Original post: https://www.myg37.com/forums/g37-sed...ear-ended.html

So the entire repair process took from November 29th, 2013 until January 21st. After repairing the body, they tested the alignment and found that the rear suspension was completely messed up as well. They replaced almost the entire left rear suspension as well as the rear cross link. They returned the car to me missing the right rear mud guard, a cracked trunk lip, and with a different tire than the other three, and those things are going to be addressed/replaced ASAP. But the REAL issues surfaced tonight.

I was getting onto the Mass Pike to take my sister home and I went through the EZpass. There was a pothole in the toll area that I went over (couldn't get around it without hitting the toll booth), not bigger than any other bump in the road. As I began to accelerate, the "VDC OFF", "SLIP", "ABS", and "AWD" lights came on the dash. I carefully drove the 4 high way miles around 40 MPH. When I shut the car off and restarted it, the lights were still on, except now the AWD was flashing. After idling for some time the AWD turned off. When I got ready to leave the house, I backed into the driveway for a three point turn, and as I SLOWLY pulled out of the driveway, I could feel the rear wheels slipping. The left wheel (side of impact and replaced suspension) was getting virtually no power, and would slip sporadically. I drove it around the block to see if it was happening in regular driving (and the AWD light came back on). It seemed that it was only happened when pulling out of the driveway (I made sure it was not from ice/snow/sand/salt etc). On my last test of pulling out of the driveway the car couldn't produce any power to the rear wheels, so I put hit the brake, put it into park and when I let go of the brake the car lurched forward. I told my dad to get into the drivers seat and recreate it so I could stand outside and watch what was happening, the left rear wheel appeared to be slipping and not pushing as I suspected.

Lastly, the car felt a little lopsided, and I noticed that the space between the wheel and the wheel well was uneven on the two rear wheels. So I am thinking this is linked to the suspension issue, but also feels like the rear differential gear/transfer case is not functioning properly.

The car felt unsafe to drive back to my apartment, and I parked it in the driveway at home and took my mom's car. I am going to contact the body shop tomorrow as well as the insurance company to get this taken care of. After two months in the shop, $18k in repairs, and a guarantee from the body shop that everything was fixed to perfect order and tested thoroughly, to have this come up. I am pretty pissed off. The car should have been totaled, but because the high cost suspension issues didn't surface until after they had spent around $10k on body work, it wasn't in the interest of the insurance, financially, to total the car. I don't know what the hell to make of all of this.


TL;DR! Car back after huge rear end accident with new rear suspension, can't produce power to back wheels after short highway drive.

 

you have multiple issues with the vehicle from the resulting collision damage which may or may not be inter-connected to the repair. from what you have described it sounds like there may have been rear subframe damage. do you know if this part of the car was replaced or not?
now from what you stated about hitting the pothole and setting all those malfunction lights it may be the result of a suspension component knocked loose as you impacted the pothole. when you drive does it feel like your car is dog tracking? have a person follow your vehicle while you drive in a straight line, and observe the rear of the vehicle. if you see the rear tracking off center line from front of vehicle that is dead give away suspension angle is not square.
is this body shop an infiniti dealer authorized?
i would take the vehicle to the dealer first and have them inspect the underbody and diagnose the malfunction lights. and do inform the service advisor your car has been in a collision in the rear and that the rear suspension was just fixed. have them draw you up an estimate of what it needs and have your insurance claims go to the infiniti dealer and meet them there. talk to the service advisor and the tech and get their feedback before the claim adjuster gets to the dealer. your insurance will pay for the inspection because this is still related to your collision.

good luck

 

Thats horrible, bubba. I don't bknow where to start actually. As previously mentioned, make your insurance company aware of this. Shops can be unscrupulous, and down right dishonest / criminal. Keep us informed.

 

If it's a direct repair facilty, the insurance company will have to fix any problems related to accident. If you picked the shop on your own, time to crank out a letter to the owner letting them know what is wrong & what you expect.
I'm amazed at some of the slap jobs they do, guess because it's insurance $ most people just want the car fixed. Just document ANY/ALL issues. Also DO NOT TELL DEALERSHIP CAR WAS HIT. Let them figure it out. In case you need dealer work, I find after serious accidents, it should go to the dealer at some point. Personally had a huge issue with steering angle sensor. Just needed to be reset, only the dealer could get it correct. 2 different shops couldn't figure it out.
Good luck with the repair, seems like it's got mechanical issues.

 

So here's the twist- when the car was initially hit, I filed a claim with my insurance company, Liberty Mutual. The person who hit me was a Nationwide member. Liberty Mutual recommended to me one of their "preferred body shops" whose parts they guarantee for life, and the work is guaranteed for life. So I opted to pick the most convenient shop with the best reputation. It got towed to that shop in the week after the accident. For some reason, Liberty Mutual took FOREVER to get someone out and appraise the vehicle, and I heard through some sources that they don't pay for new parts. Nationwide had the vehicle appraised and inspected about two weeks after the accident (still ridiculously slow, but faster than liberty mutual.) So I opted to pursue the claim directly through Nationwide, instead of trying to monkey around between liberty and nationwide. So the shop is a Liberty guaranteed shop, that was paid directly by nationwide.

