My wife and I recently purchased an 07 MMH. We love the thing and are happy as can be. On day fourteen of ownership a gentleman ran into my wife just in front of the left front wheel. Needless to say my wife was saddened by this event, I am worried about the hybrid system. He hit the wheel hard enough to put it back to the fender and messed up the suspension pretty good, lucky it was in town and the speeds we low.I just want an opinion on what I should look for and or check before taking delivery again!
I took it to the local ford dealer that was recently certified to work on it and lets just say I am not sure I can trust them 100%. Any input would be helpful.

 

I don't think you really need to look for anything more than if you got hit in any other car.

The HV battery is in the back.
The special transmission is under the hood, and the electric motors are under the hood. It neither were hit, you're probably ok with just getting the wheels and body panels fixed. Make sure all the doors/windows operate normally and the clearances are the same, to be sure your frame is still "square".

-John

 

Run the diagnostic on the message center, make sure it'll still drop into EV, and test out the AC and make sure it blows cold.

Other than that, nothing really different.

 

I was concerned about a shock through the driveline affecting the regen braking more than anything else. But at least you put my mind at ease. It will be nice to get it back, the kids don't like the way the courtesy car smells!
thanks for the replies.

 

Out at the wheels, the brakes are just standard disc brakes.

If they hit the wheel square-on (and I don't think they did), you might have had a shock run thru the drive shafts and into the eCVT. However, I doubt it would go any further than that.

 

In reality... the regen braking is nothing more than allowing the electric motors in the transmission to run as generators instead. As said by others there is nothing out at the wheel involved in it. You'd have to physically damage the transmission to have a problem (and it would probably cause very noticable problems when you are GOING as well as STOPPING).

 

If there will be repainting followed by oven drying, please make the body shop people aware that the maximum appropriate oven drying temperature for vehicles with NiMH batteries is 140 oF. See

http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/june2005/collision.htm

about halfway down.

DAS, just dropping in from Prius-land

 

Wow, now that is an interesting point!