The CSR: vehicle killer

[sharkcaver]

I thought I would start a new thread highlighting the damage suffered from my recent trek down the Canning. No other reason but to highlight what you may expect. I still believe I was exceptionally unlucky to suffer all I have. I don't believe I punished the car, but in the begining, I didn't baby it neither. It makes interesting reading.

First up, shocks. I did two in. That's not surprising really, because this season, it seemed everyone was having shock issues.





Next up, a tyre. Certainly not spectacular at all, and could happen to anyone, anywhere, but it adds to the carnage I suffered:




Add to that one cracked windscreen, my satnav computer HDD, which cant handle the most minute of bumps now, a hole in my roof lining and every door panel rubbed pretty badly

[sharkcaver]

Moving on to more severe structural issues:

One fatigue cracked front cross member:








Both left and right sides involved. If I thought that was going to be bad to fix, it gets worse


EDIT: Link to Ghryso's post showing the different mount on a TJM bar:

https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=50598&page=14

[sharkcaver]

Auxiliary tank rear bracket failure:

[sharkcaver]

So I pulled the tank out to get ready for replacement. To my horror, I find the front mount has also failed. Not on the tank, nor the bracket, but the floor pan of the vehicle:
















Of concern is that this is the anchor point for the hoop of the 3rd row seat. I wouldn't like to be seated there in a high energy impact.

Sounding pretty bad doesn't it. But wait, there is more:

[sharkcaver]

Whilst getting peeved about the bracket killing my floor, I find more.

left and right floor pan, has started to part company at two points I believe are the forward oem tie down points. These tie down points support my rear storage. It looks like the floor pan has not been able to support the weight of this neither. My NP which had the same storage had no issues being beaten up as hard. I suspect the forward mounts will be in the same predicament.




And these are just the bits I know of at the moment. A new NX, now with 18K on the dial, destroyed in one trip. God only knows what else I'll find. And people ask me would I do the Canning again

[stevemc181]

Jesus! I feel for you, finding all of these dramas as you explore further. Makes me not want to look at mine closely! My front cross member is also cracked in two places, left and right sides, not as bad as yours, but cracked none the less.

I think your only option with the rear floor pan is an engineering workshop or panel beater to weld in some reinforcing panels. Not nice having to do it at all, but all the same it needs to be done. The tank I can understand, as it may have wobbled back and forth with the rear bracket broken and fatigued the pan at the front. Not sure how to explain what has happened where the rear storage is bolted?

[Nab]

hell. Insurance???

[Alex86]

hell. Insurance???

I'd be trying for warranty first!!

[DrewXT]

. Insurance???

I reckon they'd come close to writing it off, with the structural issues...

That's a hell of a lot of damage...

[stevemc181]

I doubt insurance will cover any of it, it's not accident damage, it is from fatigue of the metal working back and forth. MM warranty won't cover it either, as they will just blame the aftermarket accessories. It's far from being a write off, a front cross member replacement and some welding of the floor pan will sort it out.

LRA and ARB should be coming to the party for at least some of the damage, MM may cover you for the paint rubbing in the door frames? Is your rear shelf on a frame attached to the floor or just on legs? I am trying to understand how it could break the floor where you have it tied down? Anyway good luck in your dealings with the above mentioned after market suppliers and I hope MM can also have some input and at least cover the paint side of things.

[DrewXT]

Was hard to make out which cross member... I live in the dual cab world, so most cross member damage is typically weld in replacement, and I know my insurance company friends on welding of chassis

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[grhyso]

That's a heck of a lot of serious damage. Like steve I'm a little perplexed by the failure where your storage is bolted down. It's a little scary when you consider how well your NP went for you and this hasn't last one (very tough) trip.

[old Jack]

Metal fatigue failures are an interesting thing from an engineering point of view, so many variables can causes it and it is often very difficult to resolve, sometimes it is not possible! Even if you reinforce the effected area the loads can be transmitted elsewhere and still have a failure, sometimes it is even worse.

This has been a on gong problem on 4wds that travel in remote area, even back in the 1980's, it causes huge issues with cracked chassis, roof pillars, inner front mudguards, bullbar mounts, fuel tanks mounts, engine and gearbox mounts and even shocker mounts.

Material thickness, type, grade, rigidity and shape of both the parent material and the attachment must be compatible because if they are not they respond differently to vibrations as they have a different vibration frequencies. Even the use of isolation mounts and vibration absorbing dampers can sometime fail to solve the problems.

From my experience it is mostly aftermarket upgrades/accessories which cause the biggest problems when exposed to the extreme road and load condition that are often encountered in the outback touring.

OJ.

[swampy 6863]

Geeze I feel for you, I know how disheartened I'd feel if I'd come back from a trip like that and found all those dramas. What do you do now? Keep looking for more s*** that's broken or cut your losses and trade in? How much confidence have you now got in that vehicle?

Swampy

[greybeard]

I'd be thinking twice about not having that second sausage roll for lunch in future

Ballast aside, bugger. That's some mean cracks.