The weather was just awful today....5" of snow, cold, roads were snow covered and in some spots really greazzzzzy.....I am rolling to a stop behind a car at a light that just turned yellow and (I saw him coming) a Dodge Ram skids into my rearend and I push hard into the lady in front. Nobody hurt, the Dodge's bumper is caved in the middle, and the lady in front of me in an Accord has a crushed, splintered bumper, barely hanging on, and the trunk lid is crimpled. Nobody's air bag went off. I get out and walk around my truck and I cannot tell anything is wrong with my Ranger....I can't believe it - both bumpers look untouched. The lady is nearly in tears - "I just made the last payment yesterday" - I felt sorry for her. The police show up very promptly, clearly the guy that rear-ended me is at fault and is cited. Certainly I'll take it to have the repair shop or dealer look it over, maybe I get new bumpers anyway, but without a reference, everything looks fine. All the time I'm walking around my truck at the scene and I'm thinking "Built Ford Tough" - I'm now a believer!!

The only problem which I noticed later in the day is that my self-installed overhead console (see my gallery) temperature readout is stuck at the temperature at the time of the crash (17F). I turned the console mode to off, then back on, and no change. I don't get it - if a wire got pinched or the thermocouple was crushed, it should read "OC" open circuit I think. Anyway, I'm pretty proud of my OHC install (thanks to coaching from Rockledge) and now the temp won't read right - so gotta get this figured out.

Anyway, that was today's highlights. Except to report, the 4x4 was awesome in the bad weather....never had a problem the whole day, it worked great. Shuttled my wife to work to spare her STS and enjoyed seeing her hike her pretty legs climbing up into the cab!!

Pat

 

Glad to hear everyone is ok.

I've had some similar incidences with my fords. Accident and no or verry little damage. Mine typicaly involved only me though.

 

That is cool that everyone was ok. Even better that your truck appears to not have suffered any damage at all except for the temp gauge. Hopefully the lady's insurance company will not total her car and force her to buy a new one.

 

I'll third the thankfulness no one was hurt! We've had about 4-5" of ice pellets topped off with freezing rain monday night. It's still a mess for sure! Very very little traffic yesterday as there was no melting and not expecting much today either.

As for Built Ford Tough, oh yah it's more than just a saying!

 

No injuries is the good thing. Hopefully the OHC display itself didn't get damaged from the jolt. Have you looked over the temp sensor harness connector yet Pat?

 

I've driven in weather conditions like that for several years to include driving on black ice. I was blessed because I had numerous close calls to going into eternity. I moved to Florida!

 

Have you pics?

 

The pictures if I had any would show no damage.

 

same here with my Cougar. But the B4000, not so much. I rear ended a Nissan Frontier doing around 10 mph. (rolling in traffic, car in front stopped short, he almost hit her, I hit him.) Anyways, $4300 in damage to the nose because the bumper is so low compared to the bumper on the stock bumper on the Frontier. So only one marker light survived. Everything else shattered. Bumper finally hit the receiver tube of the Frontier and caved the bumper. That sliced through the stock tranny cooler. grrrrr.

 

My aero was "rear ended" last year.



Driver of Opel escaped, but was captured later....

Replaced bumper, fixed tailgate and..... it was no reason to paint rear end only and I repainted all the van.

 

The OHC display unit appears to be operating as normal....lights, compass, mode, temp readout are all OK, except the temperature is wrong and before it was always dead on. Today it moved up from 17F to 22F readout, but the ambient is 28F. I checked the temp sensor and the wiring and the wiring harness connection and they're fine. The only damage to the front of the truck that I can see is a hairline crack in the lower valance underneath the bumper so the jolt of the 5mph impact could be the only thing to cause an affect. I cannot figure out what changed to cause the temperature to now read incorrectly. I'm tyring not to get pissed and don't know how I would handle this with the insurance company or repair shop.

 

Usually insuarance companies do not like to ask workshops to repare bumpers.... they prefere to pay for new....

But plastic bumpers are easy to repare. The best tool for it is soldering iron... Paints and bases for plastic bumpers are nearly in all car part stores. I repared my front bumper. Was broken to pices...., pass. side. Puzzle was done in 2 days...

 

pgw85706 - I know the feeling. 2 days ago we got some freezing rain, nothing too bad, but it was enough to screw traffic. Anyway, I was stopped in the right hand lane, and next thing I know.... BAM..... WTH?! I get out and this young girl in what looks like a brand new Lexus sedan is like "I am so sorry, are you ok?" Yea, I was fine, I looked down at my rear bumper, and there isn't even a dent. Then I look at her car, and was like "oh". She said she felt so bad and didn't want me to report her for rear-ending me that she would cover the damage. Well there was none to the old POS, but her car had at least $500 - $1000 in damage.

 

tought bumper - good bumper. less money to fix.....

 

Today I got my estimate from the local Ford dealer's collision center.....it was a preferred repair shop designated by the liable party's insurance company. Replace rear bumper, step pad and brackets, and front bumper valance......$565. My only concern is that the insurance company requires aftermarket parts be used where available.....guess it is kinda like using generics for your prescription meds. The replacement rear bumper is aftermarket....supposedly meets all the specs (tow capacity, chrome, etc) and has a warranty for the life of the truck unlike the 1 year Ford parts warranty. Does anyone see a problem using the aftermarket bumper?

Pat