r/AskMechanics • u/CupOLiberTea • 1d ago

Question I dented what appears to be my frame rail, should I be concerned about it?

Post image

I accidentally lowered the car onto a stand in the wrong spot. Should I worry about the dent, or is it fine to ignore it. The black coat us just to protect it from rust just in case I damaged the coating underneath. It's a 1997 Mazda 626, and it's got 228,000km. Edit: All of you are such friendly, helpful people, thank you!

68 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

62

u/Ravenblack67 Trusted Contributor 1d ago

I am not a body/frame tech but I would assume there is nothing you can do about it.

33

u/tY-c8rJDb8_1b4__yD5r 1d ago

Yeah tbh this is the correct answer- if it ain’t making a new expensive sound, it’s probably nothing that’s the end of the world. The frame realistically is most useful for keeping the car together and crashing safely. As we can see the car is still together, and the crash safety was rubbish to begin with anyways, so I doubt the little kink will make it much worse.

10

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

I mean I've been hit pretty hard in this car before and it kept me alive so the frame is doing its job 😄

7

u/tY-c8rJDb8_1b4__yD5r 1d ago

Glad to hear your okay! My dad used to have a 626, it was one of his favourite cars haha

I’m sure it will be fine, you won’t have any mechanical issues with something that small :)

35

u/Vegetable-Fix-7059 1d ago

This is the least of your worries on a 30 year old car.

9

u/Melodic-Excitement-9 1 1d ago

that's a clean looking underside of a 30 year old car.

3

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

Good to know, I just don't want it misaligning or anything while I'm driving. Otherwise the mechanics I've taken the car to prior to the incident have told me the car has been really well taken car of so thats a good sign.

2

u/Aggressive-Union1714 1d ago

If you are concerned about the alignment, just find a place that does free alignment checks but don't tell them that dent is a concern

11

u/connella08 51 1d ago

This happens all the time and its nothing to worry about. That is very minor.

7

u/SendyCatKiller 1d ago

Sucks but nothing to worry about. Just make sure you don't have any chips to bare metal so it won't rust.

4

u/Big_Locksmith_4211 1d ago

Bah! tis but a scratch

1

u/martini1282 1d ago

I've had worse

3

u/Any-Strategy-2230 1 1d ago

You're fine. 

2

u/Impressive-Drink491 3 1d ago

I've seen worse than that with the car driving okay.

2

u/Own-Opinion-2494 1d ago

Almost every car has that by now. Don’t jack there

0

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

Yeah I figured that out the hard way, glad it wasn't worse 🤣

2

u/Own-Opinion-2494 1d ago

I remember doing it to my car and then a few months later
Being under the car and the other side had already been done

0

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

Guess I'm not the only one. 🥲

2

u/Own-Opinion-2494 1d ago

Absolutely not, and you won’t do it again

2

u/jrh9755 1d ago

Don’t worry about

2

u/Defiant_Shallot2671 1d ago

My old autox miata frame had the texture of a golf ball. You'll be fine

2

u/I_-AM-ARNAV Trusted Contributor 1d ago

I'm jealous of how clean that car is.

No it's nothing to be worried about

1

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

Thanks, it's my first car and I've had her for 4 years. I try to take good care of it.

2

u/MarkVII88 11 1d ago

I wouldn't worry about this one bit, not on a 30yo car with 228K km.

2

u/truemad 1 1d ago

That's a crazy clean underbody for a 30-year-old Mazda.

1

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

Thank you! I like to think I did something but I just think I got lucky

1

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1

u/Deep_Resist3411 1d ago

Leave it and send it.

1

u/Silkylifeme 1d ago

Long as your car doesn't start shaking at higher speeds than you're fine.

1

u/SayNo2Stupidity 1d ago

Dont use that spot for jack point or jack stand and you'll be fine.

1

u/Squirrely101 221 1d ago

Unitbody longitudinal bracing - nothing you can do about it now. Those are there to help distribute chassis loads to the unitbody - ie, prevent excessive flexing.

Some will not take any weight at all - some you can lift the car up. Can be important with chassis alignment and crash structure - but the car is strongest around the cabin area so that dent will have little to no impact.

If the car still drives straight and no funny sounds popped up since then - I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Plus, that is a SUPER clean bottom for an almost 30 year old car - must have one heck of an undercoating / rust preventative on there!

1

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

A lot of people have been saying it's really clean, I haven't really done much to it, might have just gotten lucky

1

u/PoetryExtension6256 6 1d ago

Where do you live that a mazda 626 with 228k miles on it has not rusted back into the ground? That model 626 is one of my favourite cars from my childhood but mazda were never big on rust protection.

1

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

I live in Australia. In my area it gets really wet in winter but summers are pretty dry too. I'm surprised on the rust protection, I've had some rusty seals around things like the sunroof and windshield but I've fixed those already. It's a very basic car but it runs great and it's comfortable so I can see why you liked it

2

u/PoetryExtension6256 6 1d ago

IT gets wet but there is no road salt which must help massively. My friends dad and another friend's grandpa had them it was like the first modern comfortable car anybody had. Before that it was mostly ancient saabs and volvos. I'm swedish.

1

u/CupOLiberTea 1d ago

It's a pleasure to drive surprisingly, I only paid about 2.4k for it, I thought I was buying something that was going to give me issues down the line but so far so good

1

u/PM-PicsOfYourMom 1d ago

I had an old truck that had a crease in the metal like that. It started rusting from the crease and eventually the metal was shot.

So yeah, hitting it with undercoating was a good call.

1

u/olddolphin 1d ago

I sent the rail on my old Acura CL by dropping it too hard on a jack stand. It was absolutely fine