My 997 got rear ended :(

[Splurge997]

Hi all,

Was sat in traffic this morning when I got rear ended by a recovery truck (oh the irony). I was at a standstill and the bloke just blasted into the back of me. Both us are fine - which is the most important part. However, my pride and joy doesn't look too great :<

Engine died immediately upon impact. I believe that's coolant under the car, but the coolant bottle was full. Car has been recovered and is now off to SL restorations in Crawley.




Has anyone else suffered similar rear damage? Keen to hear people's experiences and anyone that's versed in the insurance repair space - this is the first claim I've ever had to put in.

[xjay1337]

Not ideal. But I'm sure it will be back and better than ever. Maybe if you need other bits done see if it can be all put in under the insurance cost.

Just report it to your insurers if you haven't already, be prepared for "do u have whiplash fam" type phonecalls.

[Stedman]

Can't comment on the damage, but if SLR do repair it the work should be

[Digga]

Water pumps out back there so, with luck, the only reason it's leaking coolant is a dislodged/damaged hose or pipe. Hopefully, with a few new parts; bumper, exhaust (it was a sports exhaust wasn't it? ) then the thing will be as good as new.

[Edwin Strohacker]

Digga said:

Water pumps out back there so, with luck, the only reason it's leaking coolant is a dislodged/damaged hose or pipe. Hopefully, with a few new parts; bumper, exhaust (it was a sports exhaust wasn't it? ) then the thing will be as good as new.

Just done a water pump on mine. It's held in by seven bolts & one pipe comes out the bottom. Pound to a penny the pump is ok, the pipe's dislodged. I'm plumping for looks worse than it is. Good luck.

[Digga]

Edwin Strohacker said:

Digga said:

Water pumps out back there so, with luck, the only reason it's leaking coolant is a dislodged/damaged hose or pipe. Hopefully, with a few new parts; bumper, exhaust (it was a sports exhaust wasn't it? ) then the thing will be as good as new.

Just done a water pump on mine. It's held in by seven bolts & one pipe comes out the bottom. Pound to a penny the pump is ok, the pipe's dislodged. I'm plumping for looks worse than it is. Good luck.

Hope so too!

Not a bad opportunity to get all the timing cover bolts and gaskets checked either. Looking on the bright side.

[Andrew911]

Had a rear end shunt in my 993 many years back - by a truck, whilst in stationary traffic. Insurance company will almost certainly put the blame on the truck driver. Hopefully your insurance company will let you choose who to repair your 997 - ideally you want a Porsche approved repairer. Think the insurance bill for mine was near £15,000!!

[Splurge997]

that cost of repairs vs the value of the vehicle is my primary concern. The car has done 105059 (still on original engine ) which means if the repairs are going to be in that region is suspect I may be in for an unpleasant surprise.

[c4sman]

My old 997.1s was rear ended by a woman in a golf on her mobile. Big impact with similar damage to you but no engine problems or coolant leak. Repair cost at OPC was around £15k. As it's a rear ended the insurance claim will be super straightforward with zero discussion on fault. Every organisation under the sun wanted to handle the claim in fact and even my insurance company handed it to a third party who gave me a replacement brand new 911 during the 3 week repair. I paid the shop extra to tidy the whole car up so ended up with a brand new looking car properly repaired by an OPC so it worked out well in the end. Good luck and hopefully the value thing works ok.

[anonymous-user]

Splurge997 said:

Engine died immediately upon impact.

This could be the fuel cut-off and is designed to stop the fuel pump when there is a significant impact to the vehicle. There should be something in the vehicle manual about resetting this.

[Rockster]

Splurge997 said:

Hi all,

Was sat in traffic this morning when I got rear ended by a recovery truck (oh the irony). I was at a standstill and the bloke just blasted into the back of me. Both us are fine - which is the most important part. However, my pride and joy doesn't look too great :<

Engine died immediately upon impact. I believe that's coolant under the car, but the coolant bottle was full. Car has been recovered and is now off to SL restorations in Crawley.




Has anyone else suffered similar rear damage? Keen to hear people's experiences and anyone that's versed in the insurance repair space - this is the first claim I've ever had to put in.

Sorry to read about your car being hit. Glad to read no one was injured.

It is important to have the car repaired at a Porsche Approved Collision Center. The shop/techs should be well-versed in the proper repair procedure.

Have been through this a few times: My Boxster got hit twice in the rear -- the first time the impact shoved my car into the car in front of my Boxster so my Boxster ended up in an SUV sandwich with damage at both ends. My new 2008 Cayman S was hit -- on the left (driver) side -- and ended up being totaled. Then after that I hit a mule deer with my 996 Turbo.

The car will be partially disassembled and the car then put on a Celette Bench and the various hard points will be checked to ensure they are where they should be. If any are found out of position they must be brought into position. This is critical because if this is not done body panels, bumper cover, tail lights, engine compartment lid, spoiler, etc. will not have the proper/correct/even gap/fits.

Additionally if any suspension/running gear, engine mounts, etc., are out of position the car's alignment may be sub-par -- it is not allowed to "straighten" a bent Porsche by using up all the alignment adjustments -- and its road manners seriously affected. Tire and drive train lift can be negatively affected too.

A Porsche Approved Collision Center knows all of this and more and should see this process carried out.

