Current plan of action for Imola.. (long)
08-03-2000, 04:46 AM
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Current plan of action for Imola.. (long)
Assuming she passes the body shop "test" (Frame checks and alignment) I have ordered enough "stuff" to hang a new radiator on her, and all the structural engine/tranny mount stuff that was damaged.
If she passes at the body shop, I will mount the new front panel, and radiator, and probably the Canadian bumper, just to be safe. I'll duct tape the fractured head lamp assemblies in place, so the side lights are functional, then drive her home!
There, I will put her on the ramp, I expect this to be the most delicate part, as it usually takes a lot of torque to drive her up that slope before the ramp tilts over level. Her drive train is not in any shape to handle much torque, with ALL mounts fractured, so I will align her carefully, make a few trial runs, and then do a running start from a distance to the ramp, so she has the momentum needed to climb the ramp.
After that, I will wait until I stop shaking ;-) and then replace the mounts on the engine and tranny. The tranny is most critical, here, two of the 6 bolts into the tranny are bend slightly, and _may_ be pulled out slightly. I will inspect the threads, and try a new bolt in the hole, if it looks OK, and torque it to 125% of the recommended torque for a test. If it holds, great, but if it strips out from weakened threads, I will place helicoils in the holes.
Then, back on the ground for a shakedown cruise, I'll put a hundred miles or so on it on a secluded, but new rural highway here with a 55 mph speed limit, and excellent paved shoulders wider than the actual lanes, as it's currently a2 lane road that was paved for expansion to 4 lane.
I'll do hard starts, 0-60 runs, etc, to see if anything in the drive train acts or sounds funny.
If that passes, I'll finish the job, just bolt-on stuff from there. I may even try my hand at painting her replacement parts, worse case I take my handiwork back to the body shop and have "the masters" do it. I've seen their paint work, it's awesome, I can't tell it from factory, and I'm damn critical of paint!
To those of you who think I'm crazy, or whatever, I assure you I can walk away from this car at any point it becomes obvious that is what should be done. But also be aware that you are applying the general model of a wreck to this car, and in reality each wreck is very different. I have extensively gone over this car, and have followed the path of the impact energy carefully. In spite of the bumper's failure, the car was still spared the highest "G" forces, those forces whose "edge" causes internal damage to engines, turbos, etc. The bumper folded into the A/C fan, then the A/C radiator, then main radiator, and finally into the main fan, totally destroying it. However, the impact lost all it's "edge" in the buffering that occurred in the radiators and other parts, and when the full force finally hit the engine at that point, the fan pulley and bearing were jammed, but the bracket mounting it to the engine block held without fracturing while transferring the remaining energy to the block, This remaining energy broke all the mounts, but not "suddenly". The engine mounts show the structure had time to bend and pull rivets out intact, rather than snapping them. The transmission mounts broke, but not clean through. Again, they had time to be stressed back, the frame side of the mounts rotated a bit, and finally the back end of each mount fractured, cracking part way across the mount, but not completely. The tranny continued backwards fractionally, stressing and bending the remaining mounting bolts. This is the area of the most serious potential damage, and _may_ require replacement of the transmission, if the mounting points cannot be repaired to my standards (by me).
But everything about the impact line of force screams "time", nothing hit hard enough to rattle the "insides" to the point of hidden fractures. The fact that both turbos spin up fine, and quietly, help confirm that.
The only real engine damage came from a secondary impact force path, where the bumper of the van impacted the hood just above the grill, shoving it into the power steering pulley. This path shows no dampening, the power steering pump took a hard hit, but the energy stopped there when the two engine block mounts fractured cleanly. They are small enough to "assume" no serious impact energy entered the block before they fractured.
So, aside from a couple of superficial, but still significant bits of damage to the engine and tranny, this is nothing more than a fender bender, and not serious enough to walk away from. The initial repair estimate was about $7000, which was close to correct, but the engine and tranny damage cannot be "assumed" to be superficial by the appraiser, therefore the insurance company does not want to assume any risk in the repair, and totaled the engine and transmission, pushing the whole estimate "over the top".
So, before I walk away from this car, and all the effort I put into it, and face a new car and the tedium of doing it all again, I want to be sure about my decision!<p>Jim De Arras
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
If she passes at the body shop, I will mount the new front panel, and radiator, and probably the Canadian bumper, just to be safe. I'll duct tape the fractured head lamp assemblies in place, so the side lights are functional, then drive her home!
