car damage and /anger

[tribalman]

i'm not sure if other people have had this happen, but i just had a pumpkin thrown thru my rear windshield, shattering it and also damaging the body. does anybody know of any places in illinois what will replace the window and and fix the body for cheap? $500 deductables really suck. how about installing window tinting? i'd like to get about 10-15% tint.

anybody else have stuff like this happen? post your stories. what really ticks me off is i was away from the car for 1 hour and 30 minutes and didn't hear anything happen or notice anything either! the car was across the street and over one house on the street. i was in the front room of the house! i haven't even had the car for 6 months yet! darn rich irresponsible teens!

[Vircolac]

I was working second shift and at about 11:00 in the morning one of my neighbors in the apartment complex knocks on my door. She says to me to come out and take a look at my car, and, "please, don't get mad!", so I knew something was very wrong.

I go out to the car which is parked on the street. The whole rear window is smashed to bits AND the rear passenger side window is gone, too. I take a quick look to see if anything is gone from inside the car, and call the police. I'm thinking that kids just took a bat to my car windows just because they have nothing better to do. I call work and tell them I can't make it in because I have to take care of this mess, and they give me some flak, almost implying that if I don't make it to work, the whole economic system will collapse, blah, blah, blah..., and I say, "tough! I won't be in. I've gotta take care of this mess!" The deputy sheriff arrives, and we start looking around. He sees a lot more than I do. He looks at my trunk and sees a dent/scuff mark, and a major smash in the rear window frame housing, a limestone scuff mark in the street, and, after poking around some more, a limestone landscaping slab, the size of a large book and about 15 lbs, in the lawn in front of the apartment, quite a distance from my car but almost directly in line with my passenger side rear window.

The best we could figure out was this: Someone, or some how, this limestone slab came cartwheeling down the street (I was parked downhill), hit the asphalt, bounced up, putting a dent in the trunk, smashing in to the rear window and frame, and ricocheted out the side rear passenger window, and landed in the grass some 25 feet from my car. It was going fast enough to leave a couple of divots in the lawn. To this day I can't figure out how a rock that size could get going soo fast to do all of that damage. Anyway, total damage was a little over three grand. with me paying about $900.00 out of my own pocket ($500 deductible and rental car fees; it was in the shop almost two weeks. They did a great job of fixing it!).

I know you feel like this happens only to you, but my little story may help make you feel a little less lonesome.... Sorry about the pumpkin incident; hang in there!

[Eagle]

yeah, my car got egged the other night. No body damage, but the paint is screwed.

[91Foxtrot]

I had my car broken into last year. They broke out the vent glass (the little non-movable triangular piece in the back door). I did a search for glass repair and the national company Safelite came up first. I called them for a quote, which they gave as $175 and they could do it on Tuesday (this was Saturday morning). I took a look at Craigslist and someone recommended Aaron Auto Glass in Chicago. Called them for a quote: $55 - get here before 4 and we'll do it while you wait. They even used Volkswagen glass.

[rkjunior303]

Hooray for glass being covered in the state of MA by insurance with no deductible..

You may want to file a police report and see if with that, your insurance will cover it without the deductible. Usually the deductible is only if you're operating the car. The car was stationary, etc, so it's not your fault.

Case in point.. Here in MA, my mom's car popped out of gear and rolled down the street, hitting a telephone pole... Insurance covered it.

[Lohman446]

I get a chance to outdo all of you, I'll start with my own.

About 3AM one morning I get a call from the sheriff department. "Mr. Lohman, do you own a green Taurus?" Its the middle of the night I'm like, ummm yeh. "Could you verify its location for us" So I walk out to my front door and its not there. Hmm, thats interesting. They were just pursuing it, someone tried to run an officer down with it. They tell me they will get me any new information they can, I go back to bed.

The next morning I call and get a ride to work, I get a call awhile later, the guy was going a bit over 100MPH down a gravel and dirt road and rolled it, repeatedly, though he did walk away from it. Since he is a minor I can only sue his family - who has nothing so not worth doing. Michigan no fault insurance law and I don't specifically carry theft coverage, its not covered, AT ALL.

[billybob_81067]

I get a chance to outdo all of you, I'll start with my own.

About 3AM one morning I get a call from the sheriff department. "Mr. Lohman, do you own a green Taurus?" Its the middle of the night I'm like, ummm yeh. "Could you verify its location for us" So I walk out to my front door and its not there. Hmm, thats interesting. They were just pursuing it, someone tried to run an officer down with it. They tell me they will get me any new information they can, I go back to bed.

The next morning I call and get a ride to work, I get a call awhile later, the guy was going a bit over 100MPH down a gravel and dirt road and rolled it, repeatedly, though he did walk away from it. Since he is a minor I can only sue his family - who has nothing so not worth doing. Michigan no fault insurance law and I don't specifically carry theft coverage, its not covered, AT ALL.

