So my wife drove my jeep this afternoon to go for a run. Long story short she was rear ended by some bitch that was texting.

Only have txt pics at this point. Car that hit her is trashed. Looks like she slid under the bumper but possibly caught the spare tire on the way.

Question** is there anything other than the obvious that I should keep my eye on as far as damage goes. ie: hitch, suspension...

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I believe there are crumple zones in the frame. For sure in the front the rear idk, but I'd imagine so. I don't have any first hand knowledge, knock on wood. just what I've read on forums. I would suggest bring it to an auto body specialist who can really get down and dirty and find everything that was effected. Hope your wife is o.k., your Jeep too.

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Make sure the tail gate isn't twisted and it opens and closes without squeaks since you are not sure the spare tire cut hit.

 

Just talked to my wife. Troopers said the skid marks were 3 car lengths. They were impressed at how well the jeep held up.

Not sure I want to see though.

 

Wow sorry to hear this. x2 have a body shop take a look.

 

I've got first hand experience. A little over a month ago I got rear ended..to say the least. Long story short, I was following a buddy trying to limp his Jeep home in FWD from a local offroad park. We were having to make frequent stops to check his Jeep and were pulling back onto the Interstate. We had a huge opening in traffic (1/4 mile or more), pulled out accelerating up to speed and an older lady driving a Lexus who was paying absolutely no attention hit me (going around 30 mph) at 70 plus! She never even hit the brakes. Her car went under my bumper on the drivers side impacting my left rear tire. The impact was so hard the unibody of her car was impaled by the towhook on that side of my Jeep locking the two together...had to be pulled out of the "ditch" on the side of the road as one and then it took two towtrucks each pulling in opposite directions to separate them.

Anyways, to try to help out and give some things to looks for, heres basically what it took to fix mine.

~ $10,000 dollars in damages

Crinkled drivers side rear quarter...had to be replaced
Spare tire and wheel
Tailgate/spare tire carrier
Left rear tire and wheel
Left rear spring....it was MIA
Left rear shock...sheared off
Upper and Lower control arms
Bent axle housing
Left rear brake line
Left rear caliper brkt
Receiver hitch
Repared frame/crossmember
License plate brkt
Tailight
Rear carpet (had the rear seat on my 2dr folded up...the impact dislodge the seat tearing the rear carpet)
Rear bumper and associated brkts

I'm sure I'm leaving something out but that the jist of it. Suprisingly the JK didn't "look" that bad and absorbed the impact well. I came away with a sore neck but luckily that's it. My Jeep is back on the road driving like before thanks to a good body shop, sporting a new aftermarket bumper...damn, didn't want to score one like that though!

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortion, but at least your wife is OK, the Jeep can be replaced. She could not.
yea, definitely have all the suspension components and frame checked for damage.

 

Definately have the frame looked at carefully. Check alignment of the tailgate and the doors. Also, look at the alignment and spacing of items in the front dash for any signs of movement or twisting.

 

Just take it to a good body shop, they will go over the vehicle and give you an estimate for the repairs. Usually that estimate will increase since they tend to find unseen damage, ie the frame, suspension components, brackets, body panels, and etc... I'm a GM mechanic and our dealerships body shop always get me to do the frame replacements when they can't be repaired on the frame machine. They have a frame machine that will use a laser to take the measurements and see if there is any damage, I'd suggest using a body shop that has one of these machines to insure your jeep is fixed right the first time.

 

My experience is that a good body shop can fix/replace body panels/sections and frame. If they also change the axel housing be sure to get a driveshaft/axel/gear shop to re-check it. When I had my frontend fender bender the body shop did not set the new pinion crush sleeve right so the pinion ended up with play. It screwed up the gears and made the pinion seal leak.