Well....7000 miles into my Jeep's life and it's already been in the accident. Its much less serious than what a lot of our other board members have gone through but I'm still really bummed out about it.

I had took my fiancee to pick up the Firebird from the shop (680 bucks worth of cleaning, diagnostics, complete tune up, etc etc) and on the way back tragedy struck.

I had my fiancee driving the Jeep back so I could see how the Firebird ran now and I had just gotten to my Apt when my fiancee called me crying and said someone hit her. So I turned around and went to see if she was OK.

Basically she was in coming up to a light in the left lane and this woman in the right hand lane, w/o any blinker just flies into my fiancee's lane to try and make the left hand lane to turn. My fiancee hit the brakes and the lady rubbed the entire length of her drivers side door on my front-passenger flare and tire.

Her car was F'ed up obviously (white car with a black door due to my tire rubbing on it) but I got away with a gouge in my flare and bits of her side view mirror glass littering my hood.

She was at fault and got a ticket.




I drove the Jeep back to our Apt and found out the bad news:

My steering wheel is turned 65 degrees counter clockwise, and the Jeep pulls to the right hardcore. If I turn the wheel slightly hard to the right the brakes apply (ESP?) and ESP pretty much goes off whenever it wants if I go above 40mph.

Any advice guys and gals? Not just what to do in terms of insurance but comforting me in the fact that my brand new Jeep isn't brand new anymore?

Sigh...

 

Yeah get it fixed ASAP! and then wheel it hard and fix it again... The lady was insured right?

 

Yeah she was. But Florida is a no fault state so I think I have to rely on my insurance company and pay the deductable...


Worst part yet I have weekends off and was gonna go wheelin tomorrow!

 

I was going to say file a claim on her insurance and take your Jeep in and get it back to new. No fault state, that's a crappy law.

If there is no real damage to the body, engine compartment, or frame I guess I would probably start with the re-centering procedure that Toad suggested, then if you can get that corrected take it to the dealer and say your ESP is going .

If you can't get it centered I would get an estimate for the repairs. If its not too much more than your deductable you might want to bit the bullet and just get it fixed to avoid a rate increase.

If the estimate is high then just file it on your insurance.

 

X2!!!! You've got insurance, use it! If something in the steering and suspension f'd up, you'll be chasing the problem forever.

No fault sucks, but as long as she's insured, you're good. I was on the way to my house closing back in '96 and some chick failed to yield at a stop sign. I nailed her hard on the passenger side. My S10 was hurt, but OK. Her car was messed up pretty good and had to be towed. She was at fault and had to pay, but it took over a year to get the check! Nice surprise, though!

 

The steering wheel is off center and it pulls for a reason. Something is bent. Best case, she knocked the allignment out and nothing is damaged, but this is unlikely. My guess is your tie rod is bent, also not the end of the world.

Glad your girl's ok.

 

Don't forget to try and get Diminished value... Your jeep now has a record of being wrecked. That reduces the trade and re-sale value. You can recover that amount up front... Good luck!

Glad the fiancee is OK

 

Well, glad no one was hurt

 

Gee thanks, lol.

Anyway I'm going to try and recenter the steering wheel and see if I get lucky and thats all that needs to be done.

Wish me luck!

 

Glad to hear no one was hurt. I'm familier with the crying auto wreck phone call. My wifes done that to me a time or two.

I'm very curious to hear what you find when you re-center the wheel. I'm sure while you are under there you'll see if something happens to be bent.

No fault sucks! I just don't get that law. She hit you... she should pay since it was HER FAULT!