Hit something on the road - Quite a bit of Damage

So I was driving home from work last night following an suv in front of me. Im driving along and all of a sudden the guy swerves to the left almost causing an accident. As soon as he swerves I saw a lawnmower(I think?) in the road sitting stationary upright. I had no time to react and was always told if somethings in the road dont swerve and risk crashing -- hit it. So I tried to drive over it. Hit the handle and it flipped up into the bottom of the truck.

Took a chunk out of the transfer case, Put a dent in the crossmember, dinged up the Driveshaft and U joints at the rear Diff, damaged the drain bolt in rear axle, and left a Massive dent in the gas tank skid pushing the tank up into the bed.

I drove it around just to check everything. Turns out theres a leak from the drain plug in the transfer case and i'm not getting a fuel reading from the tank.

I took it to the dealership and they are saying its $3300 to replace the tank, skid plate, and sending unit. They wont give me a quote just to replace the sending unit as the tank is not leaking. If anything, it's just dented.

Any suggestions?? If I buy an aftermarket tank, what would you recommend? What else should I check and possibly replace when fixing the gas tank?

 

rockauto.com

 

See if you have an LKQ around you. They sell used auto parts (usually with a warranty). They grade the parts when they come in so they know what happened to the original vehicle before they sell it to you. I've had great luck dealing with them as have other local members. If you have one local, I'd highly recommend them.

 

Shit'll buff out. Pics or it didn't happen.

3

 

I would get a new drain plug (easy) some rattle can black for the scrapes so they don't rust, fix the sending unit and leave the rest.

 

that doesn't even look that bad! you should be fine.


I sure am glad that I have skids for all of the above that were damaged. Let me find a damn lawnmower on the freeway, I'll have my way with it

 

Wow that sucks... Its lucky you were not driving a sedan.
Good luck with the repairs,
Charlie

 

but is the lawn mower ok? JK

sorry to hear, just glad your alright and the truck didn't fare too badly.

 

"I think?"

Classic. Sprayed water all over my computer.

 

Supposedly the gas tank is dented in a way that the sending unit, even if it was replaced, wont read the amount of gas in the tank. "Supposedly." According to the dealership. They tried to replace the drain bolt for me and wanted to charge $80.

The lawnmower i'm afraid was a total loss. I feel bad that I drove over someones livelihood.
I tried to claim it on insurance as non-fault as it was in the road and apparently if there is an item in the road that is stationary, and you hit it, its your fault. If the item is flying through the air and you hit it however, its not your fault.

I still have no idea where they came up with $3300 in repairs to replace it all. Parts alone are less the 1k..maybe 1.5k max. If they charge 150$ an hour thats a lot of hours of work. and I know the tank doesnt take that long.

 

Where are you located?

 

try telling them it wasn't stationary, it was still moving when you hit it and must have fallen out of the truck in front of the truck in front of you

if you have comprehensive coverage it covers anything like that, even birds falling out of the sky, if you have it take the bill to the insurance company and get a check for that amount then go buy what you need for around $300 and fix it yourself pocketing the $3000

everyone should carry the comprehensive coverage as its only like $5 a month but can save your ass with stuff like this.

 

San Fernando Valley

 

The rates will increase for the next 3 years by 40-60% unfortunately. Otherwise I would and you'd see me with the most heavy duty skid plates I could find. Need to fight off the rest of the gardening tools coming after me.

 

you could go with one of those mad max plow scoops on the front bumper to cut stuff in half and push it off to the side

 

You hit my lawn mower!!!

Just kidding, hope you get this resolved quickly.

 

Sadly, and I know you don't want to hear this, this is another case where a proper following distance would have given a better reaction time.

As for the damage, I call BS on what the dealership said about the tank and sending unit. I don't see enough damage to warrant their claim.

 

its hard to judge anything by the one picture and just one angle, but all I see is the tank shield bent and it doesn't look like the tank bent much.

how would they even know without pulling the skid plate off because TBH the tank may not even be dented but if it is, its something I would think is easy to pop back out by removing it and accessing through the fuel pump hole to push it back in place. or am I wrong?

NOTE - a warning about going to places like LKQ or pick-a-part and get another tank, by DEQ or EPA law (one of em) they have to puncture or create drainage in the bottom of any storage devices that contained oil or gas even if they are empty, so oil pans have the plugs removed an any tranny pans and gas tanks without drain plugs must get a hole punched in them so you might need to source a tank from another member in the for sale section or a private local source unless your buying a new one.

 

The underside of my 2014 looks much worse... Hope you get it fixed but I would just get the gas tank checked out and look at the drain plug. A $800 set of aftermarket skids would have prevented all of that damage.