I'm so angry at myself right now I can't begin to describe it... long story short, it was 3 in the morning and I was leaving the store to head home... Going through this big *** parking lot I *thought* I knew, in the dark (the lamp posts were out), their sprinklers were on so the pavement was dark and wet... couldn't really see anything. Needless to say I was going about 30 mph, and up came a big concrete median... more like, a sidewalk. I pretty much drove over it straight on, maybe slightly aiming right about 15 degrees... but I went over it, at 30 mph.

So immediately I pulled off to a section with lights that actually worked to inspect the damage. Left front wheel f*$#ed up and tire blown... left rear wheel little damage to lip and leaking air (I could hear it hissing out), and the plastic undertray and left front wheel well liner ripped off, oh and left HID lamp out. Later though I found the left HID still worked, so it must of just went off during the impact...

After all the cussing stopped I had to call my roommate to bring me my jack and other tire/wheel crap... I was able to jack the car up (yes yes, I know...) and put the spare donut piece of crap on the front left. Then I poodled the car home at 20 mph with my roommate following. The left rear went completely flat pretty quick but luckly I was going slow enough it could handle it.

I made it home and cried myself to sleep... then this morning got up and called a flatbed to come pick me up and drag my sorry *** down to a tire shop to have it checked out and see what can be done.

After getting a chance to look under the car it seems there *may* be damage to the front member, steering arm? (I'm not really sure what these parts are exactly) and maybe a few small suspension/steering components on the front left. That, and aside from the wheel(s) appears to be the extent of the damage. The oil pan and other critical stuff looks perfectly fine and the car runs perfectly fine and no CEL's or anything. The steering alignment is screwed up of course... The body panels and everything are the same so it doesn't appear anything happened there. The front bumper didn't even get cracked or anything.

So some time next week I hope to take the car down to a Nissan dealership and have it inspected, see about how much it will cost to replace those parts to get the car back to spec.

Needless to say I am extremely angry with myself for speeding through a parking lot when I couldn't see. And now, i'm going to pay for it.

I've taken some pics for those of you that know this kinda stuff... let me know if anyone has any ideas here. As far as I can see it just looks like I need to replace a few things underneath and get it aligned, then hopefully it will be back to normal.




Here's the front left wheel and tire that is gone...




Here's the rear left wheel... I had the tire replaced with a used one for $50 which isn't bad.





Now I don't know the name of this large arm that goes across the car, steering arm maybe? The arm itself seems fine but the mounts on the left got pushed rearward probably due to the impact on the wheel:





Here's the same mounting point but on the right side of the car, looks good to me...





Here's where the suspension on the left side of the car meets the front member, you can see the member took a good deal of impact here. Probably direct contact with the concrete:




And here's the same section on the right side of the car, which looks straight:





And here is some piece of the suspension/steering on the front left, i'm not sure what its called but the skinny bar in the middle seems to be at a different angle than the right side, probably because the entire left wheel and its suspension components were pushed back a few centimeters:



Here's the same section on the right side, which looks more lined up properly:

 

Thats your front sway bar thats bent backwards. Time to buy some aftermarket ones.

 

You should get it inspected. There might be frame damage. If so, the car will never be the same.

 

So this is the sway bar?



Shows how little I know...

 

Yeah i'll be doing that... i'm hoping there isn't but I don't really know how to tell. I'm hoping everything else gave way and not the frame.

 

yep, thats front swaybar

 

Well it seems it took a good brunt of the impact so hopefully that and the mount is all I have to replace.

I probably should replace the front cross member, but it looks like just the control arm mount point was impacted but it doesn't appear to have moved it. I measured them and they were the same distance from the rear side of the mount point.

 

I was looking at nismoparts.com which linked to trademotion.com for OEM parts... found this illustration of the front suspension components:



So I'm thinking the front crossmember (16), the mounts (15, 14) the sway bar (12) should be replaced. Possibly the lower control arm (11) and that other skinny piece (13) on the left side.

That's all I can tell visually... will need a proper mechanic who knows this stuff to tell for sure.

But it looks like those parts took the a big portion of the impact along with the wheels/tires. So hopefully there is no other damage... really really hope so.

 

The front frame member is ~ $500 new just FWIW.

I hit a log in my car (smallish 4-6" log) and it bent the mount point and slightly tweaked the lower control arm.

Dealership total cost for new control arm, new cross member, alignment, and install was just north of $1200.

Personally if there aren't any stress cracks/marks (mine had a shear/crack right across the bolt centerline on that flange) on the cross member and the car checks fine alignment wise, I've leave it. That said, if there is ANY sign of stress on the cross member I'd replace it, as it holds the entire front of the car together and the lower control arm coming free could cause a LOT more damage.

edit - upon closer inspection I would replace the cross member $500, labor is 3.2 hours (book).

 

Thanks for the reply man...

The crossmember is $415 on the autocenter.net site. I've spent about 30 minutes under the car looking around and I see no cracks or anything.. It all looks fine except it was just pushed back a few centimeters. But as I said I won't really know much until I get this into a shop to have them inspect it.

 

time to go buy volks.........and ditch them rotas

 

The rotas looked fine. Maybe you should pay the difference for him?

 

damn!!! good luck with the fix

 

ouch bent rim even with all of that rubber?

 

I really doubt your frame is tweaked. If your hood, doors and trunk are still lined up you will be fine.

The 350's are really tough little cars. That 5 star crash rating is no joke.

 

The parking lot is a recipe for disaster. Have Nissan fix the car. Send the bill to your insurance company.

EDIT: Add a wheel and new tire also.

 

Thanks for the replies guys... I was half expecting to get flamed, which I think I partially deserve for going so fast through a parking lot when I couldn't bloody see anything!

Oh well... **** happens, all I can do is fix it and move on... and never do that again!

I'm going to get a new Rota wheel for the front ASAP. I'm not upgrading to Volks, don't have the money for that. I don't know why some of you guys have such a boner for Volks... If I had Volks I bet it would be just as screwed up in that situation!

BTW Do you guys think I should replace the shock/strut on the left? It does seem to be sitting a bit lower than usual. It could just be the donut wheel but I can't tell...

As for insurance, I might call them and see if they will cover any of the damage. I dunno yet it might not be too bad to take care of on my own. Plus I don't want my insurance going up... I've got a steal of a deal right now and I want to keep it.


*sigh* this sucks...

 

Those Rota's will never get credit for taking the beating they did. Good luck with the rebuild.

 

man that sucks, that'll learn ya from going 30 in a parking lot again

 

have the body shop check it out and see what's up...

do you have full collision coverage?