To make a long story short I was driving this morning around 6am on the high speed lane with my cruise set at 70MPH, I see a car coming very fast switch from an on-ramp to the slow lane to the high speed lane and right to my rear left door just swerving everywhere I overact and instead of letting him hit me I went into the center of the highway which is all grass/bushes and I just mashed onto the brakes(thank you ABS). With my luck it so happened to be while I was trying to keep it straight on the grass instead of spinning out of control while doing that in a few seconds I had gotten down to 50-40MPH but right in front of me was one of those official use only small U-turn roads that cops use to shoot radar or switch sides of the highway quickly will from my POV down in the grassy area that small road is raised and went straight up the dirt hill doing about 50MPH so i definitely got some air once I landed on the other side my whole car bottomed out.
My damage was a flat front left tire, I'm guessing popped/ripped left rear air spring or definitely some sort of damage to the suspension on that side, left fender moving back on its adjustments, dented front bumper cover and broken corner clip which holds it to the fender and dirt/grassed packed hole all under my '98 TC.
I'm lucky I work in the automotive industry because all of these fixes have to come out of my pocket because I can't claim this as a hit and run because there was no contact on the highway and no state troopers showed up while I fixed my flat and reset my fuel pump cut-off switch. The Michelin Symmetry 225/60/16 I popped my buddy at a tire shop has a whole week old set because the customer decided he wanted them later with white walls so I'll get those for $110 installed/balanced/aligned. I called another friend who happens to work at a Lincoln dealership and he ordered me the Air Spring for $100, on the body damage my cousin owns a body shop so thats covered.
My main concern now is did I jump to conclusion guessing that the cause of the rear left sag is from a ripped air spring? My only reason for believing this is I have NO check "Air Suspension" light on and my compressor keeps running trying to fill my lower side up while my right side fills up just right. Should I be looking at any other causes considering the situation the car was involved in earlier today or is the air spring the only thing it can be?
Pics of the damage on my '98 TC:
BEFORE
AFTER
Was a deal at $5500 with 68K on it for a 1998 TC Exec with denim blue leather, some of the money I saved buying it cheap now has to get used to fix it what a shame.
My damage was a flat front left tire, I'm guessing popped/ripped left rear air spring or definitely some sort of damage to the suspension on that side, left fender moving back on its adjustments, dented front bumper cover and broken corner clip which holds it to the fender and dirt/grassed packed hole all under my '98 TC.
I'm lucky I work in the automotive industry because all of these fixes have to come out of my pocket because I can't claim this as a hit and run because there was no contact on the highway and no state troopers showed up while I fixed my flat and reset my fuel pump cut-off switch. The Michelin Symmetry 225/60/16 I popped my buddy at a tire shop has a whole week old set because the customer decided he wanted them later with white walls so I'll get those for $110 installed/balanced/aligned. I called another friend who happens to work at a Lincoln dealership and he ordered me the Air Spring for $100, on the body damage my cousin owns a body shop so thats covered.
My main concern now is did I jump to conclusion guessing that the cause of the rear left sag is from a ripped air spring? My only reason for believing this is I have NO check "Air Suspension" light on and my compressor keeps running trying to fill my lower side up while my right side fills up just right. Should I be looking at any other causes considering the situation the car was involved in earlier today or is the air spring the only thing it can be?
Pics of the damage on my '98 TC:
BEFORE
AFTER
Was a deal at $5500 with 68K on it for a 1998 TC Exec with denim blue leather, some of the money I saved buying it cheap now has to get used to fix it what a shame.
