Bad and scary ZS experience.

Mat C · 10-09-07, 07:06 PM

Was driving down our local dual carridge way this afternoon and i was only doing about 65mph, maybe 70 tops (this is true because their was a police Volvo 2 cars behind me) and suddenly i heard a massive bang. I could see something big and black flying off down the dual carridge way and instantly thought i had a complete tyre failure but the car felt fine. Anyway, i pulled in and for once, i was glad a police patrol car pulled in behind me.
All 4 tyres were fine. What had happened was the inner wing had completely torn off ! Somehow, it has cracked my headlight on the corner of the indicator and bent the wing as well. It's also caused a few scratches down the length of the car. Also, it's made the headlight loose, burst the indicator bulb and cleanly ripped the foglamp pod out of it's mountings. All what stopped it completely flying away was the electric cables !

Headers · 10-09-07, 07:12 PM

Sorry to hear about the damage mate did you miss the coppers ??

I have recently been to Silverstone and done some lap time rest assured though before drving 150 miles home I gave her a bloody good check over.

How many miles has your car done then and has anyone else had this happen ??

Matt

mrt_04 · 10-09-07, 07:16 PM

Sounds like inner wing grommet / screw fixings have come adrift (dropped out) & windrush has done the rest. Have a had inner wing off lately???
Have you checked other side??

I am asking this because I took my inner wing off the other week to get at the airflow box. The fixings were not the best job in the world.

Mat C · 10-09-07, 07:31 PM

The copper said it missed their car but they think the car in front of them drove over it. Didn't foresee any repercusions though ! I was glad to see them to be honest - he reasured me that it was nothing that was in my control and it's 'just one of those things' .
My car's done just over 45,000 miles and to my knowledge there has been nothing like this happen or anything untoward.
I had the inner wing off back in June to do trhe filter and replaced it correctly with all the screws etc. And to show it was replaced with all the screws, they are still in their mountings ! What caused it to rip itself clear of the screws and mountings i'll never know.

mrt_04 · 10-09-07, 07:38 PM

Maybe a good idea for fleet check????????

ZS180V6 · 10-09-07, 07:39 PM

I had problems with my inner wing.

A couple of weeks ago I had a new bumper fitted.

I was driving down the M25 doing about 100 and heard a bit of a thump. When I pulled off at Swanley and had a look the inner wing cover had dropped down and been scraped off but was still partly there . I took the car back and they put a new inner wing on so not as bad as yours..........

The wind must have pushed it down at high speed...

KevG · 10-09-07, 07:40 PM

The inner wing splash guard is held in place by 7 or 8 scrivets (Screw-rivet), plus a 10mm bolt the screws in from under the front bumper, and small scrivet on the wing and 3 self tapping screws onto the body kit fender, hence why the wing is slightly bent.

mrt_04 · 10-09-07, 07:45 PM

100mph on the M25, sure you got the decimal point in the right place?????????

Seems to be important to make sure all bolts & screws are secure.
I will double check mine at work tonight.

Mat C · 10-09-07, 07:46 PM

Yeah, that's right - it's held in well with plenty of fixings so i just can't get my head around why it hapened ! I've so far managed to reshape the wing and replace the indicaor bulb (that was easy 'cos i didn't have to remove the inner wing!)
Going to take the front bumper off tommorrow to see if i can spot any other damage and to fix the fog lamp pod back in place.

alba15031 · 10-09-07, 09:26 PM

That must have been a one in a million with the amount of screws and fixings in it how could it just fly off.