well, new bumper shocks, new grill, new lights, new bumper skin, may be able to save the hood as long as it wasn't bent anywhere except on the edge, fenders as well.
{sigh}
It ran me nearly $3k for a new valance and new hood, new bumper shocks, new grill, new bumper trim, pull the core support out and straighten it, shoot paint on the front end, and lots (lots) of little parts.
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yeah, I just had liability, so there will be no insurance paying for it. at this point I am in no real rush to get it done correctly, just good enough to sneak past inspection. I can do alot of the replacing/small straight(enough)ing I guess I am just worried about getting it mechanically ok and to pass the inspection. I have already put time and money into this car (of course)... maybe I should just have a breaker take it away... Is anyone interested?
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Wadda ya want for it?
My wife will kill me...
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geez. this is such a roller coaster. I'm hoping some nice e28 motor mounts and some new tranny mounts will get this thing back to a semi-drivable condition. If it doesn't, ak96ss will have some more parts to sell to you guys, and I will hold a little funeral for my couple grand (better than just actually burning the money I guess) If it does I will just take it home, put her in the garage out back and putter around trying to bent things back into shape. too bad metal stretches. It will all be ok though. My miata will get me around. Thank god for the Japanese.
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lol amen
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Survey says?
What did the body shop say?
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Easy to say it is totaled.
With the current book value of an e30 (other than M3) ANYTHING will total our cars.
A paint job is worth as much as most of it them to the insurance company. So any real damage at all is a definite total unless you have a fair market value assigned to the car.
They could care less how much you like, how difficult it is to find another or how rare the car may be. To them it is cheaper to write it off than fix it.
If you want, do a buy-back from them then fix it yourself, however, keep in mind, that you will end up with a salvage title. Even if the car is restored to perfect condition, making it worth even less.
If you do buy it back, make damn sure the chassis is not tweaked, it seems that the e30-'s weakpoint is in front end collisions like you had. Roll it, or slide it into a tree, it will survive and save you, run into something, and it is toast.
Any car worth less than $4000 is almost always going to be totaled if anything structural is damaged. Under $3000 if it is an odd color and scratched (BMW paint qualifies here). Under $2000 will be totaled if it even needs body work. That is just how it is.
Body work is way expensive these days.
Why they say it does not need to be reported if damage is less than $500 is ridiculous, there is almost no accidents anymore that qualify. A 5mph bump on a new car is a $25000 accident MINIMUM and some cars a 5mph bump does over $5000 in damage, and no, that $5000 was not on an expensive car.
This is before you deal with the engine sliding, fixing the fenders and more importantly, the airbag.
Sorry to say it but your car is toast.
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By the way, check your core support, I will bet it is pushed back making it look like the engine slid further than it did.
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still waiting for my shop to pronounce it unfixable. The guy knows better than to get elbow deep into a repair I cannot afford. At this point I am still looking at getting the engine back into place and going from there... the core support looks a little tweaked, but not too bad. the pic in my avatar is the motor mount. the motor mounts and trans mounts just disintegrated, could have been dry rotten and sh!t anyway... there's always the option of making a track rat or a harlequin (jk on the harlequin) The more I think about it the more I worry it was a brake failure too (like I said, I already had new brakes on the way...) l'll keep everone updated.
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Yeah, I dropped the full coverage on my car a while ago. No point when they would pay me less than I paid them for the coverage. Although the towing and roadside assistance is a nice add-on for $12/year.