So I was driving my 95 Accord EX Wagon 5-speed and the car in front of me suddenly swerved to avoid something. Due to traffic I was unable to do the same. I felt the entire car "buck" as it ran over the object. There was a public transit bus about a couple hundred feet ahead broken down. When I got out I found this sitting in the road.



And when I looked under the car I found my transmission smashed. It appears to be just the bell housing luckily. I don't know if it damaged the flywheel or clutch set. It drove a few feet forward out of the way but was starting to smell funny, maybe the flywheel rubbing against the broken pieces, so I turned it off and looked underneath and found the damage.



I'm working with my insurance company and the transit company to get my car fixed. The bus mechanic that showed up admitted the U-joint/driveshaft came from the broken down bus so I would hope they are going to pay for everything. Hopefully there is no other damage than the transmission that might cause the insurance company to total my car. if it comes to that I'll probably buy it back salvage and fix it myself.

The rental Hyundai Elantra may be 20 years newer but it sucks! Its uncomfortable, has bad driver visibility, and isn't a loser cruiser station wagon.

 

Yeah, every summer I make a long trip, and I rent a car just to see if there is something newer I had rather have. So far I haven't seen anything. But then I haven't rented a Porsche either.

 

This is craziness. Sucks man. I'd like to know what the transit company ends up doing for you, if anything at all.

 

So I got a call yesterday saying my car was ready and I went to pick it up. I brought it home and immediately put it up on ramps to check the shop's work. I was surprised to find a 1/2" gap between the transmission and the clutch inspection plate that ran the length of the plate and the middle bolt was missing. My previous plate was perfectly flush with the transmission and unwarped prior to the incident, I had bought it new from Honda when I did the auto-manual swap. When I called the shop they obviously knew about it and were just counting on the average customer not checking or having no idea what they were looking at because they knew what I was talking about and said it was due to the middle bolt in the used transmission they had gotten being snapped off in the transmission. I took the car back in and explained that I expected it to be fixed, my previous plate had been flush with the transmission and I expect this one to be as well. It's not my fault they got a transmission with a broken bolt.

So the car is still in the shop. When I get it back I'll check it again, and I'm going to drop that plate to double check the clutch and flywheel since they are both new and now I know I really can't trust the shop. This is why I do my own car work. It's so hard to find a shop you can really trust to do things right and own up to any mistakes they make.

I'm still working on getting payment from the transit company. My insurance company is waiting til all bills are submitted to them and then they will be going after the transit company for all expenses including my deductible.