Hey all,

Thanks for looking at my post ...

The car (03 cooper S) belongs to my brother. He rear-ended someone at about 5 mph sliding on ice. I'm hoping to get some guidance on the repairs I'm going to do for him. I've done a lot of vehicle repairs before, as I'm an avid 4x4 enthusiast... I haven't however ever worked on a mini before.

Damage:

-airbags deployed --I've parted out a jeep before and sold the airbags, but never installed them. Is this something that I can get a used set of bags from a junkyard and install them? Should I be concerned about them redeploying when installed, or are the sensors able to reset themselves automatically?)

-castor and camber out of spec --we did an alignment on the car already and the toe is back in spec... the caster and camber are not however. I realize that it's impossible to know whether the arms are bent or if the frame is damaged, but is there a tendancy for one or the other to happen with this car? Specs: (Camber: -.5L/ -1.4R)(Caster: 4.2L / 3.2R). I realize that since things aren't equal left to right that something is tweaked. I don't know how much of a big deal it is though. Are we going to eat tires with these specs?

-radiator mounts broken --but no fluid spillage and rad reasonably stable. Are the plastic mounts replaceable or are they part of the rad?

-hood slightly out of alignment makes it difficult to open-- planning to try a little tweaking to get things realigned. The hood isn't that bad at all.

-traction control light is on and intermittently will turn off --this seems to happen on snowy surfaces where it activates the DSC and temporarrily resets it. I drove the car and couldn't reproduce that, but my brother says that he's had the DSC activate on him and stay activated for around 1000 feet when it will eventually turn off. By his description, it sounds like it thinks that it's skidding and activates the ABS on one corner of the car. Sounds like a sensor problem to me. Any thoughts?

-Flat Tire Monitor is on -- no flat tire, but the light is on. The flat tire monitor goes off when the DSC does its weird thing and the light turns off. Not sure how the two could be related, but is it possible that they are? Can we just assume that one of the sensors got damaged in the accident and needs to be replaced?

Any advice is sincerely appreciated. My brother doesn't have collision insurance or much money to fix the car, and I'd really like to help him get his car back into good shape.

 

No Collision Insurance.... ?

Have an authorized repair shop take care of 90% these matters....any one of these components not repaired by someone with proper knowledge of these cars could be hazardous to your brothers health.....

It's not a CJ 5....trust me.

 

Airbags....not sure...if you have any ins...many ins company's will replace them for free....just to be sure they are installed and working to reduce future losses....I know mine does.....but big $$$$. This alone will sometimes total cars in accidents. It does need a special too to reset the light. Seat-belt pre-tensions would have to be replaced to..they should have fired...add to the list.
Castor+cambor....eat tires...yup....I'd get it on a frame rack....then again maybe it was from potholes, but the sub frame may be bent or dammaged....could be a safety issue....
Radiator mounts are replaceable...separate from the radaitor..
Wheel speed sensor maybe as far as the DSC problem and the flat tire monitor...did you try to reset the flat tire monitor yet. If it did nor re-set...when you tried to re-set it, these two problems might go hand in hand.....
You could get an estimate from a shop.....might include a list of things they might do, and help you determine what needs to be done....
Good luck!!

Try Realoem.com

they will have diagrams, part numbers, schematics, etc.

 

I appreciate the advice on doing it right. I'm a mechanical engineer and I feel comfortable doing these things. I'm not asking if I'm getting in over my head, I'm asking so I know where to start, and just looking for a few fingers pointed in the right direction.

I appreciate the concern that "this isn't a cj5." I expected that reply from a forum and I'm sure you meant no disrespect by it. I'm more than qualified to fix the car, just haven't done one of these before. Thus... I'm here. I have a good grasp on what's dangerous and what's not... having built a race car from the ground up.

anyway... I'll start down the path of the sensor and see where that gets us first. The rest of the car is mechanically safe for now... sans airbags. I'm just not sure how the airbag system works in this car, which is why I asked about that. Hoping others will chime in.

 

Dude no disrespect. Your first post here and it's a doozy, never know the experience poster have unless they specify....don't want anyone to get hurt ya know

 

I agree... it's not how I like to make an entrance

The main thing is that I don't know how the electrical systems in this car are designed, and that's my main concern. I'm sure I'll get it figured out... I just thought I could get a little help here on the way

 

DSC and TPMS is most likely due to the alignment being off, but other then that, i know nuthing :P

 

These Bentley Manuals can help ya.

They run about $70.00 and $130.00 each respectively.