There, I will put her on the ramp, I expect this to be the most delicate part, as it usually takes a lot of torque to drive her up that slope before the ramp tilts over level. Her drive train is not in any shape to handle much torque, with ALL mounts fractured, so I will align her carefully, make a few trial runs, and then do a running start from a distance to the ramp, so she has the momentum needed to climb the ramp.
After that, I will wait until I stop shaking ;-) and then replace the mounts on the engine and tranny. The tranny is most critical, here, two of the 6 bolts into the tranny are bend slightly, and _may_ be pulled out slightly. I will inspect the threads, and try a new bolt in the hole, if it looks OK, and torque it to 125% of the recommended torque for a test. If it holds, great, but if it strips out from weakened threads, I will place helicoils in the holes.
Then, back on the ground for a shakedown cruise, I'll put a hundred miles or so on it on a secluded, but new rural highway here with a 55 mph speed limit, and excellent paved shoulders wider than the actual lanes, as it's currently a2 lane road that was paved for expansion to 4 lane.
I'll do hard starts, 0-60 runs, etc, to see if anything in the drive train acts or sounds funny.
If that passes, I'll finish the job, just bolt-on stuff from there. I may even try my hand at painting her replacement parts, worse case I take my handiwork back to the body shop and have "the masters" do it. I've seen their paint work, it's awesome, I can't tell it from factory, and I'm damn critical of paint!
To those of you who think I'm crazy, or whatever, I assure you I can walk away from this car at any point it becomes obvious that is what should be done. But also be aware that you are applying the general model of a wreck to this car, and in reality each wreck is very different. I have extensively gone over this car, and have followed the path of the impact energy carefully. In spite of the bumper's failure, the car was still spared the highest "G" forces, those forces whose "edge" causes internal damage to engines, turbos, etc. The bumper folded into the A/C fan, then the A/C radiator, then main radiator, and finally into the main fan, totally destroying it. However, the impact lost all it's "edge" in the buffering that occurred in the radiators and other parts, and when the full force finally hit the engine at that point, the fan pulley and bearing were jammed, but the bracket mounting it to the engine block held without fracturing while transferring the remaining energy to the block, This remaining energy broke all the mounts, but not "suddenly". The engine mounts show the structure had time to bend and pull rivets out intact, rather than snapping them. The transmission mounts broke, but not clean through. Again, they had time to be stressed back, the frame side of the mounts rotated a bit, and finally the back end of each mount fractured, cracking part way across the mount, but not completely. The tranny continued backwards fractionally, stressing and bending the remaining mounting bolts. This is the area of the most serious potential damage, and _may_ require replacement of the transmission, if the mounting points cannot be repaired to my standards (by me).
But everything about the impact line of force screams "time", nothing hit hard enough to rattle the "insides" to the point of hidden fractures. The fact that both turbos spin up fine, and quietly, help confirm that.
The only real engine damage came from a secondary impact force path, where the bumper of the van impacted the hood just above the grill, shoving it into the power steering pulley. This path shows no dampening, the power steering pump took a hard hit, but the energy stopped there when the two engine block mounts fractured cleanly. They are small enough to "assume" no serious impact energy entered the block before they fractured.
So, aside from a couple of superficial, but still significant bits of damage to the engine and tranny, this is nothing more than a fender bender, and not serious enough to walk away from. The initial repair estimate was about $7000, which was close to correct, but the engine and tranny damage cannot be "assumed" to be superficial by the appraiser, therefore the insurance company does not want to assume any risk in the repair, and totaled the engine and transmission, pushing the whole estimate "over the top".
So, before I walk away from this car, and all the effort I put into it, and face a new car and the tedium of doing it all again, I want to be sure about my decision!<p>Jim De Arras
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
08-03-2000, 05:00 AM
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Are you still going to use your stage III chip?
What happen to the stage I and II chip? I'm sure everyone on the forum can feel your pain with the damage to your S4.<p>'00 Black S4 6 Speed
08-03-2000, 05:04 AM
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It doesn't appear you read my post, or I did not explain myself well! The short answer is: Yes.
I certianly plan to remain in an S4, one way or another.<p>Jim De Arras
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
08-03-2000, 05:15 AM
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Thanks, I didn't think of that! :-)
<p>Jim De Arras
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
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08-03-2000, 05:33 AM
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Needs replacing, anyway, why not do it "right"! ;-)
<p>Jim De Arras
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
<a href="http://www.imola.org">2000 00 Imola/Onyx/Alcantera S4</a>
MTM Stage II (Stage III on order)
MTM Full Suspension
MTM/Pagid Brake pads
UUC Short Shifter (original 20%)
Michelin Pilot Sports.
SmartTire Tire Monitor
