Was driving along dark route in the middle of Wyoming a few nights ago and unfortunately hit a deer while going at about 100 km/h (~62mph).

The deer bounced off my hood and off to the side of the road. Radiator was leaking at the time and I was towed to a local shop. Insurance is wanting to write off my car but I'm really wanting to get it repaired. Under the hood, it appears the radiator support bar is bent and the rad needs to be replaced.

The passenger headlight is broken and the hood's a dented mess.

This all happened while my significant other and I were on a road trip back to Vancouver, BC. I'm really wanting to get my car repaired to the point where I can take it back on the road and at least get home. I was quoted at ~$1150 to get the pertinent stuff (support bar, rad, headlight) fixed so we can be on our way. I figured I can take care of the hood when I get to my destination.









Any thoughts would be much appreciated. The shops here haven't been super helpful - they're all saying the car's a total loss. However, if the damage could be repairable then I'm going to prefer going that route as this is a great running car and I could have easily driven it a lot longer!

 

can you take the bumper off for a better look/pics. to me that looks like it could be banged out(if it's just the upper portion of the support) you'll need a new hood however

 

Thanks for the reply. Not sure how willing the shop will be to take off the bumper. As you can see it's just sitting in backlot of the shop. I don't think they'll actually do anything until we finalize what needs to be done.

Regardless if it could be banged out or I get a new one put in altogether, things should be fine?

 

So would you be "DIYing" the work. a little hard since it's behind a shop if it's just the upper half of the support YES the car should be fine if that's banged out. then replace the light,hood,rad and maybe you'r hood latch.

 

Dang I expected a lot worse than that. I would absolutely say that is salvageable.

 

if the air bag never popped this wouldnt be hard to fix... pull the radiator and condenser out and beat the rad support up and out alil .as it looks beat down as the deer looks to have fell downward on it.... a new hood and a headlight the car would still drive and function fine as it doesnt apear that it busted the radiator or A/C condenser .. It is definately salvageable... looks to me as long as you didnt bust the radiator you should be able to drive it as it is until u can fix it....

 

No, we won't be DIY'ing the work. I'm a car illiterate chick and the SO isn't too much of a car guy.. lol. That's why I"m hoping for for some insight from you knowledgeable folks! Really appreciate the comments so far.

Me being paranoid, I'm just worried there could be other factors that could go wrong besides what can be seen. Best case scenario, if we could straighten out the bar, replace the rad, and the light for the time being so that we can drive to our destination, I'd be a happy camper.

Could the suspension be affected based on the impact?

Edit: Oh and airbags never deployed, deer didn't bounce off the windshield either. "Luckily", the point of impact was the hood as shown by the big dent and then it flew off to the side of the road..

 

Dought it if you drove OVER the deer maybe but even then not likely.


I think you need to take it to another shop that seems like an easy fix why they say write off is beyond me from what i've seen happen from deer hits you're well off(so to say)

 

How much does the insurance want to give you?

 

Lol, I'm stuck in a town of 1000 in Wyoming. There's one body shop directly in town and that's the one I tracked down for the estimate. Granted the shop that said it's a write off wasn't an auto body shop, so maybe that's why....

 

$4800 .. which is surprisingly good I have to say for a 98 Civic EX (Si in Canada) with about 130 000 miles (210 000 km).

But if it can be fixed up for less than half that and I still have a drivable car, then I'd prefer to keep the car... cuz otherwise we'd have to find our own way out of Wyoming!

 

Well... might want to pop over to my build thread, got into a wreck almost as bad as this and fixed it up in about 3 days... not finished yet but I'd say it looks like it was just the front end of the rad support which could just use a little tug/lift/pull and it'll be back in place. Obviously new parts will be needed but if you're lucky like me you can get parts at junk/auto yards for pretty cheap. Like I said mine could use some more work but so far I'm only out about 350 bucks.

 

Took a look at your thread and you did a great job fixing up your car! Pardon my ignorance, but how did you straighten out your rad support? Just hammering/manoeuvring it back in place?

 

Hammer, block of wood, jack, and an almost blow out wrist. It's kinda funny how easy it is to pull/bend some of the supports with your bare hands, honestly with your car it seems like it would just need to have the rad support be pulled(or even jacked with a block of wood or something) to sit flush again. the reason your radiator and AC got bend and banged up like they did is from the center support getting bent backward into them. If they we're pulled out you could probably just lift up on the top section of the rad support and then pull or hammer on the center support to get the top section back into place.

 

Argh, I have no idea how to pull out the radiator/AC so I wonder how the shop would feel if I told him to take the rad/AC out and just pull straight the bar/hammer straight the centre support instead of installing a new one.. lol

 

Quick update, the insurance is willing to give me the total loss value of the car minus salvage value and deductible, which leaves me with ~$3800 to repair and keep the car.

Thinking it'll be the best option to take that and I'll definitely be able to get my car to pre-accident shape with that money. Hope that's the correct thinking!!

 

Thats def. repairable, I was expecting way worse.

 

No kidding. You could put a little work into it yourself and fix it for cheap.

 

slap a radiator, headlight, hoodpins and call it good until you get home.

 

That was my take on it.

 

Thanks all!! Car's in the auto body shop currently waiting for parts and the above is exactly what they're gonna do. Can't wait to get back on the road.

 

Good Move
You came out making money and that car is gonna run like the day in came out of the show room

 

Didnt look too serious, i hope u get your car back soon!

 

Got my car back today! It looks pretty good for what it is and we'll be back on the road tomorrow.

However there's a couple things that are off:

- the speedometer's not working <-- that's coupled with the CEL on. I'm hoping it's just a blown fuse 15? I need to check that out tomorrow still

- wipers are sluggish
- battery died just as we pulled the car to the motel

I changed my alternator about a year ago and the battery was changed about 6 months ago. Not sure why my battery is drained. I hope it's nothing too serious to do with wiring, etc.



Thoughts? TIA!

 

Pull the code, i'd be willing to bet it's for you'r VSS simple fix if so as for wipers being slugish i'd say that's related to you'r alternator/battery issue(wipers run off it)