OliverB wrote:The issue is that I could very well be found equally responsible as her. In that case, my insurance company would only cover half of the repairs and you can bet that body shop is gonna charge an arm because the insurance are involved. I'm prepared to purchase a wrecked one with an undamaged rear if it comes to that. At least that way I could have a spare CVT on hand
FYI, Last year a woman backed into our Corolla and caused similar damage. Ours was a little more extensive. Dent between the taillight and rear tire plus what you have. My wife called me and asked what to do. I told her to call the police and make a accident report. About 30 minutes later I arrived and the police had not yet arrived. I open the trunk and beat the sheet metal behind the taillight and popped out the rear fender to almost perfect. I told my wife to cancel the police report. I figured I could pop out the rear bumper with a heat gun and not get the insurance involved. The next day at the hottest part of the day I took a heat gun to the bumper but could not pop out the bumper. The bumper braces where in the way for me to get to the dent from behind the bumper. I figured I needed to remove the bumper to pop it out. I put it off and a month later parked the car in our pole barn for the winter planning to tackle that dent in spring when it was warmer. A few months later I walked into the pole barn and to my surprise that dent in the rear bumper popped out by itself. All I needed to do was rub out a few scratches (bumper & fender) with rubbing compound and re glue a piece back on the taillight. It was not as bad as it first appeared.
Well I got the car inspected by the body shop my insurance company referred me to and honestly I'm not impressed. The person that inspected my car was trying to convince me that the sensors had to be replaced even though they are all working just fine. Out of curiosity, I asked him how much it would cost to get rid of some minor rust on the body of the car, right under the rear doors. He told me 1500$. For each side...
I can't even remotely think of anything that could justify 3000$ to get rid of 5 square inches of surface rust. A Mercedes dealership would charge less than at 150$/hour. So when he asked if I wanted to have my appointment on April 16th, I told him to go fuck himself. I called my insurance company and let the person who's in charge of my accident know that the inspector at that body shop was trying to replace a non-faulty component.
I'm giving my insurance company a week before I start fixing this myself. A tail light costs 50$ from a salvage yard. I'm convinced the bumper will come back to normal with a heat gun, but I'm afraid the paint will crack. Still worth a shot before I either start hunting for a used bumper or buy a wrecked kizashi.
OliverB wrote:The issue is that I could very well be found equally responsible as her. In that case, my insurance company would only cover half of the repairs and you can bet that body shop is gonna charge an arm because the insurance are involved. I'm prepared to purchase a wrecked one with an undamaged rear if it comes to that. At least that way I could have a spare CVT on hand
FYI, Last year a woman backed into our Corolla and caused similar damage. Ours was a little more extensive. Dent between the taillight and rear tire plus what you have. My wife called me and asked what to do. I told her to call the police and make a accident report. About 30 minutes later I arrived and the police had not yet arrived. I open the trunk and beat the sheet metal behind the taillight and popped out the rear fender to almost perfect. I told my wife to cancel the police report. I figured I could pop out the rear bumper with a heat gun and not get the insurance involved. The next day at the hottest part of the day I took a heat gun to the bumper but could not pop out the bumper. The bumper braces where in the way for me to get to the dent from behind the bumper. I figured I needed to remove the bumper to pop it out. I put it off and a month later parked the car in our pole barn for the winter planning to tackle that dent in spring when it was warmer. A few months later I walked into the pole barn and to my surprise that dent in the rear bumper popped out by itself. All I needed to do was rub out a few scratches (bumper & fender) with rubbing compound and re glue a piece back on the taillight. It was not as bad as it first appeared.
Well I got the car inspected by the body shop my insurance company referred me to and honestly I'm not impressed. The person that inspected my car was trying to convince me that the sensors had to be replaced even though they are all working just fine. Out of curiosity, I asked him how much it would cost to get rid of some minor rust on the body of the car, right under the rear doors. He told me 1500$. For each side...
I can't even remotely think of anything that could justify 3000$ to get rid of 5 square inches of surface rust. A Mercedes dealership would charge less than at 150$/hour. So when he asked if I wanted to have my appointment on April 16th, I told him to go fuck himself. I called my insurance company and let the person who's in charge of my accident know that the inspector at that body shop was trying to replace a non-faulty component.
I'm giving my insurance company a week before I start fixing this myself. A tail light costs 50$ from a salvage yard. I'm convinced the bumper will come back to normal with a heat gun, but I'm afraid the paint will crack. Still worth a shot before I either start hunting for a used bumper or buy a wrecked kizashi.
Go for it. I bet that bumper will come out pretty easy if you can apply pressure from behind it.