As an side take lots of pics of the damages and as the car is repaired to record the process. This way you can show when (if) you ever go to sell the car the extent of the damage and the process by which the car was restored to its pre collision condition as best as humanly possible.

Be prepared for the repair process to take time. In the case of my Turbo it took a bit over 30 days and after I along with a body shop owner/buddy inspected the car then I had the car at a dealer where the techs removed the front bumper cover and I ended up with 20+ items/issues the car went back to the body shop for another 30 days of work. The 2nd time it came inspections turned up no new issues and all the issues found the 1st inspection were dealt with properly.

[ooid]

Splurge997 said:

that cost of repairs vs the value of the vehicle is my primary concern. The car has done 105059 (still on original engine ) which means if the repairs are going to be in that region is suspect I may be in for an unpleasant surprise.

wow, this is the first 997.1 S (3.8) that I've heard on that mega-mile still on the original engine! Hope they sort the car soon.

[Splurge997]

Thanks for everyone's contribution to this thread so far. Not heard anything further yet and am still waiting on a thorough vehicle inspection. Bodyshop is a Porsche-approved repair center who seem to have a very good reputation so i am relatively confident I'm in good hands.

My concern however is that at least from a 'visual' inspection, the parts are already nearly at £12k, and that's before anything unpleasant is discovered (which is inevitable). My concern right now is that the 3rd party will just want to write it off, which truth be told, is my worst nightmare as the car holds immense personal value for reasons I won't bore you with.

Edit - here's the car without the constant dirt and massive buggered rear.

[ooid]

There is a similar issue on boxa currently, one of the owners newish boxster GTS got in an accident and he was trying to avoid high billed courtesy cars in order to reduce the repair bill. (Which he did I guess). You might wanna check the boxa.net? Good luck, it's a really nice car.

[Stedman]

Splurge997 said:

Thanks for everyone's contribution to this thread so far. Not heard anything further yet and am still waiting on a thorough vehicle inspection. Bodyshop is a Porsche-approved repair center who seem to have a very good reputation so i am relatively confident I'm in good hands.

My concern however is that at least from a 'visual' inspection, the parts are already nearly at £12k, and that's before anything unpleasant is discovered (which is inevitable). My concern right now is that the 3rd party will just want to write it off, which truth be told, is my worst nightmare as the car holds immense personal value for reasons I won't bore you with.

Edit - here's the car without the constant dirt and massive buggered rear.

I can see how the truck driver failed to see your car...

[Splurge997]

Update: heard from the 3rd party insurer directly today. Their customer has accepted total liability. I've decided to deal with them directly as I wish to avoid the Chinese whisper scenario.

Also spoke to the bodyshop - general outcome is not looking good as we're already at about 15k for parts.

[Rockster]

Splurge997 said:

Update: heard from the 3rd party insurer directly today. Their customer has accepted total liability. I've decided to deal with them directly as I wish to avoid the Chinese whisper scenario.

Also spoke to the bodyshop - general outcome is not looking good as we're already at about 15k for parts.

You know sometimes a car, a good car, reaches the end of the road and is good only to be cannibalized of parts in order to keep other good cars on the road.

My 4 week old (speed yellow I might add) 2008 Cayman S was hit -- at the driver side a-pillar -- and as much as I loved that car I was so afraid the other driver's insurance company would insist on fixing it. But the damage was so severe the "exotic car adjuster" deemed the car a total loss.

I took the money I received for the Cayman S and then what I realized from the sale of the salvage titled Cayman -- long story as the other driver didn't have quite sufficient coverage -- she hit a $60K+ new Cayman S with just $50K insurance -- I got to resume my search for another Porsche. I found a pristine 2003 996 Turbo with just 10k miles.

So I got to transfer the love of the Cayman to the Turbo.

Sometimes then one just has to say goodbye to a loved car that is no longer a viable car and turn around and begin the process of falling in love with another car.

[Digga]

Splurge997 said:

Update: heard from the 3rd party insurer directly today. Their customer has accepted total liability. I've decided to deal with them directly as I wish to avoid the Chinese whisper scenario.

Also spoke to the bodyshop - general outcome is not looking good as we're already at about 15k for parts.

Whatever happens, at the end, I hope you get to carry on getting your Porsche fix, in this car (which does look great) or another. Keep us all posted.

[anniesdad]

Splurge997 said:

Update: heard from the 3rd party insurer directly today. Their customer has accepted total liability. I've decided to deal with them directly as I wish to avoid the Chinese whisper scenario.

Also spoke to the bodyshop - general outcome is not looking good as we're already at about 15k for parts.

Ordinarily I would say avoid the third party insurers and claim from your own insurer where they are contractually liable.

The at fault insurers will only "want" to write your car off if you are hiring an expensive hire vehicle to keep mobile. If you're not then they'll only write it off if it is uneconomical to repair. If you're not hiring then you can claim for loss of use of the vehicle should you wish. They will likely not advise you of this. You can expect to get £10-£15 for every day you cannot use it.

[TheLordJohn]

It doesn't matter too much if it is written off, you can just take the pay out, buy it back, fix it, keep the change, and have your old car back.
At that mileage, you were probably going to keep it a while so an insurance claim against it isn't the end of the world.
Better that than to lose it and never see it again, IMO.