Can an accident cause rear differential problems?

LUV2LUVME4444

MEMBER
2000 FORD MUSTANG
100 MILES

I was just rear ended again. They told me when I was hit 3 years ago that the car was not fixed. More or less, that the shop that fixed it at that time did shady work and pocketed the money. After that first accident, I did not drive the car for about 8 months cause I moved out of state and did not go back to get the car for about that long. I started driving it after that and the rear diff went out in a month. The body shop says to reopen the last claim from the previous accident because the work was not done and that the rear diff was caused from it. Is this true or is it possible to have the rear diff go out from an accident? By the way, the car was parked with no one in it when it was rear ended and the driver of the other car was going about 30 miles an hr. Any help would be appreciated so that I know how to deal with the insurance company.

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

The short answer is yes it can. Even if the speeds are low and you are hit at the right angle, it will move the thrust angle of a solid rear axle vehicle like this.

Here is a guide that will give a little more info on the rear axle as it will help:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-a-differential-works

However, the next step is that we need to get a 4-wheel alignment so that they can measure the thrust angle of the rear end. There is no adjustment, but this will tell us what direction the rear end is driving the vehicle.

Basically, if you got hit in the spot that moves the shackles for the leaf springs then your axle is not going to be sitting true anymore either.

Let's run through this and let us know if you can attach the alignment printout after it is performed and that will tell us if this is an issue.

Thanks