Slid into a curb - how much damage did I do? Oh crap, I've managed to slide into a curb this morning, no thanks to a truck tailgating me and then passing on the left far too close to comfort on a turn, which then caused me to instinctively adjust my turning line to make more room, but then got enough wheels out of the paved part (its snowing) of the road and managed to lose all traction, with the "omg your going to die beeep" from the prius signaling that I'm sliding. Thus I slid at approx 15-20mph and hit my front right wheel against what I would assume to be the curb. Ok, I put my flashers on and inspected the damage, luckily no noticeable body damage, wheel was not bent noticeably sideways, and my tires were still inflated... Unfortunently the collision destroyed my hubcap (the racing moon hubcap AND the trim ring that its riveted to) in the process and scraping a bit of the alloy on the wheel. Managed to back up and drive the remainder to work (was fairly close) without incident. Ok, 8 hours later, roads are much better, and it has stopped snowing. I'm driving home and I notice... that the car handles... a bit funny now, I'm also hearing a sort of engine-like vibration sound... that begins at around 45mph... Anyone have any idea what I broke (so I can mentally prepare myself for the massive bill) and how much it would cost to fix? I probably need an alignment, so I got that on my list to fix. What else? Sigh, I'm an idiot.
Similar thing happened last year. Broke my steering rack. I'd try that first. It wound up costing about 1300 to replace. Thankfully my insurance covered it.
Rap a curb hard enough, you can bend all sort of expensive parts. Sounds like a trip to a trusted dealership is in order
No, I was busying trying to countersteer (plus snowflakes obscuring the driver side window, so didn't get a close enough look to determine the make) It was a dark blue or black truck. It had a window thingy in the back, and it had snow covering almost all of it. Well, I've just also noticed that the wheel (front right) is moved BACK about an inch.
:doh: Oh yeah, like *that* is gonna buff right out Better make that service appointment and check with your insurance co. Got a bad feeling about this
Hi Bob64, Had the wacko following too close in winter weather thing happen to me in my Opel Manta, but luckily no curb was in the way. I was going slow to go down a ramp. But this Audi 5000 kept crowding me. End result I went down the ramp way to fast to take the S curves, which had 6 inches of fresh snow. I ended up sliding off into the drainage valley , so I just gunned it before I ran out of pavement, and luckily had enough momentum to pretty much ski-plane across the 3 feet of snow at the bottom of the valley and up out of the valley back onto the last S bend of the ramp. When I was back on the ramp, I checked out the rear-view mirror and had to comment to myself, the next person down that ramp is going to be damned confused! The only tire marks in the fresh snow were mine, and they went tangentially from S bend to S bend. Luckily there were no drainage grates that stuck up at the bottom of that valley. On the Prius front, I had my closest incidents getting stuck on glare ice this morning. Luckily the Prius Traction Control did its thing, and pulled me through the ice patches. It took about 30 seconds to go 5 yards after coming to a complete stop. I just held the pedal about 1/3 the way down, and let the car walk its way across. The Acura MDX behind me had the same problem. Some town that starts with an I really needs to get its salt trucks out in their ritziest neighborhood. Before one of these SUV crazies slides the thing through a million dollar house front window!
Bob, sounds like you did the best you could to avoid a collision & minimize damage. Would you have preferred to kiss the truck, spin out and have body damage to repair as well?
I shouldn't have even taken the car out in those conditions, but the thought of finishing up that one project for work... argh! Now I probably have a hefty repair bill... Wonder if its even safe to drive to the dealer at this point?
Holy ... s*** Those appear to be typical inflated dealer prices. At the very least, try to pick up a Prius wheel off ebay or other source. Damn ...
I was cut off and slid into a curb too, but had left side body damage. Body was repaired like new. The alluminun rim ,tire and lower ball joint was replaced. Car made a noise while driving and turning the steering wheel to the right, loading the left side. The left front wheel bearing was replaced and the noise was gone !
I'm very sorry to hear that. Sometimes in life, we just have to suck it up, and carry on. Been there and done that
