Driving Talent Escaped me this Morning!! W210 220CDI 2001

[Matt_EClass]

Hi all, Well Christ knows what happened this morning,my road was like a skating rink so I krept down the road, but the lane at the bottom seemed ok -no ice (trees cover the lane at this point) so drove up the lane - carefully but at about 20 - 30 mph - when I got out in open, all hell let loose - well it actually happened in slow motion, the car first slid to the right, back end went first followed by the front - tried to correct, started to come back then went the other way, missed the parked car on my left (just) the car coming the other way must have been sh*tting it, missed him (just) car then straighted up but followed the camber in the road, ended up bouncing over the top of a 2ft grass bank, missed a couple of small trees and stopped.....phew - got out - didnt look like there was any damage to start with, so i gingerly drove myself off the bank and onto the road where I heard alot of rubbing and scarpping noises - got the car home (slowly) got a torch and checked out the damage - first and second sections of the undertray wrecked, so I had to remove both pieces, front bumper (nearside) cracked round the fog light and cracked by where the bumper wraps round next to the wing not aware at this time of any other damage - drove the car into work this morning 60 miles mainly motorway and couldnt see any issues - intercooler seems OK and Rad - doesnt seem to be any suspension damage.

So my question is - does anyone know how much the first 2 sections of the undertray cost and also a new front bumper (possibly).

Cant believe it happened - im always so carefull - the road surface was pure ice - no grit whatso ever - and when I drove back up the lane a couple of hours later I noticed someone had done exactly the same as me - just further up the road - this time they took out a road sign and there was bits of car all over the grass verge!!!

IM NOT HAVING A GOOD MONDAY!!!!!

Thanks

 

[television]

So sorry Matt to hear the news,,on a brighter note the bumpers can be repaired quite easily if its only the in the underside part,,just pop rivet or counter sink to 4mm nuts and bolts to an alli bridging plate,. and you will never see it

I can send you the bumper removal instructions

 

[Matt_EClass]

Hi Television, Thanks for the quick response - You seemed be everyones saviour on this site - Yes, Please send me the bumper removal information, if I can fix it I will try, on another note - do you know how much the undertray sections are? I need (looking at the front of the car) the first section, directly under the intercooler and the second section (the one you have to remove / drop down to access the sumpplug) I have all the screws and washers I just need the undertrays.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[television]

Hi Television, Thanks for the quick response - You seemed be everyones saviour on this site - Yes, Please send me the bumper removal information, if I can fix it I will try, on another note - do you know how much the undertray sections are? I need (looking at the front of the car) the first section, directly under the intercooler and the second section (the one you have to remove / drop down to access the sumpplug) I have all the screws and washers I just need the undertrays.

Thanks again for your help!

I need an Email address, can you PM me with it please.

Sorry do not know the price of the under trays

 

[Matt_EClass]

Hi Television - PM sent

Thanks

 

[television]

Hi Television - PM sent

Thanks

And you should have the paper

 

[rf065]

This year, I've seen a couple of cars nearly every morning on the way to work which have left the road due to icy conditions.

Interestingly, the local council published their new winter gritting program in the papers last month. The main point being that they have made the service more efficient & therefore will be able to get by using 7 less gritting lorries than before. In reality, the roads are not being gritted in time or even at all.

The weekends papers carried stories about a couple of deaths, in both cases the cars simply left the road when they came to a bend due to the road not being gritted & hit trees. An ambulance overturned further south carrying a baby to hospital at the same spot where 2 other cars had just left the road due to ice on the road & no grit.

I notice you are in Kent, in another thread on winter tyres, another helpful member from Kent stated "only pooftahs fit winter tyres". I suspect if the councils are going to save money by reducing their gritting programs, and by all accounts we are going to see a colder winter than we have become used to, we might all become pooftahs in an effort to stay alive.

