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I got a kiss from behind - serious question

764 views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  samosali 
#1 ·
I was standing on a red light and mercedes VITO van bumped into my rear bumper with slowest speed. the van was actually standing however the driver claimed that his foot slipped from the clutch. the distance between me and him was ca 1 m or less. i assume his speed in moment of bump was below 5 km/h.

there is no visible damage on my car except some scratches from his license plate. what do you think? should i remove the bumper and check situation or everything is fine?
 
#3 ·
That's bad sad news Samo .
One of the reasons I keep mine in lock down .
What ever you do ,Don't open the trunk, another Merc hit you don't forget , never know what you find in there .:thumbsup:
 
#7 · (Edited)
Removing the Bumper is easy , two nuts on each side behind the trim & 4 bolts behind the trim in-between the lights , if yours has the parking sensors ,you obviously disconnect that .
Before you take it of , check near the tyre wall if the bumper is aligned properly ,if it is ,there is no need to remove it .
I think that the 140's have the low under 7km/h or near there speed/crash protection bumpers like the Porsche 928 had/has .
What that means is ,if someone hits you at low rolling speed ,the bumper moves in & then back out without causing any damage ,except maybe paint damage .:thumbsup:

Chris, i do not understand ... what do you mean by "do not open the trunk" ?

i must add that i had a feeling that a war ship hit me with ca 20 - 30 km/h. i was standing on a brake, the w140 was well shaken during this small accident.
LoL Samo ,what happen to your sense of Humor .
Another Merc hit you , It was a Vito Merc , if you open the trunk you might find an E.T in there or a Mario crash doll baby,lol.:thumbsup:
 
#5 · (Edited)
Chris, i do not understand ... what do you mean by "do not open the trunk" ?

i must add that i had a feeling that a war ship hit me with ca 20 - 30 km/h. i was standing on a brake, the w140 was well shaken during this small accident.
 
#6 ·
Bumper comes of really easy, there is some plastic supports behind there that might have got crunched. Take a look.

James here had a Vito turn in front of him and the W140 (300SE) punched the Vito onto its side.
 
#8 ·
thanks "Joe" and Chris. so 6 screws from inside all together. i checked from below and i cannot see any damage of metal parts. the bumper only has one or two surface scratch, i will not load my brains because of this because the car will go into paint shop in the future, so no problem at all. i also checked alignment of the bumper and it seems perfect to me. I also checked situation from below and i cannot see any damage on metal (bottom of the car) near the bumper. so it seems i was lucky? Joe suggested that some plastics can still be crushed. I have 2 weeks of time to report eventual damage at the insurance company. i will most probably remove the bumper tomorrow if the rain will stop.

as for a humor I tell you that sometimes it is really hard to get a point for me. i mean somehow we belong to the same culture, however there are some barriers (language, local stories ...) :) nevermind ... so W140 : VITO = 1: 1 now ? They hit us back ... I hope we will win ...

:)
 
#10 ·
Samo,

I had this twice happen, and at very similar speeds, yet the first one had two tears - thumb size like someone went with a can-opener. I'm a calm person and I told the early 20 somethings in a Honda have a great day as they were nervous I was going to do some physical action. I shook their hands, and said have a good safe day.. I was was going to repaint my rear bumper which I did..

I did not encounter any damage under the bumper cover...

The second time was on my 200,000 mile S500, but I just got a scuff, but four hours later my fuel pump quit. Maybe the bump was at fault? Who Knows.... at 200,000 miles one can say the wheels are ready to fall off...

No physical damage either

Just inspect your trunk. Apply water to the trunk opening while closed for leaks, and inspect your exhaust system. Look at the hangers, and mounting points for tears in the metal...

Martin
 
#11 ·
Far worse has happened to me here in NYC, where repainting our bumpers is considered a regular part of annual maintenance because hits like that are almost a daily occurrence.

Other than the paint, these bumpers can take a lot of abuse. If the bumper doesn't seem to be out of alignment or anything, you're all good. No need to get paranoid.
 
#12 ·
Thanks Chris, Martin and "Thom". Good to hear your positive thoughts. based on them, so based on your experiences I assume all will be fine. I hope tomorrow the rain will stop and I will be able to check situation. I admit it is not a big deal, like i told you, it was extremely low speed, but boy why did I have a feeling that I was hit by a tanker ship ... ????

at this point, maybe a little bit of my consideration based on physics: in such situation it is best for persons in the car (the heaviest the better) that the car is standing still. And that was my situation; i was standing on a brake when they hit me from behind. From car's perspective it is best if i would not stand on a brake. In addition; lighter car, less damage in theory of masses ... but lighter car usually means worse car and more sensitive on mechanical damage.

Hypothetically, if I was in a position to hit somebody, then it is good to have a heavy car with lots of speed which will prevent negative acceleration (injuries).

I will report back tomorrow.
 
#14 · (Edited)
it depends on mass and situation of the object which will be hit. of course if the object is something which is rigid&static (road fence, tree, etc) then lower the speed better the chance to survive. i was awkward when I wrote my definition. To simplify, the negative acceleration must be a small as possible. sometimes this means that we must hit somebody with rather higher than lower speed.

for instance if two equal cars driving in opposite direction bump into each other with same speed they will stop in a moment. this is very bad. i was thinking that if one of these cars has much higher speed than other one, then the negative acceleration will be relatively small for faster car. now if you consider that faster car is also built like a tank (heavy, strong ...) you will maybe see what I actually meant with my comment :).
 
#15 ·
i tried to remove the bumper but have found only 4 screws. should be 6 of them. i was not pushy so i checked things "from outside", all is fine i think. there is pretty big gap between the bumper and trunk and what i saw is a perfect condition of chassis. the trunk itself and exhaust pipes are ok. end of story :).
 
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