Objects in the Road

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but that’s what happens when life is coming at you hard and fast. Recently my daughter came to visit and on the way she hit some tire debris in the road. She called us right after it happened and said her car felt different. I didn’t think much about it and by the time she arrived it had completely slipped my mind. It was the next morning after we had run to an estate sale that I noticed something wasn’t right with her car. The muffler was hanging low. How did that happen?

After a short inspection I found the muffler mount pin had been sheered off, presumably by the tire debris. I decided to take the car and put it on my lift to get a good view of the damage. Boy was I in for a shock. The damage was quite extensive.

The tire debris must have caught the bottom of the radiator and radiator mounts because the radiator, condenser and the radiator mount bracket were bent. The radiator mount bracket was bent over 90 degrees on one side. There was so much force that a bolt on the mounting bracket was pushed into the oil filter with enough force to crush the filter.

Further damage happened to the heat shield between the exhaust pipes and the floor of the car. The aluminum shield was ripped and crumpled in several places. Then as I already mentioned, the muffler mounting pin was sheered off. I ended up fixing that part by drilling out the left over pin base and inserting a similar sized bolt. I’ll go into more detail after I write up the project page. Her car is the next big project for me.