Remember this thread? Something's wrong with my car, and I'm told it may be related to my accident.
I went on a trip this weekend to visit family. My driveway's on about a 10-15º incline, and when I sat down, my seat broke - the seat and and the seat back tilted backwards about 30º - as if it were hinged only at the back.
When I got to my in-laws, I got a good look, and what happened is this: There's a metal bar that's used to raise and lower the front of the seat via a screw-type mechanism that rotates the bar like an axle. An arm attached to the bar raises and lowers the seat as the bar twists. the female part of this screw-lift equasion had snapped clean off of the bar allowing the seat to raise independently. There was an articulating arm on each side of the seat undercarriage preventing the seat from leaning back more than 30º. While I had the seat apart, a screw holding one of those arms to the seat crumbled - it snapped in two while I was hand-tightening it.
Now, my brother-in-law happens to have once owned an '01 Mazda 626. He was involved in a more violent rear-end collision than was I, and his seat broke in a similar fashion. He says it's a safety feature meant to minimize whiplash. Additionally, my sister-in-law works for an insurance agency, and says I could file aonther claim with the insurance co. of the person who caused the accident.
Now, I'm a big guy (6'2", 250ish), but I'm not that fat.
Have you seen this type of thing before? Could the seat have been weakened by the accident? If so, do you think I have a case with her ins. co more than four months after the accident occured?
Thanks in advance,
-RBB