car crash

After 37 years of flawless driving I've had my first crash. It was, of course not my fault. I was stuck in traffic and an SUV driver didn't bother to look where he was going.

My '94 Saturn SL2 has as it's most serious problem broken brakes. Should I be able to locate and replace the hose as a not-serious mechanic?

A guy at work says he's had many accidents. He sets the parking brake, leans back, and puts his hands in his lap. Another guy says that risks more serious damage to the transmission. Any opinions?

Nils

On Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 12:10:25 PM UTC-5, wrote:
> After 37 years of flawless driving I've had my first crash. It was, of course not my fault. I was stuck in traffic and an SUV driver didn't bother to look where he was going.
>
> My '94 Saturn SL2 has as it's most serious problem broken brakes. Should I be able to locate and replace the hose as a not-serious mechanic?
>
> A guy at work says he's had many accidents. He sets the parking brake, leans back, and puts his hands in his lap. Another guy says that risks more serious damage to the transmission. Any opinions?
>
> Nils

I once replaced one of the front brake hoses on my 1978 Dodge van. It was a simple job to do.That brake hose was made in China. I took it back to the Autozone store for a refund, then I went to the parts department at the Dodge dealership and I bought a brake hose that was made in America. I have been driving since 1957, no accidents yet.

> wrote:
>After 37 years of flawless driving I've had my first crash. It was, of course not my fault. I was stuck in traffic and an SUV driver didn't bother to look where he was going.
>
>My '94 Saturn SL2 has as it's most serious problem broken brakes. Should I be able to locate and replace the hose as a not-serious mechanic?

That depends where it is. Give it a try and see. Is it one brake not grabbing
or more than one?

>A guy at work says he's had many accidents. He sets the parking brake, leans back, and puts his hands in his lap. Another guy says that risks more serious damage to the transmission. Any opinions?

Does he put the transmission into park or does he just set the parking brake?
Perhaps the question to ask here is why he is having so many accidents in the
first place.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote:
> After 37 years of flawless driving I've had my first crash. It was, of course not my
> fault. I was stuck in traffic and an SUV driver didn't bother to look where he was
> going.
>
> My '94 Saturn SL2 has as it's most serious problem broken brakes. Should I be able to
> locate and replace the hose as a not-serious mechanic?

If you have to ask that question then I'd venture to guess that replacing the
brake hose is beyond your ability, knowledge, or tools.
Take it to a shop.

Yes, the shop manual says I need a "scan tool" to work on the rear brakes due to the ABS system, and I have no idea of what that is.

There are other problems, I no longer have a driveway. There is a notion that it is illegal to work on a car in public. Insurance companies have a computer that says if a car is not new or otherwise politically correct it must be given up as a loss.

> wrote:
>Yes, the shop manual says I need a "scan tool" to work on the rear brakes due to the ABS system, and I have no idea of what that is.

Welcome to the 21st century. Take a trip to your auto parts store, tell them
you need a scan tool and specifically that you need it for working on the
brakes since you're going to need something that can send reset commands and
not something that can just read codes.

>There are other problems, I no longer have a driveway. There is a notion that it is illegal to work on a car in public. Insurance companies have a computer that says if a car is not new or otherwise politically correct it must be given up as a loss.

So, go use a friend's driveway, or rent a bay.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Thanks for the suggestions. I am now learning about the insurance biz, and what looks like a plot against old cars; "your car is a 94, the computer says we must junk it". That simple. In PA evidently, if I don't give it away to them, they do not have to pay the money they owe me. Sorry if I'm a bit unreasonable on the subject. My next step is to drive to a poorer area and see if they have different standards on repair that might come under the 80% value rating.

wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestions. I am now learning about the insurance
> biz, and what looks like a plot against old cars; "your car is a 94,
> the computer says we must junk it". That simple. In PA evidently, if
> I don't give it away to them, they do not have to pay the money they
> owe me. Sorry if I'm a bit unreasonable on the subject. My next step
> is to drive to a poorer area and see if they have different standards
> on repair that might come under the 80% value rating.

My experience has been that they will not pay more than the book value of the
car, unless you document that your car is really worth more.

If the damage was the other guys fault, and you can't get them to agree to a
fair price (What can you get an equivalent replacement for), You can offer to
rent a car on their budget until you come to an agreement. That was enough to
get their offer raised for me once.

On Thu, 3 Sep 2015 19:32:03 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

>Thanks for the suggestions. I am now learning about the insurance biz, and what looks like a plot against old cars; "your car is a 94, the computer says we must junk it". That simple. In PA evidently, if I don't give it away to them, they do not have to pay the money they owe me. Sorry if I'm a bit unreasonable on the subject. My next step is to drive to a poorer area and see if they have different standards on repair that might come under the 80% value rating.


I can't say it's true but I've been told that if you are good at
hardball you can often get their adjustor to cough up some or all of
the typical "$3000 medical payments" coverage if you sign away your
claims for future medical problems. So if your back is hurting from
the accident.....

Little old car adventures continue. Just in case anyone would be amused by it. The mechanic I like had such a hard time finding and fixing the brake leak he didn't want to do the wiper linkage failure.

Poking around with a mirror I see the linkage bolt head broke off, and the sheet metal transmission arm has stuck between some structural sheet metal panels. 'd like to talk to the designers, since the arm traveled less than an inch out of normal play and got stuck very tight. In the picture it looks to be just sitting there, with only 1/16th of an inch stuck. Of course all this is up a dark hole that can only be seen with a mirror, and barely reached with fingers. I put a garden tool on it and shoved hard enough to rock the car. Then I put a big zip tie on it and pulled pretty hard. Still stuck. It's thin sheet metal so it's easy to imagine ruining it.

Next I'm going to try to find the right crowbar to hammer in next to it to loosen the sheet metal. I hope I don't have to hand forge the crowbar. Then I'll get some artist guy to recommend an epoxy to glue a washer on to replace the bolt head. That's a pretty tight space to be trying to drill down the center of the bolt.

I can imagine all sorts of guys saying "oh I see it is a simple problem" ha..