Poke Runner

There are times in your life when you do something stupid. I had one of those moments last night.

If there is anyone out there that has done something similar to this, please let me know.

Last night I went to this comedy club. The parking lot is terraced in a couple of sections and I was parked on one of the upper levels. It’s about a 2 foot drop I think.

I’m sure everyone knows where this story is heading.

When I left, I didn’t realize that I was parked overlooking the lower section of the parking lot, put my car in 1st gear, went forward and drove over the 3 to 4 inch curb and my front tires ended up on the lower part of the parking lot.

There was obviously a loud bang when I landed on the lower portion of the parking lot.

So here is what my Runner looked like. I didn’t have my digital camera with me last night, otherwise there would be some good pics posted.

The Runner was pinned right behind the front wheel well. The running boards are jacked. I looked underneath and no fluids were leaking. I couldn’t see what was damaged.

After a flat bed tow truck came and did a great job of getting my Runner out, I thought I would be able to drive home. I put my car in first, got about 4 feet and there was a terrible grinding noise coming from my vehicle. I left my Runner there last night and got a ride home. I am going back up to the parking lot today at lunch to check out the damage with a coworker who knows a lot about Toyotas.

So, are there any ideas on what I did to my Runner? Cost estimates?

At this point if the cost to repair is too high, I might file an insurance claim since it was one vehicle accident.

Here is a sketch on what my Runner looked like.

Glenn

Sounds like driveline carnage. Keep us posted as to what you find.

kford

sounds like your driveshaft. Look up higher, behind the steering components. right behind the transmission.

toyota2

Looks more like a hummer. Anyway the same thing just happended to my mom but she has a crv. She was able to drive hers though but it ended up needing a new drive shaft and cataletic(sp?) converter. I cant imagin you not being able to drive it, if a crv can take a hit like that a runner should also.
good luck and I hope it is nothing major.

X-AWDriver

Yeah,you better get that looked at;it's also obvious your driving and drawing go hand in hand.

Spectre

I thought you drove a 4runner? That picture is clearly of a H2....care to explain????

Dude..I almost did that before..and cought myself. I wish you the best of luck and I hope it will not be BIG$$$$$$$$

KevyWevy

i don't know what your guys' problem is, but i kinda liked the drawing!!!! i hope it isn't anything major, but im sure that you'll easily be able to see exactly what it is just by crawling under it.

va97runner

Great drawing! I needed a good laugh.

I've done something sorta like that, but not in my 4Runner. In my old Accord, I drove over one of those concrete parking curb thingies. No damage, but it was definitely an "oh sh#$t" moment.

Hope everything works out.

lee

what i dont get is... why were you driving FORWARD OVER A CURB??

that makes no sense.

good luck, anyway!

ugadawg95

i like that antenna!!!

4RUNR

The bottom of the d$i$f$f$e$r$e$n$t$i$a$l? I thought thats the only thing sticking out past the frame rails.

cubuff4runner

Should of had rocksliders

Cebby

And a beefy bellypan.

Nice H2, BTW. My 5 year old draws like that.

runnerboy97

i would guess that the back edge of the skid, where it hangs out a little bent up and is hitting the tierods/steering rack and/or the front drive shaft. oh yeah and nice drawing, looks like you a CB by the antenns you pictured.

PoBoy

Id like to see some of ya'lls drawings. That one is pretty damn good IMOP. WHenever I try to draw a 4Runner...comes out looking like a station wagon.

rimpainter.com

Driveline damage that far forward on impact? Well I guess it could have flexed everything enough to take it out of commission. Seems like the shaft is pretty far back…

Let me ask you a question…

Without knowing exactly what the parking lot looks like, is there any chance that the Property owner of the lot is liable? It sounds like you admit you did something stupid, but could this have been a hazard that should have been marked?

By no means am I an advocate of suing or anything, but if this could have been avoided, and the property owner was negligent, maybe their insurance would cover it? Just a thought…

Poke Runner

Ok, I failed art growing up. And I also failed basic navigation of a parking lot in driving school.

I just got back from looking at it with my coworker and we crawled under to see if there was any noticeable damage.

The running boards are jacked. But those are lame anyways, I dont know why I have had those things for this long anyways.

There were some scratches on, I guess it would be some kind of torque converter or transfer case. The machinery that is right after the transmission and before the U-joint. My coworker ran his finger across it and it scratched him. So hopefully it is just the housing and no internal damage.

The rear drive shaft turned well. I turned on the motor and was able to shift freely and nothing weird happened. I went forward and reverse a very short distance and it seemed normal.

As far as the grinding noise goes, my theory on that is the running boards were touching the tires. It looked like there was some tire residue on the end of the running board.

Hopefully nothing is wrong and it was just the running boards hitting the tires.

There just happens to be a Honda/Acura/Toyota repair shop in the shopping center. I went and told them what happened and the worker told me that happens all the time in that parking lot. Especially where I told him I was parked. Apparently I am not the first and will not be the last person to do this.

I am going to contact the owner of the shopping center and tell them that they need some kind of hazard sign put up. Especially if this happens a lot.

Thanks for reading my novel. Thanks for the tips as well. I'll try to have more drawings in my future posts.

lee

so far that sounds like pretty damn good news.

Pretacopower

Dont worry....we all make stupid mistakes.
Like the time I put my truck in reverse going 20 mph :pat:

kford

Great news! Yeah my running boards probably look the same as yours, only mine are just from stupid off roading so don't feel bad. They're lame anyways. I took mine off and I couldnt' sell them either because of the damage so you're not the only one. It's probably good that they were on though as they seemed to absorb a lot of the impact. Oh well, good luck.