Celica Forums General Discussion General I'm soooooo pised off... Damn winter weather...

Crap, it sucks! My Celica is in the shop, yet again. This time, it's due to the winter storms that hit recently.

I'm driving to my Mom's place, I'm dropping off a paycheck to get deposited the next morning. My mom uses the same bank, lives closer, and is generally up earlier than me, So, as a favor to me, sometimes she makes a deposit for me, since she's going there anyways.

Anyways, I'm on my way to her place. I stop at a "T" intersection, and turn left. The plows hadn't yet gone down the street, so the snow was thick, normally not a big deal. I'm going slow (about 10-15 MPH on a 25 MPH street). That's when it happened.

Sometimes, a situation arises that could only be called an "Act of God", something so unavoidable; so predestined, it occurs without mercy, and the situation is completely out of your control.

Unseen by me was the 1" thick sheet of ice that covered the street, as it turns out, the plows only ran once, earlier that day. They salt the road here in Illinois, this melts now and ice...

...but when you dump 6" of fresh pack snow on top of that, all that melted stuff refreezes into thick sheets of ice.

I was on a sheet of unseen ice, and was beginning to drift to the right, going nose-first straight towards a mailbox. Not just any mailbox, but the grand daddy of them all, a bricked up mailbox, designed to thwart those teenagers with cherry bombs and baseball bats.

When my tires hit the ice, the car nosed over to the right, I ipplied my brakes "anti-stop brakes" is what they should call them, because I swear, there was no grip whatsoever, the car did not stop sliding to the right, I cranked the wheel hard to the left, and tromped the gas, this made the nose drift left, however, I was still sliding to the right.

When you only have three seconds to react to a situation, it all goes by so quick, but it's like slo-mo. you remember everything. in retrospect, I should have tried engine braking by putting the car into "M" and downshifting, or perhaps I should've pumped the hand brake, in an attemp to regain control, but as I said, three seconds isn't much time.

However, I did manage to save my car from total ahnihilation. Apparently, by sliding the nose to the left, I managed to save the front end. I bounced it off of that brick mailbox.

the steering wheel was tweaked, and the car was handling all squirley. The dude who owned the box didn't seem to give a shit. Asked if my car was okay. I said no, glanced the damage over. his mailbox was pristine. I drove to my Mom's place, only a block or two away (where most acidents occur) and surveyed the damage.

The front fender is nicked around the wheel well, and a small dent is there too, the TRD front suffered a couple gouges and scrapes from the bricks, and the passenger side-marker was shaved (the socket and bulb survived unbelievably.

The front passenger-side rim has a few gouges in it from the bricks, it seems as if I broke a tie-rod end, may be a damaged CV axle, or some other suspension bits. I'm also having them check the tranny.

all in all, the damage was minimal, it's already been towed to the shop. in a week or two, my Celi should be right as rain, and back on the streets.
Insurance covers all repairs, minus my $500 deductable.

also, I noticed as they were putting it on the tow truck, the driver's side tire seemed low on air, I've just had it pached for the 2nd time at the dealership.

All this said, it's interesting to note that I will probably get new rims & tires soon, and am looking into some fiberglass z3 fenders. that way, if the repair is sloppy (or they don't replace my rim like their supposed to) my car will still be fresh.

Well, my tale is done. I hope it will serve two purposes.

1) be careful in winter conditions, it's slippery out there.

and

2) Even the best, cautious and experienced drivers will get into an accident once in a while, some things are unavoidable and out of your control.

Drive safe out there kids

sorry to hear that man hope your life gets better

winter sucks so much blah

its snowing here too...driving is crappy. Good luck with the car

damn. good luck man.

i use toilet paper.

Thanks guys. I'll be sure to post updates...

Also, I have some cash stashed away for some mods, depending on how good a job they do on the celica, I will eiter be starting the build-up, or, if the car never feels the same again (which is doubtful) I may just look for another car.

The insurance company says they will cover the repairs for as long as I own the car, if the workmanship is shoddy, they will pay for repairs again and again until the car is perfect (My insurance agent ROCKS! Just a brief plug, if your insurance company sucks, go with Farmers insurance, They treat me like a king!)

They sent me to ther top-reccommended shop, they supposedly do awesome work, response was fast, it's already at the shop, and I have a rental lined up for pickup tommorrow.

with any luck, my GTS should be like new in no time.

that's a bummer, it's like when you diahrea in your pants during school

good luck

that, I don't think, happens to often

sorry to hear that bro, that sucks big

i'm glad it doesnt ever snow here.

i shit myself once, it was scary as hell, i was on a field trip an there was no where for me to go, sure enuf that morning i had eggs an sausage with cheese an stuff...Bam there it was..most embarassing moment of my life, hey either way hope your car gets better, its good to hear that you are safe tho bro

It was so cold that my lock froze unlocked...So I went to school with my door unlocked.

