My girlfriend destroyed her '05 Hyundai Elantra this morning. You may have seen her on 190…
She didn’t have collision coverage. The car had 70k, wasn’t a WNY car (almost no rust) and was in great shape. I want her to continue driving it because we’re a bit tight on cash right now.
I’m not a body guy but I’m putting it back together. I’ve removed all of the damaged panels. The front subframe and body (frame rails, lower rad. support, etc) don’t show signs of damage. The airbags didn’t deploy. The sheet metal in the front right corner of the car is mangled, but the upper rad support has been unbolted and removed. Mechanically it doesn’t need much. Except…
There are 3 transmission mounts and the pass. side motor mount. The cast part that attaches the motor mount to the engine broke when the engine was pushed backward.
There is some ATF seepage near the rear transmission mount. Looks to be a hairline crack. It’s right under the car and probably pretty easy to get to if it’s on a lift. Can this be welded relatively easily? Is there anybody locally who would want to do it? And can it be done without removing the fluid (It was just flushed with the expensive Hyundai diamond ATF that is required)?
Is the frame straight? i would think that if the impact went as far to break the case that the frame tweaked and this was the point which broke but could be wrong. sounds liek this thing is totalled.
What frame? You mean the unibody? Again I’m not a body guy but I have it apart and can’t find damage. The damage was more up top because the front end dove when she slammed on the brakes. The hood and radiator were crushed up against the engine.
lots of the time you can’t see frame or unibody damage, even if its pushed or bent a 1/4 or a 1/2 inch it may not be easily visible unless you have a machine or tool to measure the specs.
Sure, but my thinking is that it won’t matter since its an economy car. She’s just going to drive it into the ground. Why spend a couple thousand on another car when we can keep keep it going for less than $200 in parts.
The crack in the transmission case is my biggest concern. Maybe I’m wrong?
i understand the whole saving money thing, but you dont want your girl driving around in an unsafe car, if the frames tweaked it compromises the strutual integrity of the car, it could end up dog tracking (going down the road crooked) real bad and if she does end up in another accident the frame could fold quite easy from the previous bend in it. pulling the tranny all apart to have it welded somewhere like dons welding is going to be kinda expensive too, you might want to put it up for sale and see what you can get and chalk it up as a loss, or hope for the best and get it back together. im just that guy thats always worried about stupid drivers smashing into my girlfriend or her smashing into someone else so i always made sure her car was perfect lol
^ This. Just the headlights alone will probably put you close to $200. By the time you buy all those body panels, put even a shitty paint job on and pay someone to weld up that trans you’re going to be into this thing for enough money to make a year maybe 2 of lease payments.
I’m not going to get into what you “should or should not” do.
If you want to have the case welded (possible) any good welder will want the trans out and disassembled so they can properly grind out (maybe even both sides) and clean out the crack so they can get a proper weld in that area. At that point it MIGHT be cheaper to replace the trans. Check your local you-pull-it. A good welder is generally not cheap, and then throw aluminum on top of that (a little harder to weld). I would not be suprised if the welding charge starts at $200.
If you really need to stretch the life of the car, clean the crack REALLY good, JB weld it and watch your fluid level (check at least weekly). But know that its NOT a perminate fix and it will need to be replaced at some point.
Guys. There is an identical car at M&M with a decent front end. Same color. Take a look at their price list. Around $200.
The transmission is a separate issue. That will definitely up the cost.
The car won’t look perfect but unless someone can convince me that its unsafe it doesnt look to be a bad idea.
She’s barely employed and she crashed her car that she didn’t keep coverage on. She can live with an imperfect car for a few years. And keep in mind that she will do this again. I’m pretty confident that when I take it for a 4 wheel alignment they will tell me that it was really close to being in spec before the alignment (its never been in for an alignment).
---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:10 PM ----------
Just saw the above response. Thanks, thats kind of what I figured. People seem to have a lot of trouble with these particular slushboxes, so I’m thinking of swapping to a manual trans. All the parts will total less than $200 at M&M bringing the grand total to $400 and a few days work.[COLOR=“Silver”]
I’m betting you’ll get it all back together and find that it is tracking funny, if the unibody is damaged you are SOL.
That said, the cheapest and easiest way to “fix” the transmission would be to do the following:
Drain trans of all fluid, let it sit for at least 2 hours
take a grinder along the hairline crack and make a V along it, don’t go too deep just enough to get a lot of surface area
Jb weld it and let it sit for AT LEAST 24 hours
I used JB weld on the pressure side of my power steering pump when it blew out from a shitty casting… been 6 months with no problems. Just make sure you get it very clean before you apply it, and do not refill the tranny until it has dried for 24 hours MINIMUM
or just go lease a car for 99 a month …its 99 dollars for fucks sake and the new car will have a warranty…what happens if this car breaks down then what your dumping money into a pile.
it went from “I need to do this as cheap as possible she has no money” to “hey i think im gonna swap a manual trans in here too” your 600-700 into fixing this thing, that’s 7 $99 dollar lease payments!