Page 1: Summary
Page 2: Exterior Pics
Page 3: 98 SL2 (Sold)
Page 4: 96 Sunfire SE (Sold)
Page 5: Rear-Wheel Disk Brake Tutorial
Page 6: Cat-Back Dual Exhaust Setup
Page 7: My Car Purchasing History
Page 8: Christmas Eve '04... Ouch
Page 9: Christmas Crash Repairs
Page 10: Theft Recovery
Christmas Eve Crash...
Caution, wet floor.
So I decided to drive to my dad's place in Palm Springs, CA from my apartment in Phoenix. And after a nice four hour cruise to California, I finally get close to the airport where my father is employed... Traffic is pretty light, a white Honda to my left, a lifted F350 behind him, and two lanes open to his left.
I slow down a bit when I get near the sign... But I still zipped past the first entrance, "Ahh well, there are more.". Then the second entrance; slow down, only to find it's an exit only, "Ok, no big deal.". The third entrance, most likely the last one... I've had my blinker on since seeing the first entrance... I'm coming up quick on this last one, so I'm getting on the brakes rather hard. Low and behold, the jacked-up F350 decides it's the right time to slip into the right lane, RIGHT behind me, while I'm doing 35 in a 50, on my brakes hard... Hmm, lifted F350 going 50MPH versus a 2400 pound Saturn at 35MPH and decreasing speed quickly... Not a good situation. So to avoid getting rear-ended (or run over), I ease off the brakes a tad to squeeze into the turn. Once I'm clear of the truck, I SLAM on the brakes. Little did I know that the sprinklers in the area are on almost 24/7... And that the entrance to the lot is slick pavement. So, 35MPH into a 5" high curb... Understeer is not my friend, neither are brakes that lock up.
Upon hitting the curb, the engine quit, both airbags exploded, the headunit magically popped off and landed at my feet, and smoke was coming out of my dash (from the airbags). I was pissed to say the very least. After getting out of the vehicle, I see that I'm just up on the curb and that a small plastic piece (unknown part) is lying on the ground. I thought to myself, "Maybe I can back it off...". She started up fine, but the steering wheel didn't want to turn. Getting out to check out the situation again, I see my driver's side wheel is jammed into the backside of my fenderwell, and the rim is cracked, and the tire has a slight hole in it (but still holding air).
Further investigation revealed a wrinkled subframe/cradle, a busted driver's CV axle, a hole punched in the transmission case, slightly broken front bumper cover, and a really messed up sway bar (along with a crushed driver's side clamp).
Cracked rim and damaged tire shoved into the rear of the well.
Got wheelgap? Bent up swaybars can cause unwanted fender gap. And yes, about 15 minutes after contact with the curb, the sprinkler system turned on just to mock me.
Crunched sway bar clamp.
I was relieved to find out that the oil leaking all over was caused by the CV axle, and not the engine.
