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HELP!!! Car scraped on gravel and now have terrible noise!!!!!!

Old Sep 5, 2003 | 08:54 PM
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HELP!!! Car scraped on gravel and now have terrible noise!!!!!!

Well, I got my first taste of a real lowered scraping. I was turning around in this person's driveway with 4 other people in my car. There was a steep hump, and when backing out, I heard this TERRIBLE scraping noise.....it sounded like ****. So when I try to get the car going from a stop now, I hear this grinding/clunking/rattling noise. My passenger in the rear passenger side said he felt the clunking under him when ever I started from a stop. The noise is worse when I'm turning from a stop, but isn't apparent when going a normal speed.

Performance isn't affected as far is I can tell, but when going a slow speed, the car just doesn't feel "smooth". My hope is that I got some gravel stuck somewhere under the car. It was too dark for me to check for anything under the car. In the morning I'll check for leaks under the car. What should I look for? Thanks guys.
Old Sep 5, 2003 | 09:34 PM
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I bet you that you bent the cross member that the engine mounts are connected to and you bent it up and not it is touching the tranny/engine bottom. Get underneath and see how much room is under there right now. Bet you barely a creditcard can be squeezed in there.

Dixit
Old Sep 6, 2003 | 11:18 AM
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Originally Posted by BigDogJonx
I bet you that you bent the cross member that the engine mounts are connected to and you bent it up and not it is touching the tranny/engine bottom. Get underneath and see how much room is under there right now. Bet you barely a creditcard can be squeezed in there.

Dixit
what does the crossmember look like? where is it located? anywhere near the rear passenger side? i forgot to mention that i have level 2 SFCs. could they be messed up? is it safe to drive if the crossmember is actually messed up? is that an expensive thing to repair? sorry for all the questions.....
Old Sep 6, 2003 | 12:36 PM
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Then you need to look at all the SFCs and its cross braces. The engine cross member is smack dad in the middle of the engine bay when you look underneath from the front. It splits basically the passenger and driver side in half.

Dixit
Old Sep 7, 2003 | 11:08 AM
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anybody else have ideas?
Old Sep 7, 2003 | 02:45 PM
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Did you check the things first?
Old Sep 9, 2003 | 08:41 AM
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I jacked up the car yesterday, and didn't see anything crazy or leaking. However, I'm not the most skilled mechanic type person, so I hope to take it to a mechanic today.
Old Sep 9, 2003 | 08:54 AM
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Dixit, he said he was talking about the rear passenger, no cross member/tranny issues there...

My bet is that you bottomed the strut out with all those people sitting in the car and then with all the extra strain of the steep bump you blew the strut or the strut purch itself.

What kind of struts do you have? You should fully inspect it and see if any fluid has leaked out the bottom (feel the bottom of the strut or the sleeve) and see if the purch is in the proper space. You could also push up and down on the trunk lid to bounce the car and see if it makes the noise then. If none of that is an issue then I would say it has something to do with your exhaust hitting the rear beam or something around that area. If you visually can't see anything wrong, take it to a mechanic but make sure you don't tell them you have no idea what it is, or you will be raped with charges.
Old Sep 9, 2003 | 11:02 AM
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Well he did say he has SFC and those have to large members running on each side of the car as well as cross braces between them. Check the room on those cross braces.

Dixit
Old Sep 9, 2003 | 12:23 PM
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Originally Posted by thebigsadler
Dixit, he said he was talking about the rear passenger, no cross member/tranny issues there...

My bet is that you bottomed the strut out with all those people sitting in the car and then with all the extra strain of the steep bump you blew the strut or the strut purch itself.

What kind of struts do you have? You should fully inspect it and see if any fluid has leaked out the bottom (feel the bottom of the strut or the sleeve) and see if the purch is in the proper space. You could also push up and down on the trunk lid to bounce the car and see if it makes the noise then. If none of that is an issue then I would say it has something to do with your exhaust hitting the rear beam or something around that area. If you visually can't see anything wrong, take it to a mechanic but make sure you don't tell them you have no idea what it is, or you will be raped with charges.
I have 2 month old Kyb Agx shock set on 2/4. I do have a rattling sound coming from the rear suspension, but that was there before all this. I think its just a bolt that came loose. I looked under the car, and as far as I could tell the exhaust "looked" fine....but what do I know. I'll go check the struts now I guess. And yea, I get the feeling I'm about to get reamed with charges.... When I take it to the mechanic, what should I tell them to look for? I'm pretty lost here.
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