That sucks... but at least it was only a taurus! :D

[slade]

I get a chance to outdo all of you, I'll start with my own.

About 3AM one morning I get a call from the sheriff department. "Mr. Lohman, do you own a green Taurus?" Its the middle of the night I'm like, ummm yeh. "Could you verify its location for us" So I walk out to my front door and its not there. Hmm, thats interesting. They were just pursuing it, someone tried to run an officer down with it. They tell me they will get me any new information they can, I go back to bed.

The next morning I call and get a ride to work, I get a call awhile later, the guy was going a bit over 100MPH down a gravel and dirt road and rolled it, repeatedly, though he did walk away from it. Since he is a minor I can only sue his family - who has nothing so not worth doing. Michigan no fault insurance law and I don't specifically carry theft coverage, its not covered, AT ALL.
/lohman wins

[tribalman]

lohman and Vircolac, those both suck. yeah i know it happens to more than just me, i just need to vent slightly. no one is up at 4am around here :tard: . yeah i called the police right after i found out what happened and after some very harsh words yelled into the air.

insurance will cover it, after a $500 deductable :( looks like i'm having to pay for the whole thing though. actually, there have been a big increase of theft and auto damage in the town where i was. been reading the town paper and police reports, theft has finally overtaken DUI and marajuana as most popular arrests. maybe i should just move to the moon to get away from it all.

what is really astonishing, i had about $3k+ worth of stuff in there. from ipod, stereo, speakers and sub, to a nice 35mm camera and paintball stuff but nothing was taken. man i really lucked out there. next time i know it's going to be theft also. *note to self, keep as little in car as possible*

[93civiccpe]

^^ All of the above are just a few more reasons to invest in a "trunk monkey". =P
(sorry to hear of your losses.. been there, done that as well)

[psychowarden]

Last summer while I was away for a week, someone put a few pieces of bologna on my hood. If you dont know what that does to your paint, it looks like someone took a disk sander and just polished off my paint. So, a few weeks with a polka dot hood and a few phonecalls to the insurance company, and I have a new hood.

[bornl33t]

keyed twice and ran into twice in one month. No notes no nothing. You think pickup owners are jerks for driving too slow or "hogging the road" but what about the fruit cakes that hit a parked truck twice the sice of an average sedan?

Oh and why do some people have a problem with math? I mean take a 6ft wide parking space and put a 5 ft wide truck in it. Divide that by two and you got 6 inches on both sides of the truck. People it's impossible to leave a foot on both sides it just can't happen!

[thecavemankevin]

lohman deffinately wins at the biggest looser

two stories, my truck go sugar put in the gas tank but fortunately i noticed it before i started the engine (saw sugar on the ground). Thank god for that chevy having a driver side tank. It sucked because i had to pay for towing to the service station and since it had a full tank i had to pay a ****e load of EPA gas disposal fees. cost me $400 bucks when it was all done. And for a kid in high school where $400 is what you make in two weeks that really sucked.

My old VW bug had the vent glass broken out and about $800 worth of tools and other stuff jacked from inside. (that happened in about 15 minutes)

so you are very lucky that they didnt jack you stuff from inside the car.

[PyRo]

Sugar in the gas tank doesn't do anything. You should have just drove it and laughed it off.

[Altimas]

A match on the other hand... :mad:

[Lohman446]

Sugar in the gas tank doesn't do anything. You should have just drove it and laughed it off.


What? I guess I better reinstall these injector rails and sets of injectors I have removed from vehicles that have had substances (presumably sugar) in the fuel...

[slade]

What? I guess I better reinstall these injector rails and sets of injectors I have removed from vehicles that have had substances (presumably sugar) in the fuel...
[random guess]maybe sugar in the fuel damages fuel injectors, and therefore has no effect on carburated vehicles?[/random guess]

[kosmo]

Back when I was a construction worker in MN, this idiot foreman thought he could park a green Geo with Packers stickers all over the thing on a job and leave it unattended, right next to a big purple cement mixer with Vikings stickers all over it, the week after the Vikes destroyed the homopackers. When he came back, the Geo was sitting on the roof of the garage. Stupid cheeseheads. He had to call in the company crane from another job site, and they lifted it off the roof with chains and bent the frame. Serves him right.

[thecavemankevin]

Sugar in the gas tank doesn't do anything. You should have just drove it and laughed it off.

since when?

[Lohman446]

[random guess]maybe sugar in the fuel damages fuel injectors, and therefore has no effect on carburated vehicles?[/random guess]


I doubt its good for them :) And I'm sure it causes issues with fuel filters

[thecavemankevin]

.

