Some days I hate my job, when a zed owner puts their trust in you to advise on a problem been the messenger of bad news can suck! So as the photo's show the guy had an apparent small interaction with a lorry tyre or section of (we think) on the motorway.

 

The first impact marks look innocent enough as the front bumper edge looks only grazed, however as the wheel hopped over the debris it whipped it up violently into the sill and door leaving huge dent area and lots of rubber marking.

 

Closer inspection shows the wing had been displaced too, but and importantly it had not been hit directly, despite a dent in the wing this is more of a stress mark than an impact mark.

 

Further inspection revealed a lot of camber on the o/s wheel, when the car was on level ground, however when up in the air and hanging free it still displays a large amount, which given there is no impact evidence to the suspension was worring.

 

More inspection reveals the wing edge under the bonnet to have been streched ad misshapen.

 

Deeper still under the arch evidence of panel seperation, the suspension turret and has split only the top and the inner wing has split at the chassis leg /member.

 

The final nail in the coffin as it where is the inner wing pressing on the brake master cylinder, normallythere is an 18mm gap here, the inner wing photo shows that everything lines in blue has moved over towards the engine by a substantial amount too!

 

To fully establish and gain access to repair the damage the engine MAY need removing, we do not know the full deal on what the impact object was till tomorrow but either way its done a hell of a lot of damage.

Working out quite how damage occurred when an impact happens is not always easy and can only speculate, the wheel upward speed must have been sufficiently violent to push the suspension top and inner wing over when it got to the end of travel.

 

Concidering this zed has donuts for tyres, imagine the damage to the wheel if it has been a 19" with elastic band one fitted?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 201015 yr by JeffTT

dosent look to bad untill you look deeper into it with expert eyes and thats a real mess for the poor owner:sad:

dosent look to bad untill you look deeper into it with expert eyes and thats a real mess for the poor owner:sad:

 

Yes sure is, the zed came to us (via recovery) with a replacement wing on the back seat.......nothing wrong with optimsm I guess.

 

Jeff

poor z :( like you say, from the outside it doesn't look 'too' bad!

excellent piece of detective work there Jeff - imagine how many less experienced garages would have passed it all off as cosmetic damage. i imagine hitting a piece of tyre at high speed on the motorway is as bad as hitting a small kerb :(

All you an do is be honest with the owner and give them the ful picture. Hats off to you for doing a proper inspection and not just throwing the wing on cos what a horrible thought of what could happen 6 months down the line :(

You worry me with thread titles like that Jeff when I've not long dropped my car off with you!

That sucks, poor Z :(

You worry me with thread titles like that Jeff when I've not long dropped my car off with you!

 

:rofl: