So today I took my G in for an oil change and an inspection and got very bad news.

A while back I had hit something on the fwy but didn't think anything bad would happen and today I found out that i was wrong!

I'm not too sure on what to do. Does anybody know a place where I can get a crossmember for a decent price? I was quoted $800+ by the dealer and they suggested I contact my insurance company to get everything fixed and if I did go through my insurance would anybody here know how to deal with that?

Here are a few pics:

 

I'm not sure why my pics arent showing up.

 

Holy sht what did you hit.
You can pick one off a junk car if its still in good shape

 

How could you not think of looking under the car after an impact like that? Holy crap.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jikmiranda/6775019755/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jikmiranda/6775019725/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jikmiranda/6775024813/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jikmiranda/6775019851/

Pics aren't showing up due to your Flicker settings not allowing downloads and the fact that you are using IMG tags around a directory and not an actual .jpg

anyway, whatever you hit was pretty hard and heavy impact. If you ask me it looks like you went over a curb or parking space cement block at high speed.

 

Go through insurance. Tell them you hit something on the freeway. They should fix it without any hesitation.

 

Before going thru insurance, what is your deductible? And What is the total cost of repair?

May not make sense to get insurance involved if you deductible is high

 

From the sound of this situation and the OP's response, it sounds like he will not be doing the repair work himself, nor will he be able to readily assess any as-yet unforeseen issues which may only surface later; that's a key point, because you really don't know how extensive it is. From the looks the of forces involved, there could be significant collateral issues and/or damage. You basically need to have everything that is within that engine bay and surrounding area inspected for compromise. Your engine mounts are of great concern, and if they moved, then the shifting engine could have crimped, pinched, buckled, crushed, and tweaked anything and everything in its way. If you just approach this as a cross member replacement, you could have it all"fixed" and then start developing noises, vibrations, check engine lights, etc. etc. In that case, I would highly recommend going through insurance, and perhaps having the work done through a high end body shop. They can replace the cross-member, repair the exhaust and tears in the sheet metal and access other impact stress points. I hope the OP knows he SHOULD NOT BE DRIVING THE CAR until it's fixed, as it is undoubtedly dangerously unsafe in its present form.

As others have said, I'm shocked that you didn't inspect the car immediately after such an apparent impact as that; absolutely mind-boggling!

 

I'm surprised the car even drove straight after the collision, and the fact that you couldn't even tell the damage was so severe. I would imagine it would be pulling at the least, and making all kinds of ****ed up noises.

 

I had this happen a couple months ago. I hit a sewer cap and bent the s**t out of my crossmember. I took it in and had insurance take care of it. Total on cost was about $2200

 

Thank for the reply everybody. Yes it may sound crazy that I didn't fully check the car but I did grab a flash light that night and took a quick glance and just saw a small piece of plastic hanging by the rear exhaust and took it off and thought that was all the damage till the car got on the lift and really saw the damage.

Seems like i'll be calling my insurance to get this all fixed.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly does a crossmember do on a car?

 

more info here: http://bit.ly/A6g2MG

 

OP, i hope this accident wasn't too long ago and you haven't exceeded your timely disclosure obligations to your insurer (check your insurance contract)

If you have exceeded the time frame for filing a claim then just tell your insurer that it happened a few days ago

 

Damn!