shacho Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 (edited) On Friday morning, a deer took her chances on crossing the highway and the end results are below. I blinked and "BAM", my dashboard lights went crazy. The deer got up and looked at the car for a moment and then turned and continued on her path. The driver seat belt motor started smoking, airbag light bright but the airbags did not deploy. As you see, the damage is not major....and I just had the black grill inserts installed. Before After After Edited December 15, 2014 by shacho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWWPerfA_ZN0W Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Ouch! Glad you are ok, the Edge may have taken a hit to the BCM or relays, it looks like. Check underhood fuses to see what might be blown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limited59 Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Driver's seat belt motor? Pretensioner I assume? Why would that blow off but not the airbag? Glad you are ok regardless... I've had some close calls with deer myself through the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shacho Posted December 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 The insurance company had it towed to the body shop. I gave a scenario of what happened to one of mechanics and he said I was lucky that the right front quarter panel absorbed most of the impact. He also said, had the impact occurred in the center, the airbags would have definitely deployed. I'm not sure of what damage may have occurred behind the bumper but I do know the front bumper assembly, right headlight, front grille, and right quarter panel will need to be replace. I'm still wondering why the seat belt motor shorted out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tacyon Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) amature ... and negatory on the air bags (more on that in a bit). the dent over on the right headlight was the where bambi's head got thunk'd. The butt end was pretty much at the drivers' side light/grill seam. Impact was about 40 mph at full braking. She appeared out of my left "A" pillar and my first view of her was ~15' in front of me running left to right. Didn't make obviously. Final bill, was bucks shy of $10,000.00. Now, about those air bags, if you look closely at the picture you'll see two diagonal cross members going up towards the center of the hood. The airbag sensors are mounted midway up those on the face. The impact broke both lose from their mounts and then severed the wires on the drives side one preventing the bags from going off or shorted out the module that was supposed to trigger the bags. Don't know which came first. I asked the mechanic to clarify this for me, I impacted a large object dead (pun intended) center, which broke both sensors off and yanked the wire harness from the other and shorted that against the frame (ground) which either prevented them from deploying or shorted out the airbag module preventing deployment. Does anyone else see a problem here. Just about ANY frontal impact could do the kind of damage I saw and the airbags didn't deploy ??? WHEN WOULD THEY DEPLOY ??? I'm glad they didn't as that would have not been an enjoyable experience (less so than what the deer went thru) but still. Good luck on your repairs .. hope you don't have the follow ups I had to get things corrected that were missed the first pass thru. Edited December 16, 2014 by Tacyon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omar302 Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) @Shacho & @Tacyon, Glad your both OK. From the looks of both vehicles, it seems Airbags were not required, so perhaps the restraint system did function properly & did not deploy the Airbags intentionally. You know that deploying an Airbag in a situation were it is not required could actually result in creating more harm instead of preventing it. Edited December 16, 2014 by omar302 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Faldik Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Well built compared to my sisters Subaru...She hit a small deer going 20-30 mph and it totalled the vehicle... Engine got pushed back toward the dash. BUILT FORD TOUGH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tacyon Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) BUILT FORD TOUGH It was dark, cold and I was not far from home and headed that way, I almost drove away until I came to my senses and decided to make sure I wasn't hemorrhaging any vital fluids and that Bambi had actually checked out completely. (thank you springfield armory) Despite all the damage to the front I was able to drive it for the next two days (day light only) while looking for a body shop that was going to be able to take it in withing the next 3 month's. There'd been an ice storm two weeks previous and every body shop was booked for the next 30-60 days ! Edited December 16, 2014 by Tacyon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Faldik Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Glad you are OK...vehicles are replaceable...you are not ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shacho Posted December 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) My total cost is $4,800.00. Repairs should be completed by the end of this month. Edited December 16, 2014 by shacho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWWPerfA_ZN0W Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richy Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 amature ... and negatory on the air bags (more on that in a bit). front.jpg the dent over on the right headlight was the where bambi's head got thunk'd. The butt end was pretty much at the drivers' side light/grill seam. Impact was about 40 mph at full braking. She appeared out of my left "A" pillar and my first view of her was ~15' in front of me running left to right. Didn't make obviously. Final bill, was bucks shy of $10,000.00. Now, about those air bags, if you look closely at the picture you'll see two diagonal cross members going up towards the center of the hood. The airbag sensors are mounted midway up those on the face. The impact broke both lose from their mounts and then severed the wires on the drives side one preventing the bags from going off or shorted out the module that was supposed to trigger the bags. Don't know which came first. I asked the mechanic to clarify this for me, I impacted a large object dead (pun intended) center, which broke both sensors off and yanked the wire harness from the other and shorted that against the frame (ground) which either prevented them from deploying or shorted out the airbag module preventing deployment. Does anyone else see a problem here. Just about ANY frontal impact could do the kind of damage I saw and the airbags didn't deploy ??? WHEN WOULD THEY DEPLOY ??? I'm glad they didn't as that would have not been an enjoyable experience (less so than what the deer went thru) but still. Good luck on your repairs .. hope you don't have the follow ups I had to get things corrected that were missed the first pass thru. I think you may have stumbled across a real issue. I would strongly suggest you write or call. NHTSA. This might be recall material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWWPerfA_ZN0W Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 It is possible that the Restraint Control Module has been damaged (even if airbag did not deploy), and you should make sure that is among the parts replaced. The harness to/from it should be checked for shorting also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulSchott Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Been there Done that in a 98 ford Contour. Anybody out there seen a deer with a Ford emblem tattooed on its ass? Glad the bags didn't deploy, and your OK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tacyon Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Glad you are OK...vehicles are replaceable...you are not ! Yeah BUT, I heal, the car won't. But thanks for the sentiment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limited59 Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 Cars use physical sensors (switches) to determine whether to deploy airbags? Thought that was old tech and that late model used the accelerometers in the steering column or some such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbwt Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 Having struck or hit my fair share of deer with far more damage I have never had an airbag deployment. Body of the deer and the fact that the legs are so thin is not enough to deploy the air bags almost always. I have seen many other cars in Iowa that have struck deer and no air bag deployment. Big difference in another car, immovable object etc strikes. Biggest concern is when they come at you through the windsheild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shacho Posted December 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 I got my Edge back on Friday (Dec 26th) and she is all smiles again. The body shop did an excellent job, even though the OEM inserts are/were chrome, they painted them black. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 It's ironic that people are involved in accidents where they're not injured yet complain that the airbags didn't go off. They're only supposed to go off when you need them to protect you from serious injury. Now if you were injured by hitting the steering wheel or dash (and you were wearing your seatbelt properly) and they didn't go off, then I would be concerned. Hitting even a large deer won't provide that much deceleration. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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