Hi.

 

This afternoon had a near miss with the grimreaper when a length of steel came off the back of a lorry, unfortunately I wasn't able to avoid without causing a collision with either a bank or another vehicle going the other way.

 

So it went under the nearside front wheel and the next thing the car flags up Damper error & Cornering light error, neither can be cleared by "keying off & on" again.

 

Any ideas of what it this length of steel may have done, no bodywork damage, no damage to the headlights or foglights or wheels/tyres either, it left quite shaken but OK to continue. The lorry driver just carried on going blissfully unaware of what happened behind him.

 

Any idea what the sort of bill I'm likely to get out of it. I can't afford another insurance claim after that debacle last year, so I'll have to pay for it myself.

I'd suggest inspecting the steering angle sensor - I was originally going to suggest the NSF ABS sensor, but you don't mention TPMS or ABS faults.

Do you have dashcam footage of the incident?

Edited 19 November, 20241 yr by Warrior193
question

Did the vehicle crash up in the air like driving over a kerb?

 

Did the steering jerk and try to pull the wheel out of your hands?

 

I am trying to get a feel of the nature of the impact.

 

In my experience the alloy wheels on later cars are the weak point rather like a fusible link, if the rim has survived the next thing to be damaged will be the steering track rod bending and/or the track rod end pivot shaft bending both putting the tracking out, is the steering wheel still central when driving straight?

 

If you have dodged a bullet on the above then it could be that the vertical shock loading on the damper has dislodged the connector or damaged a control valve, I'm assuming that you have the DCC dampers.

 

I would start with a wheel alignment check and reading of fault codes with VCDS or equivalent.

 

You are wise to avoid the insurers this second time.

 

Actually more recent experience of clipping a kerb with a rear wheel was a damaged ABS sensor which was intermittent to start with but became progressively worse, that caused warning lights and fault codes for many different systems, I hope its that in your case as its the cheapest and best outcome.

Edited 19 November, 20241 yr by J.R.

Level sensor? 

Good stinking!

1 hour ago, Warrior193 said:

I'd suggest inspecting the steering angle sensor - I was originally going to suggest the NSF ABS sensor, but you don't mention TPMS or ABS faults.

Do you have dashcam footage of the incident?

 

No other faults are present showing on the infotainment system. I don't have OBD11 to scan it properly. There are NO RED fault lights showing.

 

I'm hopeful that the dashcam has picked it up, although the last couple of times the card has been corrupted when it came to downloading. 

38 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Did the vehicle crash up in the air like driving over a kerb?

 

Did the steering jerk and try to pull the wheel out of your hands?

 

I am trying to get a feel of the nature of the impact.

 

In my experience the alloy wheels on later cars are the weak point rather like a fusible link, if the rim has survived the next thing to be damaged will be the steering track rod bending and/or the track rod end pivot shaft bending both putting the tracking out, is the steering wheel still central when driving straight?

 

If you have dodged a bullet on the above then it could be that the vertical shock loading on the damper has dislodged the connector or damaged a control valve, I'm assuming that you have the DCC dampers.

 

I would start with a wheel alignment check and reading of fault codes with VCDS or equivalent.

 

You are wise to avoid the insurers this second time.

 

Actually more recent experience of clipping a kerb with a rear wheel was a damaged ABS sensor which was intermittent to start with but became progressively worse, that caused warning lights and fault codes for many different systems, I hope its that in your case as its the cheapest and best outcome.

 

No, just clunking under the car. I didn't It was like a long & flat and shiny piece of metal about 6ft long I just saw it flying out from the wheel of the lorry at the last second.

 

No damage to the rims as far as I can see or tyres. No damage to the front spoiler, front wing, headlights they work perfectly as when I select the automatic headlight you can see them adjust themselves as cars approach or disappear from the sensor/cameras view.

 

The car handles fine, no significant change to the handling of it, it's not as sharp as normal, but if there's a damper fault or damaged then I would expect that.

 

Yes you are correct in that I have DCC.