Mistakes to Avoid After Any Car Accident
If your car has been in a serious accident, you want to ensure it's safe to drive before you take it on the road again, and this will mean ensuring it's repaired properly and thoroughly. You also want to avoid doing anything that can make damage to the car worse after an accident. Note a few tips on how to avoid those types of mistakes after you've been involved in a car accident.
Driving it when it needs repairs
After an accident, you may assume that you can or should just drive your car home or to a nearby repair shop, if the car is still running. This is a mistake as simple and minor repairs that need to be done after an accident can become much worse even with a short drive. If there is pressure on the struts, springs, axles or tie rods because of the accident, they could break even from a short drive. Brake pads could slip along dented calipers and cause a tyre to seize up while on the road. A broken hose could allow fluid to drip out, and the engine could lose oil or coolant and seize up, as might the transmission or brakes. To avoid these potentially serious issues, have the car towed after an accident.
Making repairs yourself
If your car has been just slightly dented or dinged, you might make some simple repairs yourself, but it's easy to think that you only need to bump out the body for your car to be roadworthy again. Even a minor accident may have bent smaller parts under the hood or wheel area or caused wiring to come loose, and you may overlook these when doing your own repair work. It's vital that you take the car in for proper smash repairs before assuming it can be safely driven again.
Not getting repairs done at all
The body and bumpers of your car need to be solid in order to absorb impact during a collision to keep you safe in the cab of the car. Poorly aligned tyres can make it harder to control and steer the car. Damaged wiring could cause an electrical short and actually put your car at risk for an electrical fire and also puts added wear and tear on the electrical systems of the car. Leaking fluids also put wear and tear on those parts that need proper fluid or proper oil pressure. Not only can all of these needed repairs mean being unsafe when on the road, but not getting smash repairs done quickly can usually lead to more damage and then bigger repair bills down the road.