OliverB wrote:The issue is that I could very well be found equally responsible as her. In that case, my insurance company would only cover half of the repairs and you can bet that body shop is gonna charge an arm because the insurance are involved. I'm prepared to purchase a wrecked one with an undamaged rear if it comes to that. At least that way I could have a spare CVT on hand
FYI, Last year a woman backed into our Corolla and caused similar damage. Ours was a little more extensive. Dent between the taillight and rear tire plus what you have. My wife called me and asked what to do. I told her to call the police and make a accident report. About 30 minutes later I arrived and the police had not yet arrived. I open the trunk and beat the sheet metal behind the taillight and popped out the rear fender to almost perfect. I told my wife to cancel the police report. I figured I could pop out the rear bumper with a heat gun and not get the insurance involved. The next day at the hottest part of the day I took a heat gun to the bumper but could not pop out the bumper. The bumper braces where in the way for me to get to the dent from behind the bumper. I figured I needed to remove the bumper to pop it out. I put it off and a month later parked the car in our pole barn for the winter planning to tackle that dent in spring when it was warmer. A few months later I walked into the pole barn and to my surprise that dent in the rear bumper popped out by itself. All I needed to do was rub out a few scratches (bumper & fender) with rubbing compound and re glue a piece back on the taillight. It was not as bad as it first appeared.
Well I got the car inspected by the body shop my insurance company referred me to and honestly I'm not impressed. The person that inspected my car was trying to convince me that the sensors had to be replaced even though they are all working just fine. Out of curiosity, I asked him how much it would cost to get rid of some minor rust on the body of the car, right under the rear doors. He told me 1500$. For each side...
I can't even remotely think of anything that could justify 3000$ to get rid of 5 square inches of surface rust. A Mercedes dealership would charge less than at 150$/hour. So when he asked if I wanted to have my appointment on April 16th, I told him to go fuck himself. I called my insurance company and let the person who's in charge of my accident know that the inspector at that body shop was trying to replace a non-faulty component.
I'm giving my insurance company a week before I start fixing this myself. A tail light costs 50$ from a salvage yard. I'm convinced the bumper will come back to normal with a heat gun, but I'm afraid the paint will crack. Still worth a shot before I either start hunting for a used bumper or buy a wrecked kizashi.
I had a similar problem 2 years ago I used hot water with plunger to get it out. it work fine for me thanks to material used in rear bumper.
I don't have one yet, but the moment I'll be able to buy a Kizashi will be very close to the moment when my wife and I will buy this house in Alicante, Spain, so the relation is quite obvious!
Took off the Thule roof box, bike carrier, and roof rack bars. It's like I have a new car in appearance. Looking forward to the more quiet ride on the freeway.
I also checked the air filters. I replaced both the engine and cabin air filters around the same time a year and a half ago. While the engine air filter looked relatively clean, the cabin air filter was absolutely filthy. It's going to be an annually replaced part for me given how quickly it gets dirty.
Interesting that one is absolutely filthy and the other is relatively clean...selective dirt? The engine is constantly ingesting gobs of air. I'd expect it to be at least as filthy as the cabin's, if not filthier.
Ronzuki wrote:Interesting that one is absolutely filthy and the other is relatively clean...selective dirt? The engine is constantly ingesting gobs of air. I'd expect it to be at least as filthy as the cabin's, if not filthier.
Mine is the same. I finally replaced the engine filter after 3 years and it still looked pretty clean, but the cabin filter needs to be yearly and usually involves pulling out twigs and leaves.
Ronzuki wrote:Interesting that one is absolutely filthy and the other is relatively clean...selective dirt? The engine is constantly ingesting gobs of air. I'd expect it to be at least as filthy as the cabin's, if not filthier.
Where and how it actually intakes the air makes the difference, I think. With the engine, it's drawn from behind the grill and the air flows down and then upward through the filter. Larger particles would be fighting gravity, even with the air flow. On the contrary, the intake for the cabin filter is the area below the windshield wiper. Gravity helps to draw particles in and it's evident even debris from parking under a tree can end up on the filter. Basically, the cabin intake and filter has way more exposure to dirt and debris as the air seems to flow downward onto it.
Well, pulled her outta the garage earlier this week for the first time in many months for some nice salt-free commuting to work. What a joy. It's like putting on an old pair of well worn jeans...just feels right. Nothing beeping at me incessantly for this reason or that (CX5), just driving the car.
Another annual state mandated safety and emissions inspection completed successfully this morning. It needed nothing...again. Solidly engineered vehicle. At 83,341 miles original front brake pads are still at 3/32. Good for another year! Tires are noisy, again, and wearing inside edges. Won't pass next year's annual after driving it this spring/summer/fall season. So I'll be looking to replace them and probably the front pads (maybe rotors) sometime before next winter's park-it.