Today's average was 3 degrees, -8 when I went out this morning to warm my car up...

damn dude i were just dirfting away like that and you tryed everything to stop? fuk you got lucky that it wasnt much worse...good luck

sucks to hear you got into an accident too..
damn the snow and ice!!!!!!!!
but my outcome was much much worse... and i haven't gotten a rental car yet

Shit I hate winter also and here in Finland we must "enjoy" it 6-7 months per year! That's one reason why I won't get a body kit for my car (atleast not that kind of kit which almost hits the ground) because you can't drive with that one during the winter.

I purchased new winter tires month ago (Nokian hakkapeliitta 4) which are good, but still have to drive carefully.

I have a keyless entry and the drivers side door lock switch is sometimes frozen and I have to use passenger side to get in. Then I keep switching central locking switch from the center console for sometime and it works again.

But there is a one good thing in winter: You can have fun for example on a empty parking area at nights where is snow and ice . I did some videocamera work yesterday while I was driving with my wife, but I didn't catch that. Perhaps I will capture some fun and post it to forum

OK, drive safe everyone.

Oh yes, I love parking lots in the winter, they're fun. It's when you're on a small residential street with no place safe to go that it's a problem.

I'm suprised the damage wasn't worse than it turned out to be. I ended up pulling a nascar, bouncing off that bricked up mailbox, and man, did that suck!

Picked up my rental today, I ended up getting a Neon from enterprise rent-a car. insurance covers it; they kept trying to get me to trade up to something else. pay out of pocket for the difference in cost (a taurus! UGH! I used to own a taurus way back when, I hate those things, unless it's a Taurus SHO I want nothing to do with it)

Actually, the neon isn't too bad, it's brand new (4K on the odometer is all) it's a red 4-door, base model. motor is kind of weak compared to the GTS, but is pretty torquey, and has a nice sound to it as well. First time driving one of the new Neons, and it's not all that bad, although it feels kind of cheap.

Still haven't heard from the shop, they're probably still assessing the damage. If I hear nothing from them tommorrow by Noon, I will be calling them for an update.

I have the worst luck when it comes to my Celica, if it's not one thing it's another, but I still love it a lot. Hopefully the folks at Gerber will work their magic and my ride will be as good as it ever was when it's done.

to make matters worse, this is the first accident I've had in years, luckily there were no other cars involved, or any injuries.

Thanks again guys, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on my situation.

What a bummer, sorry to hear about that!

I used to live in downers grove (just east of lisle) and i had an accident like yours, accept i went into a tree (the pics are in my profile) That happend just last december, the celica doesnt run the same as new... I am going to trade up sooner or later... i sucked so bad, it sometimes hurts inside...

Snow falling here all day as well.

i love winter, i love snow, just now for carz!

Sorry to hear about the accident...but very well written post, enjoyed reading it.

CelicaRacer05, My accident wasn't quite as bad as yours, it almost was, but luckily, as I said, I bounced the passenger side off the bricks, my passenger-side front rim took the majority of the force from the accident. I also wasn't going that fast, maybe like, 15 MPH tops. I got lucky.

Heard from the body shop, they will be pulling the small dent in the passenger side fender and refinishing everything, and will be repairing the TRD front (only a couple scrapes and a shaved off side marker. They will be using ABS repair compound to fix the gouges, no cracks or anything, thank goodness1) All in all, bodywork will be mimimal, and the guy was amazed the damage wasn't worse.

I will be getting a new rim on the passenger side front, as well as two new tie rod ends for that wheel, everything else appears to be all good I will be calling them tommorrow to make sure everything else is in good shape (CV joints, suspension, see if the unibody is still straight, etc.) They know I am in the process of building up the car, That I plan on showing it, as well as racing on the weekends. They know what I expect the car to do and look like, so they will be doing everything in their power to make sure everything is 100% when it's done.

The shop will guarantee their work for as long as I own the car, and from what the guy says, the car should be done by next friday

rain 24/7 sucks! here on Guam

Okay guys. I just picked up the celica today, they were already finished, like, a week early (they were saying by this upcoming friday it would be done)

It looks incredible; better than ever! the car handles okay, just like it did before. in fact, probably better (I think it needed an alignment)

So, long story short, you can't even tell it's been bounced off a brick mailbox. Everything seems to work okay, I'll know for sure after I get my oil changed and take it down I-55 for a shakedown run, just to see if it can still run smoothly when at speed. So far, it seems like new again.

Thanks again everyone.

BTW, the damage would've cost just under $1600 to fix, less than I thought initially (I was thinking about 2K in damages). Deductable was $500, so all in all, I saved a little over a grand, thanks to my insurance company