Russ

 

[Matt_EClass]

Hi Russ -I totally agree - I have plenty of tread on my tyres but they arnt winter tyres - it was actaully quite a scary experience and I have been driving since I was 17 and im now 35 - I do alot of miles each year and would consider myself a good driver - yeah I break the rules every now and then but i was being careful this morning and was by no means driving like a tw*t but the lane had definately not been gritted and considering the part of the lane where my road joins it was just damp and was not icy or frosty at all and then the road surface suddenley changed to being just total ice would catch out most people, but I know at the endof the day what happened this morning was down to me and me only - a lesson learned I suppose - but it would have helped if the road had been gritted! Needless to say - My wife uses the same route to drive the children to school - I heavily laboured the point how bad the road was and suggested she took another route!!!!

 

[rf065]

My wife uses the same route to drive the children to school - I heavily laboured the point how bad the road was and suggested she took another route!!!!

My wife also uses the same route as me, but leaves 20 minutes later in the morning. Gives me a chance to phone and warn her, which helps a great deal.

I wonder if you could prove negligence on the part of a council if you had an accident on a road that should have been gritted. I'm sure I've read something like that happened in the papers a few years ago?

Russ

 

[wireman]

A word of advice, alas too late for some,

If you begin to skid press the clutch down and steer into the skid, it is of little help to do this once the skid has become uncontrolled but disconnecting the drive does help a lot if done immediatly, if it's an auto bang it in neutral.

As far as proving the council neglegent, who was driving to fast for the conditions?
An easy cure for this is no gritting at all and then the majority of the prangs would be at lower speeds and fewer folks would get hurt.

Go and do a skid training course its great fun and what you discover about your driving habits will stick with you, I can still see the old lady walking into a junction (a traffic cone dressed up) as it type this, can't wait to see if I can avoid her on the first run next time.

 

[television]

A word of advice, alas too late for some,

If you begin to skid press the clutch down and steer into the skid, it is of little help to do this once the skid has become uncontrolled but disconnecting the drive does help a lot if done immediatly, if it's an auto bang it in neutral.

As far as proving the council neglegent, who was driving to fast for the conditions?
An easy cure for this is no gritting at all and then the majority of the prangs would be at lower speeds and fewer folks would get hurt.

Go and do a skid training course its great fun and what you discover about your driving habits will stick with you, I can still see the old lady walking into a junction (a traffic cone dressed up) as it type this, can't wait to see if I can avoid her on the first run next time.

When living in Sweden we had to take a skid test before you were allowed to take out the outside broadcast trucks, those things are very heavy when loaded,,I have forgotten now all about driving on ice living down here. Its part of the driving test in Sweden

 

[Matt_EClass]

Yep totally put my hands up to this one - what happened was down to me and me alone and your right if I was driving slower it wouldnt have happened - the only thing in my defence although only in a small way as I should have pre-empted the fact that the road surface could have changed from no ice to sheet ice is that for the first 200 yards the roadsurface was clear of ice and the sudden switch to sheet ice caught me out - but again I should have been driving slower, i didnt even think to put the car into N (auto) but did my best, as you say to steer into the slide - in some ways successfully as I missed a parked car and the car heading towards me but couldnt stop the car in time to stop it launching itself over the grass verge. I have learned my lesson totally!!! needless to say, the car is booked in for a proper check over and quote for work to be done - at the moment, from the outside the damage seems to be front bumper and the first 2 sections of the undertray - I totally agree on the old skid pan training - if and when I get the time I will look into it - a lesson to us all though! especially me!

