Hi
Our 2001 XJ8 suffered rear passenger tail light and exhaust damage during an accident early this afternoon. My wife seems to be shaken by it, but seems to be OK.

She had stopped behind a car waiting to make a left hand turn when another car coming up fast tried to go around her into the right hand lane and hit our car at about 30 mph.

The police happened to be there when the accident happened. The driver that caused the accident had no insurance, expired driver license, no car registration and no assets (lives in a hotel room). He was arrested by the police right on the spot and his car was towed away.

We have to pay for the first $1000 damage (our insurance deductible).

Our car can not be driven until the muffler and other exhaust components are replaced. Not sure how much damage there is to the rear bumper components. Rear trunk lid has some damage, also rear muffler has been pushed back to the rear tire.

What other things and componets should I try to examine.

Any sugguestions are welcomed.

Jim Lombardi

 

Jim - very sorry to hear about the accident. Glad to hear you wife is OK. It would be good to check the rear brake lines,emergency brake cables and fuel lines where the exhaust pipes cross the rear suspension.

Thank you for all or your helpful posts of diagrams and JTIS information. I save every one of them.

I hope you have your car back asap and as good as new
Ed
__________________________
'01 VDP S/C
Nameless Perfomance Cats'
Custom rear anti-roll bar
Custom intercooler reservoir

 

accidents are no fun but it is good that no one was hurt

do what rocklandjag said and also check for any deformation in the areas of the doors and any type of creasing in the rear door jam. also look at the place where the "c pillar" intersects with the bodyshell.

also since the exhaust and whatnot was mangled I would pull up some of the carpets in the trunk and look for deformation in there, also check the battery and fuse box and whatnot since that is on the right side of the trunk area.

good luck

 

Measure the distance between the left and right qtr at the saddle, then at the taillight area. These cars shift quite a bit when they get hit... Somewhere in the interwebs there are measurements for the body panels tolerances etc. that you can use for measuring and to make sure it is repaired correctly. I had a body shop do some poor work with jacked up tolerances, then try and tell me that was how it is supposed to look until I showed the adjuster the tolerance requirements....

 

So sorry to hear about this nasty incident , good thing your wife was OK and got out of the ride w/o scratch . I believe you can repair your car w/o totalling it .
Hope, things will be none the worse so is your XJ

 

a HUGE +1 from me Jim on ALL of the above comments made by other members here!

I'm glad your wife is ok, if a little shaken and hope that your car is repaired to the std you require and as soon as possible.

It sucks that the other guy has no insurance etc and that this will end up costing you

All my best Jim

 

I'm glad your wife is OK. I hope that your car can be fixed up good as new.

 

Good to hear that your wife is OK.

Hopefully the car is not too badly damaged.

 

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, I do appreciate all your contributions here as well. I would lend you my 01 XJ8 till you got yours repaired but my Mercedes (my other car) is in a hundreds of pieces waiting for new paint.

 

+1 with all the above Jim, especially that the wifey is okay! Wit abit of luck the Jag will be back in tip top shape in no time.

 

Never fun when this happens -- glad all OK


The trunk lid is very exposed on these cars due to its low position and any damage to the bumper cover normally necessitates replacement.

I would make sure that the battery did not suffer any damage and have them look at the motor mounts/ trans mount. The exhaust usually just bends -- but it can push everything forward. The exhaust manifolds on the x300's are a weak link -- I damaged my early VDP when I backed into a parking barrier and pushed the exhaust tip.

Check your policy as to uninsured/ underinsured -- depending on what you have it may cover the deductible loss if it is determined that you have no liability and the other has no insurance. Also -- watch out for "betterment" on the exhaust -- some companies use this to reduce payouts.

 

Hi
Thank you all for your replies and sugguestions.
We are happy with the quality of auto body work that was performed on our 2001 XJ8.
We were lucky that the amount of damage was not as bad as we first thought it was.

Only needed 4 parts replaced: Passenger rear tail light (lamp), back rear muffler, exhaust pipe before muffler and the chrome trim (passenger side) on the bumper cover.

Needed body repairs to a ding in the trunk (boot) lid, to the area under tail light (lamp) and the minor scoring/scratches to the rear bumper cover.

Our insurance company paid the entire bill ($3460) - they waived the $1000 deductible.

Thank you yeldogt - You were correct. We have a special clause in our insurance policy that states that the deductable will be waived when your car is hit from behind and your car was stopped (like you are waiting for the car in front of you to go).

When the insurance adjustor called I told him I found the clause and he confirmed that the deductable was going to be waived.

Well we have been back on the road for two days now and all seems to be well.

By the way, the auto body shop is call "Fat Daddy's". But the owner and the other body tech are thin. This shop gets all its work by word of mouth references. It is located behind a few houses and a industrial machinery facility. There are no signs directing you to their shop. There is no sign on the shop building.

Their bill is a hand written description of the work performed and does not even have the company name and address on the top of it.

But I have to say the repairs seems to be especially well done.

Jim Lombardi

 

Great news! Glad it all worked out.

 

That's great news, I like your description of the outfit that did the fix, sounds like all their thoughts are on the jobs and quality of work, not image. Like a few old school outfits here in the UK.