yeuchau

Need Help

Those of you that lives in Irvine might know there is a road construction going-on on walunt between culver and yale.

Yesterday, I drove by and saw a drainer sticking out due to the construction, my first intention was that I don't want to go over it with my wheels as it might do some damage to it, so I try to avoid it by spliting it. Right after I decide to do that, oh the sudden "Boom." I think the cover of the drainer was a bit to high so it hit my exhaust. For those that don't know, my exhaust is placed right in the middle of my car, see pics below.


So right after I run it over, the SRS light goes off, and calling SOS showing on my dash, and I smelled something stinks (most likely due to cracked exhaust), so I immediately pull over and shut off the ignition and called the 911. So the cop came and I file the report with him. CSI also came to take pictures of the damage as well. I was told that it could be city liability, but he is not sure and that's up to the city.

There is an error msg showing on my dash now it's something like restrain system failure, visit workshop, and SRS light is on.
I don't see any physical damage to the car other than the exhaust is broken, don't know if there is any other damage. Need to jack up the car to see.
Here are few pics I took with my phone.




The last pic is my exhaust, sorry it's not very clear, but you can see it's cracked.


Anyone knows what should I do next??
I will try to jack up the car later today after work and take some pics from underneath of the car.

nlpamg

damn Michael. that sucks.

definitely take it up with the city. bring it to the place where you got your exhaust done and have them raise it up and fix the exhaust. and/or, take it to the dealer or a reputable shop and have them raise the car to see if there was any other damage.

yeuchau

should I take to dealer or exhaust shop first.
I was thinking if I take it to dealer first, they might refuse to fix other stuff under warranty since I was involved in a collision.

But if I take to exhaust shop first and fix the exhaust, then dealer mgiht not know. Assuming ony exhaust was bad.

I would like to take it to exhaust shop first, but I'll have to wait till I jack up the car and see no other obvious damage first.
I'll post some pics later tonight.

advans

hmm wow that sucks man!

jagsy

That would be the city responsibility. Do not let them fluff it off. Be very persistant. It is their responsibility to keep safe driving conditions. Potholes etc are also claim worthy situations. Good luck man.

C230 Sport Coup

Yeh, just go to a muffler shop.
Likely if it's just a cracked weld or something you'll be out in 15 minutes and 50 bucks. Be done with it. Don't go to the dealer.

FrankW

that sucks. I would fix the exhaust first before going to the dealership. the error msgs can be cleared by the dealership and if they find other damage just have them fix it. just pretend you don't know anything.

the first thing I do when I see road construction is turn around. I rather go the long way around it then going through it.

yeuchau

Ok,
here are few pics, it doesn't look as bad as it sounds.
First 3 pic is probably not caused by this damage, but just wondering if anyone knows what are these oil?? What is leaking??


Zoom in of above pic


Now it's the exhaust:




Notice in this pic that my entire systems exhaust got pushed back by like a inch or two.


the SRS Warning:
I believe I can just have dealer remove this for me.

Mu9enx

ouch that looks hurt. you need a new magnaflow? i have a new one.

good luck michael!

CoupeCrazy03

Damn, how does that happen? City should do something for you. Get that exhaust fixed asap!

yeuchau

i think I will take it to the shop sometime this weekend, thinking should I try different exhaust this time

Anyone knows a good exhaust shop close by Irvine/Costa Mesa area??

FrankW

don't know any muffler shop in OC, but you can come up to Rowland Heights...Speedway muffler is pretty good.

btw, from the way it looks when the thing hits it probably tugged on the engine and that's probably what caused the error msg.

Mu9enx

you interested in an eisenmann? oh and speedway is cheap and good, but you should know that, lol.

yeuchau

I know speedway muffler, that's where i had mind done. If I can't find any good shop close by, I might eventually go to speedway this weekend.

Yah, that's probably why it caused the error, and remember I was saying that I smelled something sticks right away I hit that thing, I check the the user guide, it's actually some dust from the airbags.

C230 Sport Coup

How would the airbags be effected by a hit to the muffler?

As far as the oil, you need to pull the pans to see where it's coming from.
Might be the infamous tranny o-ring issue.

yeuchau

I think it's like what Frank said that as it hits, it tugged the all front end, that probably why my my tips sticks out extra inch or two.

SlvrC230SS

Dude, that's suck. I pm'ed you back. I just read this thread after your pm.

yeuchau

Ha, I just pmed you before I saw this, anyway, do you think it's worth to take to the same muffler shop that you did urs or not.

yeuchau

So, what do you guys think I should do.
Just replace the muffler, or redo the setup to something like Weltmeister Quad setup.
But most of the shops won't be able to do quad tips on Weltmeister setup, due to lack of space, they can do dual tips like what Slvr230SS has and what FrankW had before.

moosejaw

It looks like you hit a sanitary clean out. Usually when they repave a road they mill and resurface the existing street and come back to do the second lift of asphalt after they establish where their high points are. You need to find the paving contractor who is repaving that road. Most likely they filed a permit application with the city. They have insurance to cover this sort of stuff and you documented your ordeal pretty well. However first confirm they are repaving thatroad before you point any fingers

SlvrC230SS

I think you should just replace the muffler since you are not going to lower the car.

yeuchau

should I give Borla a try??

Mu9enx

welp if you want magnaflow, let me knowww!

SlvrC230SS

I never heard Borla in person so not sure how it sounds. I checked youtube and it sounds not too bad.

kcheng86

dam sucks, yea when i was installing my steering wheel, my SRS light came on too, exact same message, and the dealer cleared it for me..I didnt tell them anything, just told them my light is on...are u still under extended warranty