Thanks

 

[stumpy]

Yep totally put my hands up to this one - what happened was down to me and me alone and your right if I was driving slower it wouldnt have happened - the only thing in my defence although only in a small way as I should have pre-empted the fact that the road surface could have changed from no ice to sheet ice is that for the first 200 yards the roadsurface was clear of ice and the sudden switch to sheet ice caught me out - but again I should have been driving slower, i didnt even think to put the car into N (auto) but did my best, as you say to steer into the slide - in some ways successfully as I missed a parked car and the car heading towards me but couldnt stop the car in time to stop it launching itself over the grass verge. I have learned my lesson totally!!! needless to say, the car is booked in for a proper check over and quote for work to be done - at the moment, from the outside the damage seems to be front bumper and the first 2 sections of the undertray - I totally agree on the old skid pan training - if and when I get the time I will look into it - a lesson to us all though! especially me!

Thanks

Get yourself over to Benzworld at Brooklands and have a go on their pan.

 

[hairyg]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It has been treacherous round here as well.

The volunteers at Shelsley Watermill yesterday all reported untreated icy roads on the approaches with freezing rain falling onto frozen tarmas. Nice

All are classic car drivers and several are competition drivers as well so no shortage of driving experience or skill. We all declined to drive up the hillclimb course because we didn't fancy the slide back down

One thing we all agreed on was that winter tyres are no help on ice. They only help on fresh snow. Spiked tyres are another matter entirely but shouldn't be used on gritted roads so are impractical in most of the UK.

Hope all the damage is superficial and not too expensive to fix.

 

[rf065]

One thing we all agreed on was that winter tyres are no help on ice. They only help on fresh snow.

Sorry, have to strongly disagree.
Winter tyres may not help if you are driving at speeds inappropriate for the conditions, no tyres will. But I can start off on ice without losing traction and brake without locking a wheel up on ice, so to say winter tyres are no help is clearly wrong. They are designed to grip on ice as well as snow, but there are limitations, you have to respect the conditions and drive within the grip you have available.

Russ

 

[hairyg]

Sorry, have to strongly disagree.
Winter tyres may not help if you are driving at speeds inappropriate for the conditions, no tyres will. But I can start off on ice without losing traction and brake without locking a wheel up on ice, so to say winter tyres are no help is clearly wrong. They are designed to grip on ice as well as snow, but there are limitations, you have to respect the conditions and drive within the grip you have available.

Russ

Yup, I pull away and stop without problems on ice. I don't use winter tyres, just sensible car control. I know I've got it wrong if either the ABS or the traction control is activated unintentionally. Using power to determine the point at which the wheels spin is my preferrred method of checking for ice etc.

 

[television]

I used the spike tyres in Sweden,, they are great, but even there they are trying to get folk onto the winter tyres.

Spiked tyres (dub däck) are illegal in the UK as in germany

 

[wireman]

Having played at this 'ere skid training stuff more than once, I would suggest that any speed in excess of 15MPH could result in an uncontrolable skid - even the instructors won't try it.
10 MPH on unsalted roads around our house and the like is about it for me, sorry if it's you behind me but you should set out sooner when its icy.

If you are to use a road where it is frozen and could be slippery turn off the radio, open the window so you can hear your tyres and if it goes quiet i.e. less tyre noise, decouple the engine and be very gentle with the steering.

If the great petrol head in the sky is on your side today your journey will be uneventful, if he's isn't do not look at any solid objects, find a gap in the hedge or whatever and look at that while you struggle to regain control, by this simple approach you will not colide with a tree or lamp post and your relatives wont need to fasten flowers to it.

When you skid the car will slide where you look, so look at a gap (with no people in it).

 

[television]

I like wiremans post above and so very true,,its the same in fog when you are struggling to see a thing and someone sails past you as though it was a clear day, and you think I wonder what he can see that I cant,,Its the same on ice, always someone will and can go faster the you so let them go.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Hi Matt,
It happens to us all at some time or another. Side roads and estates arn't on the gritter's radar so its user beware. Could have been a lot worse and the main thing is that only your pride was hurt, not you or anybody else.

I replaced my 210 undertrays front and middle shortly after I bought the car. They looked likethey had been trashed by speed bumps. However the cost of the front tray was circa £80 and the sump tray about £45. Not cheap but what is nowadays.