Instead, sugar poured into a car's gas tank stays intact. While sugar could still cause harm if it reached the engine (but in the same way sand would, by virtue of its being a granular contaminant, not because the sugar would turn into a syrup), even that potential harm is generally prevented by filtration. At the end of the pickup tube in the gas tank is a "sock" that blocks solid materials, so the fuel gets through, but precious little that's not liquid does. Further up the line is the fuel filter, and what may have got through the "sock" does not get past it.

Yet, even though the sugar will not reach the engine in either syrup or solid state, it can clog the fuel filter or the fuel injectors, a circumstance which could stop a car. A little sugar in the tank could be dealt with by no more than having to change the fuel filter a few times, but a heavier sugaring would require the gas tank be removed from the car and dumped out. Tom and Ray Magliozzi (the hosts of radio's Car Talk) say it's not a big job for a good mechanic to drop the tank and clean it out; the process would likely cost the car's owner somewhere between $100 and $200. Though $100 to $200 is an appreciable sum, it is a far cry from the wished-for outcome of forcing the victim to have to replace the engine or scrap the car.

[Lohman446]

.


With due regard to some writer who once worked on a "real engine" I have personally seen the damage that sugar can do to a fuel injection system. They are partially right, the one time I may have umm, known of sugar contamination only managed to clog the fuel filter. Though is it going to destroy an engine? No, I've only ever seen it influence the injection system.

[thecavemankevin]

With due regard to some writer who once worked on a "real engine" I have personally seen the damage that sugar can do to a fuel injection system. They are partially right, the one time I may have umm, known of sugar contamination only managed to clog the fuel filter. Though is it going to destroy an engine? No, I've only ever seen it influence the injection system.

thus we've proven pyro to be a nincumpoop (sp? if one even exists). :D

[PyRo]

Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. So besides clogging a fuel filter what is it going to do?

[thecavemankevin]

Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. So besides clogging a fuel filter what is it going to do?

see below


What? I guess I better reinstall these injector rails and sets of injectors I have removed from vehicles that have had substances (presumably sugar) in the fuel...

[Lohman446]

Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. So besides clogging a fuel filter what is it going to do?

Glog injector and injector rails - a clogged fuel filter not addressed and a strainer issue will burn out fuel pumps

[PyRo]

Glog injector and injector rails - a clogged fuel filter not addressed and a strainer issue will burn out fuel pumps
Ok, so the fuel filter was clogged and they ignored it. Resultingly they turning a $30 repair into a $200 one. So I will give you sugar + idiocy = engine damage

[Lohman446]

Ok, so the fuel filter was clogged and they ignored it. Resultingly they turning a $30 repair into a $200 one. So I will give you sugar + idiocy = engine damage

Hehe, I actually never said engine damage. I did say fuel injection system :P Not trying to be a jerk, really.

[tribalman]

haha! i figured after i dropped my car at the shop my troubles would end with this issue(see first post), boy was i wrong! first i was told, "middle of next week" by the dude, seeing as how i droped the car off on a wednesday this isn't too bad, a little long, but whatever. i call on monday the 30th just to see whats up and see if by some chance the car was fixed in the 3-5 days i was told orginally. aparently parts were on back order and they just got there, now it will be finished at the end of the week and they said they would keep in touch. wtheck is crossing my mind. figure i'd call on friday the 3rd just to see if the car will be finished on saturday because 2 weeks without a car is really annoying and i need transport. turns out the car was finished and they were just finishing up washing it and i could pick it up in an hour.
hrm.... shouldn't they have called about that? oh well, what ever, i have my car back!

this is the part that really angers me more than the damage!
i didn't have time to really look over the car, i had to be at work in 5 minutes so off i went. next morning i looked at the car. the center brake light's shroud was missing! i even left in the trunk, next to the wiper motor, which did get reinstalled. there are little plugs that hold the wiper onto the window and they are on the outside. when they were installed the shop took what looks like vice-grips to hold them in place as the bolt/screw was tightened from the inside, marring it up pretty good. there are four. also, when they removed the duct tape and bag that i had put over the window to keep the rain out, it was raining the night of the accident and the day after, they just pulled the tape off, giving no care to remove any resin or parts of duct tape left behind. no biggie, except they also waxed over it! they also had to remove the quarter panel to repaint cause it was also scrached along with being dented very well (13 inches long, about 3 wide), and after they repainted it, they didn't buff it so the whole thing doesn't match the rest of the car and it's pretty coarse.
this had really been a crappy 2 weeks for me. just no luck. the name of the place i took my car too is carstar if you want to try and avoid them. i was even reccomened them very highly by a few people.

[thecavemankevin]

take it back to them now, accept it back in no less than original shape from preaccident. If you are going through an insurance company then call up the adjuster and tell him it is not satisfactory and you will be taking it back. You will need a rental car again too.

