After Rollover - Need Advaice

[desertegal7]

Update: 1

My friend called, Rear axle shaft installed, truck rides like butter, no shaking or vibration. (according to him)

hopefully this week will send someone to drive it home or maybe myself.
distance from the city to the capital where im living is 140miles,, anything wrong should be noticeable during the trip.

i was about to ship it back after the accident but they wanted to charge $350 which can buy my me alot of parts. for ex the rear axle shaft + hub + all brake parts coming with it costed $200.

During 2009 till 2013 our market was crazy for NISSAN Pathfinders,, you cannot find a single 4runner,, in 2014 we started notice a remarkable number of 4runner on the streets.. now when i see those i think "these people dosnt have any clue what they are driving"

4runner are the best... im sure everyone here agrees so:first:

 

[Nelsonmd]

I didn't even catch that you're in Yemen when I first saw this... That changes the advice alot.

I would say that if you're mechanically inclined, that repair is definitely possible. If you could get a junkyard body, that would be the best, so you just do a body swap. Or if you could just get a new top welded on from a junkyard 4runner, that would be ok too, though it looks like you'd need new doors and front clip as well, at that point, a full body swap is going to be easier. You might even consider reinforcing the pillars when you do that, so that if you have another roll-over, you have some added strength to offset the fact that you are welding in the new top.

Based on my limited experience in 3rd world mechanics repair (which is limited, but probably more than most people here...), I would think that the difficulty would be in finding a good welder to do the welding (I have seen alot of very poor looking welds on important joints, and alot of decent looking welds with little penetration), and finding someone that could take proper and precise measurements of your frame, axle housing, alignment, etc. so that you can determine what damage was really done.

The rollover obviously put alot of stress on the rear axle. I would pull a whole axle assembly (housing, axles, trac bar, control arms, etc.) if you can from a junkyard 4runner that was not in a rear end collision. If the axle was broken off, then the housing and trac bar saw ALOT of stress. They may be slightly bent.

You should also check out the front suspension very carefully. A good, full alignment should tell you if anything is bent. I don't know how good alignments are in Yemen; I can't imagine they have the modern alignment machines we have here, but I would go to whoever is best in town, and watch them do the alignment if you can to make sure they do it right. If it's bent, then they will have to make the tie rod and camber adjustments near the edge of their range and probably lop-sided.

If you have some slight damage/bending on some of these components, then you are going to get little nagging problems down the road, like never being able to align it quite right, wearing your tires quickly and unevenly, short bearing life on the DS or the wheels, stuff like that. I would think that the junkyard prices and the labor prices are pretty low there, so I would exploit that as much as possible.

 

[Nelsonmd]

My friend called, Rear axle shaft installed, truck rides like butter, no shaking or vibration. (according to him)

hopefully this week will send someone to drive it home or maybe myself.
distance from the city to the capital where im living is 140miles,, anything wrong should be noticeable during the trip.

i was about to ship it back after the accident but they wanted to charge $350 which can buy my me alot of parts. for ex the rear axle shaft + hub + all brake parts coming with it costed $200.

During 2009 till 2013 our market was crazy for NISSAN Pathfinders,, you cannot find a single 4runner,, in 2014 we started notice a remarkable number of 4runner on the streets.. now when i see those i think "these people dosnt have any clue what they are driving"

4runner are the best... im sure everyone here agrees so:first:

Yeah, but Pathy's are good too. If they are much more common there, then they might be a better option. There is alot to be said for having LOTS of junkyard parts available. It would take a bi quality/design difference to overcome the ability to repair cheaply and easily.

 

[desertegal7]

Hello Nelsonmd

Hello Nelsonmd,

I saw many contribution from you in this forum.. when i was searching to solve my rear drive-shaft vibration, mine solved with rotating it 180degs. I was about to purchase OEM for $600. Fortunately i asked my mechanic to do it while changing the fuel filter which seemed the OEM which came with the truck when it made, was almost clogged. When changing the diff fluid it was also the OEM oil or seemed so with a slight steel particles in it, previous owner was kind of put fuel then drive,, hopefully he didn't miss changing engine oil regularly.

I just finished a call with a friend who bought the rear axle shaft for me, he said that he found the body panels/a-pillar i need to replace the existing damage one + the rear glass.

I have now this feeling that stress applied to different parts/section of my truck is not that strong, it rolled over smoothly (me + my wife were without seat-belts) and i can still remember the feeling inside the truck while rolling,, there was only one hard hit which damaged the passenger side at the beginning then it was rolling smoothly, the - im assuming - all the stress absorbed by the left rear tire which broke the hub out from the axle shaft.

For the body shop work here they are quite professional with price, car traders buy really totaled cars then repair it and make it look super fine, only a professional person can tell if this car was repaired from serious collision or not.
So we can repair it, my concern that it will be safe to drive or not,, will it have hidden major issues or not,, is the frame OK and the chassis aligned?

cannot tell until complete inspection and test drive,, however im having this feeling that everything will be just fine.... crossing fingers.

Pathfinder are nice, but TOYOTAs are much more reliable than any others expect the very old Defenders.

Pathfinder or Grand Cherokees are no go for me, im a 4Runner guy and i know what i choose.

 

[desertegal7]

+ I already ordered the Haynes manual
so im sticking with the 4Runner anyways..!!

it helped me alot with my 1985 corolla, 4 years ago i had no clue about engines and mechanics,, now im having a good background.

 

[Nelsonmd]

Hello Nelsonmd,

I saw many contribution from you in this forum.. when i was searching to solve my rear drive-shaft vibration, mine solved with rotating it 180degs. I was about to purchase OEM for $600. Fortunately i asked my mechanic to do it while changing the fuel filter which seemed the OEM which came with the truck when it made, was almost clogged. When changing the diff fluid it was also the OEM oil or seemed so with a slight steel particles in it, previous owner was kind of put fuel then drive,, hopefully he didn't miss changing engine oil regularly.

I just finished a call with a friend who bought the rear axle shaft for me, he said that he found the body panels/a-pillar i need to replace the existing damage one + the rear glass.

I have now this feeling that stress applied to different parts/section of my truck is not that strong, it rolled over smoothly (me + my wife were without seat-belts) and i can still remember the feeling inside the truck while rolling,, there was only one hard hit which damaged the passenger side at the beginning then it was rolling smoothly, the - im assuming - all the stress absorbed by the left rear tire which broke the hub out from the axle shaft.

For the body shop work here they are quite professional with price, car traders buy really totaled cars then repair it and make it look super fine, only a professional person can tell if this car was repaired from serious collision or not.
So we can repair it, my concern that it will be safe to drive or not,, will it have hidden major issues or not,, is the frame OK and the chassis aligned?

cannot tell until complete inspection and test drive,, however im having this feeling that everything will be just fine.... crossing fingers.

Pathfinder are nice, but TOYOTAs are much more reliable than any others expect the very old Defenders.

Pathfinder or Grand Cherokees are no go for me, im a 4Runner guy and i know what i choose.

If the "slight steel particles" were very tiny, and it looked like metallic slurry, then you are fine, that is normal. If there were little chunks of metal, then your diff has trouble.

You are right, after repair, the body will not be nearly as strong. That is why I suggested reinforcing it if possible. I don't know what the body framing looks like, so I dpon't know how feasible that is, but I would look into it. There are a couple guys here that have chopped into their bodies, they can probably give a better comment.

Glad to hear you have good shops. My concern is what you say, will the shop be able to measure accurately enough to find misalignment in the chassis/frame. Hopefully yes.