I'm also using winxp. When I save the files, they default to .txt extension, which isn't what I want

 

i can see the pics now. Dam thats horrible

 

Hey... that is bad!! I would start compliling your data for a stern conversation with Mazda. Police reports, witness report, sketch the accident etc... Youre lucky the car did'nt flip.

- Irish

 

One good thing is RX-8 has best rating (5) for not rolling.

 

After looking at all of the pictures from the scene I would be interested to see pics from where the spin started. After looking at the provided pics it appears that the spin began from the shoulder and there are no pics that show a straight line lock-up. Traveling at that speed if the wheels locked up suddenly there would be some measure of straight line skid, instead all we see are skids from what appears to be an oversteer spin. I am not trying to say that the accident did not happen the way you describe it, I am merely stating that it does not "appear" from the pictures you have provided that this was a mechanical induced spin rather than a driver error spin. Again my opinion.

Either way it is sad to see an 8 with this sort of damage. It does not look to be totaled unless the frame is tweaked, but it appears the damage is forward enough to prevent totaling the car.

As for the front airbags, they only deploy in a frontal collision, even though your car suffered an impact to the front the impact was from the side and that is why the curtain and side airbags deployed and not the front.

Good luck on the repairs.

 

Thats f'in crazy. Dude there is a serious electrical problem with your car. Somethings triggering the saftey futures on your car like dsc or something. You might have gotten a car that was a dud. I am sure this is not a common occurance, otherwise we would have read about this long ago. Glad your still here. Curious about the air bags did they all deploy?

 

Disturbing indeed.

It looks like the side airbags deployed, and the damage on the side doesn't seem nearly as bad as on the front. The front airbags should have deployed!

I would say the car is definitely a total loss. You will be better off if the insurance company declares it a total loss, that's for sure.

 

It does not look to be totaled unless the frame is tweaked, but it appears the damage is forward enough to prevent totaling the car.

Air Force...

I agree. However, the car was going around a right sweeping bend. My guess is he was heading for the curb in a straight line and immediately reacted and tried to componsate.

I also think the car will be totalled. The damage appears to be about the same as "maz maxs' " which ended up being totalled due to over $20k in damage. Once he airbags deploy...it's usually game over.

I'm the same...good luck with the repairs and be thankful your alive!!

- Irish

 

Aren't you being contradictory?

At first you say the damage is forward enough that it will prevent totalling the car, then you say you think the car will be totalled?

Anyway, I am guessing that the frame probably IS tweaked, at least a little!

Look at the picture that shows the damage to the rear portion of the car on the drivers side. There is more damage than to just the front of the car.

 

Glad to hear your Ok Rob, that is some scary chit, I will be interested in hearing what your insurance company as well Mazda has to say abou this.

 

I still think the damage is forward enough to prevent significant frame damage. The area hit is designed to be a crumple zone and is fixable, had the 8 struck the cement pole rear of the wheel I would think significant frame bending would have occurred. As for the damage to the rear from the "plant entrance" sign it is cosmetic and would not have done any major damage. Yes this will be expensive, but will it be enough to consider it totalled? Let us know what the adjuster says...

 

Rob,
The first quote was actually from USAF..... I don't know why it did'nt load right!! I think it's totalled.

- Irish

 

Obviously.

I feel like an idiot, sorry Irish!

:o

 

Well I will post tomorrow to let everyone know the extent of the damage. I'm glad to be alive.

 

Why no file extensions? Download/rename is for da'birds!

rx8cited

 

Glad to c u are ok. Bob i think the car is no problem. maybe ur tired be locked cuz of something else. i think the #1 one is. u in some low rpm. when u driving 20mph. use 2 gear. and maybe u are not contraling the clutch very well. cuz when u let go the clutch very fast. may killed the engine. and the #2 is when u using cruising don't shift. cuz the rpm will be set. if u push the clutch
may locked the wheel. or do something weird thing just like happend to u.
hope they will fix ur car well.
Good luck

 

First, glad to hear you are OK.
Second, I know what's coming from Mazda (i.e. the interrogation), so my advice to you is to calmly go over what you did before, after, and during the accident in your head. There are some good theories here already that may help you remember a bit better. The clearer you explain it to Mazda the more chance they will have of finding the cause, and believe me, they will want to find the cause!

One big question for me is was the transmission etc. still locked AFTER the accident? Or did you just pop the car out of gear, back into neutral and have it loaded on a tow truck. You may have to ask the tow truck drivers if they loaded it while you were still in shock.

I don't know what happened here, it sounds so rare that one instantly thinks "could it have been the driver?" Whatever, most important is whether you are sasitfied with Mazda's investigation or not. Let us know how it goes.

Oh, and there is no 'Black Box' recorder on automobiles. All the PCM records are error codes, and sensor values when the error occured. There is a separate tool dealers use to record live data, but that is manual (you push the 'record' button when the fault occurs and it records xy minutes of data).

 

Have you ever been in a car with a young/inexperienced driver? I have taught many people to drive manual shift cars. In the excitement (and lack of experience)of learning something new, I have seen people stomp on the brake instead of the clutch, stomp on the clutch instead of the brake, override the reverse lockout to shift reverse while moving forward, and MOST DEFINITELY, I have seen people pull the shifter to the left when they should have been moving it to the right. Invariably, every student insists that they did the right thing and that the car did the wrong thing.

Everyone can conjecture about this but if the insurance company or Mazda feels necessary, they will engage an accident reconstruction expert. The majority of unintentional acceleration incidents were proven to be operator error - standing on the gas despite the insistance by the driver that they were on the brakes.

 

like the guy who ran thru the market

 

If a person mistakenly downshifts from fourth, or sixth into first, and the rev limiter kicks in, what would be the car's reaction? My thought (but I know little, admittedly) would be that the car would dramatically slow, but not "lock up". I also know that when dramatically and mistakenly downshifting, as you release the clutch you have a lot of time to get the clutch back in before the engine revs too high - my thought on reading the original description was he hit the brakes, hard, in response to something gone wrong (like a bad shift). Or a problem with the ABS or TSC/DSC system. Curious, am looking forward to the resolution...

PS to Zoom - did you wait to be the 44th message in the thread, or was that a coincidence???

 

He was shifting into 5th gear. Seems like that is not a gear that you are likely to miss!

 

Well I'm sure we've all downshifted without rev matching before, and if you let go of the clutch too fast, you're going to get enough engine braking to lock up.

One question to the OP, how do you hold the shifter when you shift?

 

People keep talking about downshifting, but I was under the impression that he was upshifting to 5th gear.

 

That doesn't mean he can't misshift though, common rookie mistake even if they have experience with a manual before. 6 spd has closer shift gates than normal 5 spds do.

 

True, but then he would have only gone from 4th gear to 3rd gear, and I doubt that would be significant enough to cause the tires to completely lock up like that.