Thought I'd share this one for your amusement . 3 weeks ago we had around 4" of snow (which I love driving in - normally) and I was returning home in the evening with 3 friends and was about 6 houses from my home, going around a mild bend ( by the angle that I took it - around maybe 200-220 degrees) , when the car decided to start to drift slowly as I went around it. I assume there was ice under the snow. I couldn't do any aggressive change of direction to correct it as there were parked cars on peoples drives very close by so all I could do was small steering adjustments to try to counteract it for the few seconds it lasted. I realised that it wasn't going to get any traction and that I would not be able to stop it in time (I only had around 5-6ft to the left when the drift started) and that the nearside wheels were inevitably going to drift into the kerb - least of my worries. As it hit (around 12mph, still going forward), all hell let loose, the side airbags deployed , the seat bolster air bags deployed (absolutely deafening, sounded like 4 shotguns going off at once - my ear next to the airbag was ringing for around 5mins) and the seat belt tensioners kicked in (couldn't get mine off for around 4mins). Absolutely no external damage except for 1 very heavily scuffed front alloy (looks like someone went at it with a rasp) and a quite heavily scuffed rear wheel. Upshot is, this is the most expensive accident I've ever had at the lowest ever speed...
2 new wheels
2 new tyres
New nearside and offside air bag curtains (luckily front air bags didn't deploy)
2 new full seat backs (as the bolster air-bags blow the sides out of the leather seats)
New headlining
4 x new seatbelts (as can't reuse them after going off)
New trailing arms for front nearside wheel as got bent during the impact
New nearside front door card as the explosive charge from the seat bolster burnt a small part of the leather trim.

I reckon I may have got away with it if I had deeper profile tyres . I have the 22" wheels so the tyre wall is small and so on impact, the alloy wheel takes as much of the impact as the tyre as the kerbs are around 5" high, so the car is effectively a solid object hitting another solid object. My old L322 had 19" wheels and a lot of tyre wall, I recon it would have either mounted the kerb or just bounced off (mind you, if I had that car and the bags deployed, it would have been written off as the expense would have exceeded the cars value ). Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

Ouch

Could have come out a lot worse, but glad everyones unscathed

Cheers Jkay. I did feel like someone had been punching me in the stomach for around 4 days due to the seatbelt, couldn't believe how tight it was, assume it is to protect you from a roll-over or something. Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

Out of curiosity, did you have the style 707 Diamond cut wheels?

looks like the safety features are a bit over sensitive ....main thing is that you and your passengers are ok, apart from the 'sore bits' .. ... - .- -.




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Ouch, sounds worrying when it's time to get the L405 off-road! You would have thought the airbags would not be engaged at speeds below 20 MPH, or that's probably what stopped the front bags from deploy. Or when you actually got a significant force from the side which could potentially protrude into the cabin space and only then trigger the side airbag. Supporter and maintainer of EDF - Mrs Edfors' shopping cart.

Ouch but so easy on big tyres, The vehicle did it's job protecting you and your friends.
However bet the insurance bill was ££££££'s Mine was a blue one!

@Jkay - nope normal 22" wheels - to remove the damaged part and rebuild would be quite a job. I guess they can't risk repairs incase the alloy has been weakened elsewhere during the impact.
I could only think that me feathering the accelerator slightly fooled the car into thinking it was going quicker than it was, although at the repairer, when I asked him to guess what speed I was doing, he said he had cars in that had the bags going off at 10mph (never mentioned make of car), but he did say, at the end of the day, it is over 2 tonnes of car hitting a stationary object so suppose it makes sense they deployed - unfortunately  Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

@Edfors - I'm guessing that when you put the car in low 4 for off-roading it automatically disables the airbag sensors - am I right guys? Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

Once again sorry to hear about what Happened Steve.

Hope the vehicle gets sorted to a satisfactory standard soon!

Glad it didn't hurt anyone , the airbags would have deployed because the car was traveling above the threshold at which they are disabled and the car knew it was out of control because the yaw sensors the steering sensor and the traction control work together for his very purpose I doubt that off road driving no matter how violent would recreate these signals . Unless it was about to crash of course  2008 MY Supercharged
Rimini Red / Jet
four zone climate
remote park heater
and no ugly kid windows.
magnus satis quod turpis satis

Cheers - the only thing that surprised me was the trailing arms, as otherwise, no mechanical damage or bodywork damage of course. Get it back next week hopefully. Don't understand why the seats don't have a removable section in the bolsters where the air bags are so that they don't have to change the whole seat back and also why they don't have to just replace the triggered tensioners in the seatbelts as opposed to the whole seatbelt - seems such a waste. Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

Cheers Axle - makes sense. Put me off a bit though, as I say, snow is my favourite weather to drive in and my old L322 romped it , but will be more cautious in this one than normal after this little incident. Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

Wow what a story. The car did its job.

The air bags deploy in a split second, you hear the bang wonder what's happening and look to your side to see a light pink air bag next to your head and shoulders and one next to your side and within a second realise what's occurred. The car initially went into a limp home mode (air bag lights illuminated etc and went about 5mph), but once I stop/started it, apart from the airbag light, it went back to normal. If it wasn't for the air bags draped down each side of the car , it was perfectly driveable , but couldn't see out - oh, and the smell of 'gunsmoke' hung around (hope that's gone when I get it back). Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans