Hey guys,

This is the worst day ever. I was on my home from work and all of a sudden traffic came to a stop. Everyone slammed on their brakes and so did I. Well the vehicle in front of me was a Mercede Benz ML500. SUV stopped on a dime. I slammed on the brakes and it locks on me. I continously slide forward, then WHAM!! I hit the car in from of me.

Looking at the damage my truck suffered the most damage. Airbag did not go off. Wonder why? I was fortunate to walk away. But, my baby is hurt.

Dropped it off at the body shop today and they are going to estimate the cost for the damage. I had spoken with the auto body tech and asked him if he could get me the 2006 front bumper with fog lights. Is their anything I need?

 

So since everyone thinks they have airbags they should just go off all the time now ?

Do you know what an airbag feels like when it hits you and you dont need it ?

Do you know how much it costs for a new airbag ?

 

Wow! It always hurts to here that kind of story. My wife got hit by another car last week thursday, and lucky me, that was the day she took my moms car, so I guess the truck gods where looking out for me.

 

How did it slide if you have anti lock brakes?

 

NO ABS??!!!

Be glad your airbag didnt go off, only God knows how hard the power/chemical would be to get out of these cheap seat covers. Mine stain if I look at them funny.

Anyway, man that bumper just folded right up, but I guess that is the design to absorb the impact.

Id be really pissed the ABS didnt help at all, I mean all I hear is how great these brakes are but I have yet to see it. Mine still feel mushy and non responsive, that combined with bottom level tires doesnt help much. Good luck.

 

I can't see your ABS not working.

I've had to use them plenty of times and they work flawlessly every time, knock on wood.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident, luckily you walked away and were not hurt, the airbags did do their job. I had airbags deploy in my 2nd car at 70mph for no 100% explainable reason and let me tell you it's no fun. The cuts, the smell, the clean up, the $3700 bill, not to mention possible long term health effects from the chemicals. Those bags are meant to save you from potentially deadly accident not to go off on every frontal crash. By no means am I trying to belittle your accident, I know you gotta be bent about it, hope everything works out and you get an 06 bumper.

About the ABS, my understanding it's not necessarily designed to stop the vehicle without skidding, but rather keep a vehicle under better control during a typical lock up situation.

 

See, everyone I know thinks that ABS means that your wheels will never lock up. But every truck I've ever owned has had ABS, so I don't know what its like to lock it up in all the time. Anyhow, I've had to get on the brakes hard on several occasions and the wheels have locked up in several of those. Not the little skipping noise, but actual lock ups. Am I the only one that thinks that ABS systems won't lock up under most conditions? Or are they just supposed to be so super that they should never lock up?

 

Like I said the other day, you do not want the bags to go off unless there is total truck destruction. I'll never forget ridin with my uncle in his explorer when BAM... Not a cool thing at all.

Adrianspeeder

 

That is completely correct. Stopping a 5k truck in as short distance aint easy.

 

I have a question...has anybody here been in a front accident with their new F150 that HAS delpoyed the airbags? There have been some fairly significant wrecks posted on here and all of them say "wonder why the airbags didnt deploy"...well my question is how bad does the crash have to be for them to go off?

And before its said...yes I know first hand how bad they hurt and could care less how much they cost (at that point the deductible is met and insurance is paying for it anyway). I am just wondering how bad a crash it takes to deploy them.

 

When you are on a slick road slow down to about 20mph with no traffic around and stomp the brakes and hold them. You will see how they work then.

I have never had abs lock up with me. Just enough of a chirp to kick the system in then the abs takes over.

 

I took a vehicle dynamics course as an undergraduate. The way I understood it, ABS is used to maximize stopping force which will decrease your stopping distance. The maximum stopping force occurs right before your tires break traction and start skidding. As you reach the point where your tires begin to break traction, ABS momentarily releases your brakes slightly to regain traction. I don't believe that if ABS was working properly that you should be sliding.

 

I know exactly what you are talking about. Well not the rear ending part, but the part where the brakes kind of "lock up" has happened to me at least 5 times since I've had the truck. It's like the truck just won't stop. And it wasn't that I was going fast, I was just driving normal and coming up to a stop sign or a light and hit the brakes and the pedal feels like it just went to the floor and there was no pressure or something. I almost killed some people that were in a golf cart checking out the apartments that I live in because it did the same thing when I tried to let them pass! I tried to tell my service manager about it and they "can't seem to duplicate it". That's the scary part. I never know when it's going to happen again, I just know it probably will.
Sorry about your truck.

 

Hey bud, look in my gallery and you'll see that I too went through the same kind of accident, exactly the same. I am 18 now, and insurance is about 4500/year for crappy coverage. Your truck looks pretty good regardless, I'm glad to hear you're alright and it's fixable. When I saw the first pic I had a flashback of my wreck and the smell of the powder that was in the car, the airbags did not really hurt, nor burn my lungs, but it was scary. I have seen OEM airbags (new) on ebay for around $500 (I was expecting more).

Keep us in the loop, and let us know if you received any tickets and if so, what was it for. I should have gotten a ticket for careless driving but I didn't.