an old man in a toyota prius decided to run a stop sign. hit me square in the passenger rear wheel. tore a big chunk out of the sidewall and dented up the wheel pretty bad. also ripped off the corner bumper guard.

what all should i be concerned with as far a damage goes? wheel bearings, springs, shackles? cosmetically there is very little damage just a rim, tire and bumper cover. i'm just worried about hidden damage.

poor guy's prius is probably totaled, airbags deployed and his whole front end shattered. he hit ma doing about 10-15mph, i was going about 25mph.

since i only have liability insurance i'm sure his ins. company will try and lowball me. any hints or tips.


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need pictures.... its hard to tell without pictures.... how does your unibody look?

 

starting to get dark out. i'll get some pics up tomarrow.

 

sucks to hear, glad nobody got hurt.

 

Make sure the clip in the rear diff didnt break.If it did your axle will come out on its own. I had the same thimg happen to me (teenage girl in a sunbird)in my gutless.I drove 50 miles on the freeway then got almost home and my tire with axle still attached went bouncing across my review mirror.Jack it up and pull on your wheel,make sure it stays in there.

 

Replace your axle,if you got hit there then for safety it needs to be replaced,insist on it,with a new rim and tire.

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probably also wanna give your drive shaft a yank and make sure there's no abnormal play. I'd probably take a flashlight and make sure the upper shock mounts and unibody are straight and have no cracks, etc. too while i was under there. Also maybe check all doors and the liftgate and their hinges and latches to make sure they are aligned/functioning properly. Keep an eye out for new leaks also.

I thought I was going to have to get the pry-bar out and remove a prius from my MTZ tread the other day. He came sliding right at me on a sharp bend in fresh snow... I was looking down on his hood when his tires grabbed and turned him at the last second. I was doing like 20 at the time too so it seemed all slow motion. Couldn't help but feel bad, he was probably *&^^%$@ himself - kinda funny too though because he was going way too fast for that turn in any car. Kinda scary though to think what would happen to one of those if it got hit by something with some real mass!

 

If there's any damage at all to the quarter panel, they'll total it.

 

check your leaf springs and shackles.

 

as some of the other posters have said, main things to check are the axle clip (pull on the wheel with the tire off the ground) and the leaf springs (which probably will need to be replaced). The wheel and tire without question definitely need to be replaced (NOT "fixed").

It doesn't matter what insurance you have, if the other party is responsible for the accident they pay 100% of the repair costs, or the total cost, you don't even have to tell your insurance. It also doesn't matter what the "repair quote" is that they give you (they always lowball it to weed out scammers), the shop you get the repairs done at will write a supplement if the parts/labor total is more than the estimate

 

apparently i lucked out and just have a bit of cosmetic damage.

got 2 separate estimates today. $940 in damages. hopefully the ins. company will just cut me a check and i can put that to getting a lift kit instead of fixing the small dent.

 

Do NOT neglect replacing that wheel

 

my wheels are steel, so i hammered the dent out and it seems to be holding air. but your right, i do have a set of wagons to swap tires over to. and i'm going to need 1 new tire.

 

regardless of the "dent" and the ability to hammer it out, the impact certainly has fatigued the metal and weakened it - to a level beyond what is visually evident. I would swap this wheel for another asap.

 

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