I use to work in the replacement rental business and we dealt primarily with insurance replacements like your current situation. So i've rented to the same customers multiple times for the same accident until the body shop got it right.

[PyRo]

Well I'm guessing since he didn't get a rental he didn't go through insurance.
If you went through insurance yes, demand everything be restored to it's pre-accident condition.
As far as the shroud is it just not on? Or is is missing altogether? Go ask about it and if they can't locate it tell them they need to find you a replacement.
Go show them the plugs and ask that they be repaird or replaced.
The duct tape isn't their fault, waxing over it isn't going to hurt anything. Waxing a newly painted fender though is no-no. You're supposed to wait six weeks or so before waxing a freshly painted car. That is unless they have some special type of paint or adative.
As far as the panel not matching you're really never going to get a perfect match. If it's on the insurance companys bill insist they repaint the entire car or at the very least feather it into the old paint. If you're paying for it you can ask them about it but you're probably just going to have to live with it as long as it isn't rediculously off.

[Thordic]

The whole "sugar in the gas tank" thing was tested on Mythbusters. They poured sugar into a gas-tank and ran the engine, to no effect. Long term damage from clogs? Probably, but it isn't going to destroy your engine like most people think.

According to their tests, though, if you REALLY want to kill someones engine, bleach is the way to go.

[Lohman446]

Of course its not going to mechanically damage the engine. It doesn't take a lot of understanding of internal combustion engines to understand that. As noted though it is going to cause issues in the fuel injection system - I have seen it on multiple occassions. -

[thecavemankevin]

The whole "sugar in the gas tank" thing was tested on Mythbusters. They poured sugar into a gas-tank and ran the engine, to no effect. Long term damage from clogs? Probably, but it isn't going to destroy your engine like most people think.

According to their tests, though, if you REALLY want to kill someones engine, bleach is the way to go.


bleach? thats a new one on me. never heard that before.

[tribalman]

Well I'm guessing since he didn't get a rental he didn't go through insurance.
If you went through insurance yes, demand everything be restored to it's pre-accident condition.
As far as the shroud is it just not on? Or is is missing altogether? Go ask about it and if they can't locate it tell them they need to find you a replacement.
Go show them the plugs and ask that they be repaird or replaced.
The duct tape isn't their fault, waxing over it isn't going to hurt anything. Waxing a newly painted fender though is no-no. You're supposed to wait six weeks or so before waxing a freshly painted car. That is unless they have some special type of paint or adative.
As far as the panel not matching you're really never going to get a perfect match. If it's on the insurance companys bill insist they repaint the entire car or at the very least feather it into the old paint. If you're paying for it you can ask them about it but you're probably just going to have to live with it as long as it isn't rediculously off.

i am going through insurance, i just don't have the money for the rental.
the next morning after i got the car i showed the shop the stuff. even the guy was going " poop. poop."(insert similar meaning swear there) as i was listing all the damage. i did say order the parts and when they are in i will drop the car off and then pick it up later in the day when the stuff is fixed.
it's not so much that the paint doesn't match, it's the fact that it's not buffed. it's coarse and if it was buffed it would then match the rest of the car. parts of the quarter panel are buffed and all nice, others aren't. and the biggest part that isn't buffed is nowhere near the rear window or the dent, that's what confuses me.
and the shoud for the brake light. just not there. it was next to the wiper, it's not there. here are links to what i'm talking about.

http://www.putfile.com/tribalman/images/47023

[sbpyro]

All this in the projects I grew up in.

1.I had finished working a 7pm to 7am shift. Get home collapse on my bed.
Bout 9:30am there is a knock on my door. I drag myself out of bed. The guy says to me," Do you own the white toyota cresida in the parking lot." Yeah what about it. The tree fell on top of it.

2. Finally got a radio for same said car (original was not in the car when I bought it) . The neighborhood kids realized that there was a car. So over the course of 3 weekends they tried to steal my radio. So on the Monday after the third weekend, I go to put my key into the driver side lock the key wouldn't turn. Same thing with the passenger side door. They had used a flat head screwdriver and destroyed the lock. I go up stairs grab a flat head and put in into the door lock give it a good whack to imbed it into the lock twisted and pulled and popped the retainer off the lock and gave the lock a twist and opened my door and went looking for a lock for a 1981 toyota cresida. Frickin amateurs.

3. 1996 Mazada protege parked next to the minivan that belongs to the family that lived a floor below us. Apparently the dad had kicked out some people who hung out in the hallway. That night they broke the windows of the minivan, slashed the seats, stole the radio, and spraypainted the minivan. Must have realized they had more spray paint and started to spray paint my car.

4. Kids playing baseball in the parking lot. managed to put the ball through my window.
However instead of finding me and asking for their ball decided to put the bat against the window also. I still have that baseball.