190D ran over a cow - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

csp97 · #1 12-09-2011, 12:39 PM

A couple weeks ago, I was driving down a country highway at night following a Ford Focus. There happened to be a steer standing in the middle of the highway. The Focus took the brunt of it, knocking the steer down. Somehow my little 190D managed to go over the thing. I think I may have been gotten airborne, hitting it mostly with the left side tires. The front end of the focus was messed up pretty good, but as far as I could tell the 190D only suffered some broken plastic on the lower part of the front bumper (and some guts on the underbody!). The steering wheel was also rotated 90 degrees and I could tell the alignment was off a little.

It drove home ok, and I even drove it for a few days before I could get it into the local small town mechanic for an alignment. He was unable to get the camber aligned. It's still 1.5 degrees off at the maximum adjustment. He was willing to admit he doesn't see may Mercedes, but he could see anything that was bent. His alignment machine did not indicate a bent frame.

Besides cows on the road, another disadvantage of living in the middle of nowhere West Texas is that the nearest Mercedes dealer is 3 hours away. I'm planning on taking it to a indy in Amarillo with a reputation for dealing with imports.

Is there anything I can look at that would make the camber off that much? It will be wearing the inside of the front tires. Driver side is visibly off. Is there anyway to check the unibody to confirm that it's still straight?

tbomachines · #2 12-09-2011, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csp97

A couple weeks ago, I was driving down a country highway at night following a Ford Focus. There happened to be a steer standing in the middle of the highway. The Focus took the brunt of it, knocking the steer down. Somehow my little 190D managed to go over the thing. I think I may have been gotten airborne, hitting it mostly with the left side tires. The front end of the focus was messed up pretty good, but as far as I could tell the 190D only suffered some broken plastic on the lower part of the front bumper (and some guts on the underbody!). The steering wheel was also rotated 90 degrees and I could tell the alignment was off a little.

It drove home ok, and I even drove it for a few days before I could get it into the local small town mechanic for an alignment. He was unable to get the camber aligned. It's still 1.5 degrees off at the maximum adjustment. He was willing to admit he doesn't see may Mercedes, but he could see anything that was bent. His alignment machine did not indicate a bent frame.

Besides cows on the road, another disadvantage of living in the middle of nowhere West Texas is that the nearest Mercedes dealer is 3 hours away. I'm planning on taking it to a indy in Amarillo with a reputation for dealing with imports.

Is there anything I can look at that would make the camber off that much? It will be wearing the inside of the front tires. Driver side is visibly off. Is there anyway to check the unibody to confirm that it's still straight?

Broken paint under the hood or under the car, or visible buckling/bending would be the two main things to look for. If the wheel is visibly misaligned, you can probably get it up on jackstands and follow the load-bearing areas until you see evidence. IMO I would be very wary of the suspension components after something like that.

Edit: also HOLY****

a COW

vstech · #3 12-09-2011, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csp97

A couple weeks ago, I was driving down a country highway at night following a Ford Focus. There happened to be a steer standing in the middle of the highway. The Focus took the brunt of it, knocking the steer down. Somehow my little 190D managed to go over the thing. I think I may have been gotten airborne, hitting it mostly with the left side tires. The front end of the focus was messed up pretty good, but as far as I could tell the 190D only suffered some broken plastic on the lower part of the front bumper (and some guts on the underbody!). The steering wheel was also rotated 90 degrees and I could tell the alignment was off a little.

It drove home ok, and I even drove it for a few days before I could get it into the local small town mechanic for an alignment. He was unable to get the camber aligned. It's still 1.5 degrees off at the maximum adjustment. He was willing to admit he doesn't see may Mercedes, but he could see anything that was bent. His alignment machine did not indicate a bent frame.

Besides cows on the road, another disadvantage of living in the middle of nowhere West Texas is that the nearest Mercedes dealer is 3 hours away. I'm planning on taking it to a indy in Amarillo with a reputation for dealing with imports.

Is there anything I can look at that would make the camber off that much? It will be wearing the inside of the front tires. Driver side is visibly off. Is there anyway to check the unibody to confirm that it's still straight?

... you ran over... a COW?

..."no marty, ... He'd rip through us like we were tin foil. "...

t walgamuth · #4 12-09-2011, 01:02 PM

The front subframes are designed to fold up in a frontal collision so they are relatively vulnerable to a large impact.

A good frame shop should be able to put it on their rack and check it against what it is supposed to be and tweak it a bit back to where it is supposed to be. Not a huge expense and it should be covered by insurance.

It sounds like the trick is finding a good frame shop!

Biodiesel300TD · #5 12-09-2011, 02:09 PM

My wife General Lee'd our TDI wagon over a dead deer last winter going over 60mph. Yee Haw!!

It was a dark foggy night and she didnt' see the deer until it was too late. Which was kind of fortunate cause she hit is square in the back. If she'd swerved or anything I'd probably be a widower. A $3000 bill to the insurance and $100 out of my pocket. It did all kinds of stuff under the car, but you could hardly tell just anything happened looking at the body. Nearly folded the bottom of the radiator in half though. Tore the belly pan off, along with a bunch of other stuff. Here's a pic of some bits left behind. I'd take your car to the alignment shop for sure.

Orv · #6 12-09-2011, 05:24 PM

Did you have to reimburse the rancher for the loss of his cow?

panZZer · #7 12-09-2011, 06:48 PM

Youre lucky you were not the guy who hit it, usually they roll into the windshield and the driver gets a moutfull of hide /flesh and dies--but the cow gets to hobble away.

jonbobshinigin · #8 12-09-2011, 06:58 PM

Wow! In Florida, once could hit a deer and hardly know because of how small they are here...

psaboic · #9 12-09-2011, 07:55 PM

I worry about hitting an Elk with my 300D.....they are all over the place around here. Plenty of deer too. In fact my wife clipped one with her Beetle recently to the tune of about $1000 in damage (mostly cosmetic thank goodness)

piccolovic · #10 12-09-2011, 11:09 PM

in trucking, we know . . . "HIT THE DEER > > > RUN IT OVER" but when it comes to cows, we knw "PRAY!!!"

vstech · #11 12-10-2011, 08:37 AM

yeah, mass in a cow is plenty to take down nearly any vehicle... over 2000lbs in some cases... OP likely just clipped the legs... I cannot imagine a way the vehicle actually traversed the body of the cow and drove away...

chasinthesun · #12 12-10-2011, 10:43 AM

Look at your tie rods to see if their bent ,their pretty punie compared to a 300d or sd.I almost hit a deer last week ,big buck in full stride crossing the backroads at night ,he seemed concerned as he made a strang noise as my headlights neared his ars end.I was in my 190d and for sheer cornering and emergency driving you feel at complete command of these little cars.

TchTchr · #13 12-11-2011, 11:10 PM

It was reported on the news last night that a whole slew of cattle were loose on one of the parkways in Kentucky. It messed with traffic for a good portion of the night. As of news time 9 were still at-large. Yes, they said at-large! Damn criminal cows!

E150GT · #14 12-12-2011, 01:22 AM

cows are bad news. I have a customer who totaled his ford ranger due to a cow in the road at night. My dad hit a deer in his jeep wrangler once and it flew over the jeep. I hit a deer in my van and it went flying literally tumbling over end over end. I hit him mid stride at about 55 mph.