Well, it's official: my 350Z is not new anymore.

I ran over a truck tire tread on I-71/75 going about 70 mph coming home from work the other day. It was spread out across my lane, sitting on its side so the tread surface was facing me. I couldn't swerve because traffic was heavy, plus I only had enough time to recognize what it was before I ran it over. Who knows how many other cars before and after me did the same thing.

It damaged my front bumper: buckled it slightly in the center of the thin piece that runs below the intake area, scratched it good on the passenger side, and caused stress fractures in the paint. It also pulled free all the connector screws that hold the plastic underbody piece to the underneath front edge of the bumper. The underbody piece was bent down enough to act like a big air scoop, which of course caused it to bend down and scrape the pavement making the most god-awful noise -- which then made me freak out thinking I really f-ed something up bad!

The stupid tread also kicked up and hit the rear of my car. But luckily it just left rubber marks that came right off with bug/tar remover. No paint scratches.

I pulled off at the next exit to assess the damage. God, I was so pissed! I hate trucks! Got it home and put it ramps, and luckily the important guts underneath escaped damage.

A couple notes/questions for you guys:

1. I have Xpel. It doesn't protect against running **** over. The good news is it did prevent more extensive cosmetic damage to my bumper. The bad news is the bumper is damaged enough that I think I'll replace it, so I'm going to eat the Xpel cost if my insurance doesn't cover it. (The Xpel on my hood doesn't need to be replaced.)

2. I don't know if I'll go through my insurance to get it replaced. Has anyone taken off the front bumper themselves? How hard is it to reinstall properly, without hideous gaps? If I can reinstall a new one myself, I might buy a new bumper from Courtesy, get it painted, and do it myself to minimize cost.

Of course, I have this incident well in perspective. This is just a minor annoyance and part of driving a car. It still sucks! But it could have been worse -- I didn't wreck or blow the engine or anything!

AND, it's plenty drivable, which is very important since I'm going to HPDE at Mid-Ohio next weekend! Woo-hoo!

 

Trucks are blowing out their tires all over the area cuz there is a sh!tload of debris all over 71N and 75N on each side of Ronald Regan.

Sorry to hear about your car, though. Hope all ends up well.

 

Glad you're ok. Seems to me like there is more stuff in the road these days than ever before. If its any consolation, about 8 years ago I hit a couch going about 75 minus a little braking! The idiot two cars in front of me lost the couch out of the back of his pickup. It was about 11 at night and the car in front of me saw it coming and swerved, which left me face to face with a soffa in the left hand lane. There was no time to even close my eyes before we hit the thing. Sounds funny now, get a lot of laughs from the story, but at the time it scared the hell out of me and my daughter. The couch exploded when I hit it and thankfully didn't come through the windshield or flip us. Had a lot of damage to the front and hood. By the time I stopped, I was about a mile down the road and I could not easily get back to the scene and I had no idea where the pickup went. I did call the state police and filed the accident report and needless to say a claim with my insurance company. Even though the insurance company couldn't go after anyone, it didn't affect my rates because i wasn't at fault.

Also had a chunck of rubber come off a truck tire once about 10 years back and bounce down the road off my hood and into my windshield, which shattered all over me. Same deal with insurance.

And, about 20 cars including me hit the rear license plate holder brace that fell off a truck in the middle of the NJTPK. I only got one flat and changed mine and helped a few other's, some had two flats and were sol.

Seems to me there is a common thread to all the problems and it rhymes with sucks.

Seems like you should be able to get everything including the Xpel covered.

Well, you got the HPDE going for you - enjoy.

Bill

 

The front bumper is fairly easy to take off. Try looking in some threads about the clear side markers, it got discussed extensively then.

 

the front bumper can be taken off in about 15 minutes.... really easy to do. Mostly held on by plastic clips.

 

About 4 years ago, I hit a tread at about 120mph in my 98 prelude. I was following a Sebring and he ran over it and threw it into my bumper. It smashed my hood, scraped the front wheel and smashed the windshield. It cost around $4000 to fix it. I was so pissed when it happened.

 

You mean Carter and Bush?

 

LOL!

Thanks for the comments everyone. Flying couch? THAT'S what I meant when I said it could have been worse!

(FWIW, in Cinci we have the Ronald Reagan Cross County Hwy.)

 

You may want to contact the state D.O.T. if it was a state highway you were on. I'm not sure about them in your state but here in NJ, I filed a claim with them for the same thing. A couple of years ago I hit a chunk of rubber on the road and it caused $1000 in damage to my 2 week old prelude. In rage I contacted the DOT and they actually have insurance for this. Thats because it is their responsibility to keep the roads clean and free of debri... I called them and they faxed me a claim form the same day... I suggest taking some pics of the car and also the highway where it happened, I'm sure their is still some rubber laying around there..... Good Luck......Its worth a shot!