I'm not really sure if the work is "guaranteed" anymore, or who is going to take it up with the shop. I already informed the dealer this weekend that the car was in an accident, I actually brought it in on Saturday to have it inspected by Infiniti just to make sure everything was done correctly, because I wanted to cross my "t's" and dot my "i's". But after bringing it there, Infiniti and I decided it would be best to bring it back for a full inspection once the body shop replaced the mud guard, the tire and the trunk piece. So nothing got inspected, and go figure, the equipment fails the next day.

At this point, I want to just go around the body shop, I'm sure that they are a good and honest business but they didn't complete the job the first time, and I want someone who knows these cars and works on them every day to be working on the mechanical components. The body work is done.

I am going to call nationwide in about 5 minutes to discuss with them, and understand the options. Not sure if I should be dealing with Liberty mutual as well...

 

I spoke with Nationwide, and they said that I need to take it to Infiniti to be inspected. If Infiniti discovers that the work done by the body shop was done incorrectly, the body shop needs to fix that. If Infiniti discovers that there are more problems that the body shop missed, Infiniti can fix it. Now I have to be the piece to link all of these entities together, and make sure everything gets done/covered.

 

Welcome to the realities of insurance and warranties/guarantees. They all sound good, like you're covered in a baby blanket, but in reality, you have to fight for everything. Even at that you're worse off in the end, both from a car integrity pespective, and aggravation triggered aging.

 

With insurance jobs it's usually better to use your own mechanic vs the independent insurance approved shops. The insurance companies usually try to cut cost by using old cheap parts, opting for cheap labor leading to shoddy jobs. My sedan also got hit and I had my mechanic run the insurance job vs the insurance company and he did a damn good job. He ordered genuine infiniti parts from Nissan themselves and ofcourse marked up labor rates for insurance. Even double checked it with dealership and even the new parts were covers under warranty.

You should check the documents for what was damaged and the replacement parts ordered and then compare them to the genuine parts from infiniti. The reason why the dealer might not want to check it is because they don't want to be liable for "tampering with somebodies unfinished job".

 

easiest thing to do is speak with service advisor and get technician input before putting the insurance company in the mix. lets face it body shop guys will always be body shop guys. although they do perform some mechanical repairs they have little understanding of how certain electronic systems work or whether a repair is done to factory specs.
in addition even if the infiniti dealer finds the body shop to be at fault of incorrect repairs you can still opt of the dealer to make the necessary corrections since the body shop was lacking in skill of repair. the insurance company can always bill the bodyshop for repairs done by the infiniti dealer. your gripe is obviously not about the paint and aesthetic work, its multiple electronic sys malfunctions and vehicle not driving correctly

 

So- it turns out that the body shop installed the left rear ABS sensor incorrectly, and that is what triggered the lights on the dash and the slipping. In addition to that, the suspension was completely out of alignment. So I had them pay Infiniti to do the work. The car has been returned to me and feels MUCH improved (placebo? maybe). Now to get that pesky tire, mud guard and trunk piece resolved and this saga will be OVER.

 

Always deal with your own carrier, they have both yours/their interests to protect. You always have a choice on the repair shop, however no one will take care of it. Body shops live off insurance companies.
Now that original guarantee is useless.
Next issue.
If you think about stay far away from dealership,they will note your accident in system. Then add insult probably will not get it 100%.
Most dealerships send out bodywork & the rates will not line up with insurance company.
When I had damage, the dealership wouldn't work with the insurance company.
Told me, I will fix anything under warranty except another shops problems.
Guess they have enough of that on the mechanical side.
Apparently, the insurance company forgets the dealership has no interest in fixing other body shop issues.
If your car is (3) model years or older you get used parts whenever they can.
Unless you pay extra in your premium for new parts replacement.

Good luck with getting it sorted out.

 

Back in the shop today.... Service Engine Soon light was on. Sounds like exhaust or fuel pump issues. I love this car, but I am wishing they had totaled it.

 

Yeah, I love how Insurance Companies would have you believe that impact (shock) loading has no detrimental effects on components. Same for elastic deformation of components, especially sheet metal, plastic, wiring, etc.

They evaluate the final state (though not very thoroughly), and ignore the history.

But the Government is their bed-partner, so... That and most people equate shiny to integrity.

 

Yeah, they had to replace the fuel pump (covered!) and a piece having to do with emissions, the cats are failing and need to be replaced (covered!) so they ordered those parts and will install them when they're in. Maybe THEN my car will function? Still need the damn body shop to put on the tire, mud guard and trunk piece. The headache that never ends!

 

They do this on purposes I'm convinced.
Now the body shop who did your work will just add supplements.
When my coupe was hit ended up breakdown.
$17 k initial damage, 7k supplement then another 2k.
26k total on a 08 coupe back in 2011, they wouldn't total.
It happens to the best of us, now I'd press them to drop what they are working on & give you priority. Plus, if it gets real inconvenient id press the body shop for a rental.
A buddy of mine was able to do that, after it kept going back after the 2nd time they rented him a car until it was 100%.
Good luck with getting the wrapped up.