Jeep Liberty 1 - Toyota Camry 0

rickm · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:59 am

I'm driving along Main St in our town today, doing about 30 mph, when I hear my son say "oh s****"... suddenly, there is a car in front of me.. no way I could have missed it, so I slammed into the left side of the car.. almost a good t-bone, but more towards the front of the car.

I'm sitting there in a daze, and I look and this woman that I hit starts backing her car up.. I was like WTF?

So I put my car in park, get out and go over and this big woman gets out of this newer model Toyota Camry. When I say big woman, I mean BIG woman... I'm guessing she weighed about 400 lbs. I ask if she's ok, and she starts telling me that I was not paying attention to where I was going and that I should have not hit her. Huh? So I say " well, excuse me, but I was driving down the street, you pulled out of this parking lot in front of me, I believe I had the right of way". Then she tells me that she could not see around this truck, and points to a truck that was parked on the street next to the parking lot exit. Then she starts telling me again that I was not paying attention to where I was going. So I say "well, I surely hope you at least have insurance' So she starts rummaging around in her car.

I ask my son to call the police, then I see all this stuff laying on the street in front of my Liberty... and I'm about to freak out. There was glass, plastic, metal, broken pieces of mirrors, complete (broken) headlight assemblies, complete (broken) turn signal assemblies, all kinds of debri laying in front of my Liberty.. and I'm starting to freak out... but my brain isn't working...

I'm looking at all that crap laying in the road and looking at my Liberty and my brain just isn't putting things together..... I'm seeing turn signal assemblies laying on the stree, but I don't see any missing on my Jeep. My poor brain just wasn't registering what had happened.

Then my son sees me freaking out, walks over and says "Dad, all that stuff came off the other car" and he points to the Toyota. I was all WHEW!

That poor Toyota took a beating. My Liberty just took a few scrapes, nicks, and dings on the front bumper. I'm sure the front tow hooks had a lot to do with keeping the KK from getting more damage.

So.. add to the score.. KK 1 - Toyota 0

MtnLuvr · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:36 am

Glad to hear everyone was ok. Your posting is a well-written read. It seems pretty much anyone on LOST who has had the misfortune of their KK being in an accident with another vehicle, that the KK always holds up really well.

wecwbe · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:40 am

Glad everyone is okay. So I guess from her point of view, it must be your fault because you weren't expecting an idiot to come flying out onto the street without being able to see where they were going. What a bonehead! Some people think anything they do is okay and anything that goes wrong must be someone else's fault. :banghead:

Glad to hear the KK won... it sounds like your damage is pretty minor.

jeepdaddy · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:31 am

Maybe her gas petal stuck :mrgreen:

DirtyKK · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:28 am

Why do we not have a sticky kill thread yet :twisted:

rickm · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:46 pm

jeepdaddy wrote:

Maybe her gas petal stuck :mrgreen:

ha ha... I should have asked her that

Jeepin_it_real · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:55 pm

any pictures of the accident?

rickm · **Posted:** Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:39 pm

Jeepin_it_real wrote:

any pictures of the accident?

unfortunately, no pictures.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:45 am

Glad your KK is alright!!!

Scar0 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:35 am

Ouch, That sucks, and to think she tried to blame you. :dizzy:

Glad everyone is OK. That is the most important part.

STINGN · **Posted:** Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:49 am

seems like the KK's are more prone to getting hit than the KJ's

Jeepin_it_real · **Posted:** Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:14 am

STINGN wrote:

seems like the KK's are more prone to getting hit than the KJ's

that's cause people are courteous to female drivers and when they see the kj ( soccer mom/ chick mobile) they give em the right away

rickm · **Posted:** Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:52 pm

So I went over yesterday and got an estimate. $704, but the guy says he needs to check behind the bumper.

I don't know if any of you guys are military or retired military and have USAA insurance, but those are the friendliest, most respectful, helpful people that I've ever talked to in my life. My daughter turned me on to them, and they are great. They called me twice to set up an estimate, set up getting the Jeep repaired, and arranging for a rental while it's being fixed.

Anyway, today, I'm driving around town and it seems like the engine isn't idling properly. Then it starts really idling rough, running rough. Then all of a sudden, the engine light comes on. I stopped and restarted the engine. Then it came on, and flashed for a bit, then stayed on solid.

I went to the Dodge dealer. They put their computer on it, and said number 3 cylinder is miss firing. Anyone know which side number 3 cylinder is on?

I'm wondering if something got shaken up during the accident, I hit that lady pretty hard, the right side of the Jeep took most of the impact.

Any ideas? The dealer got me a rental and kept it overnight. Looks like I'll be using some more of that lifetime bumper to bumper warranty.

rickm · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:17 am

Ok, this turned out to be a spark plug. The dealer said it was fouled, then later said it was arcing... WTF? I put in a set of E3 plugs about 17,000 miles ago. They've been running perfectly, until yesterday. And the dealer charged an outrageous amount of money to install a new set of plugs. I don't get it.. how can a plug that looks pretty much like the others be bad? And why would it last 17,000 miles, then go bad? I'm not so sure I'm buying all this... but they did put in new plugs, and it does run just fine now..

I wen't to a couple of auto parts stores and asked if they had a spark plug tester... they had no idea what I was talking about. I wonder if I could send the offending plug back to E3 for testing?

DirtyKK · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:21 am

E3s are notorious for not actually being that good of a plug. ive read about alot of fouling and sparking E3s...

Jeepin_it_real · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:23 am

i've actually head that too.. which is why when i change plugs i'm going to NGK Iridiums

rickm · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2010 5:44 pm

well, I could see it if the plug was fouled, but it looked very much like the other 5 plugs, maybe just a tiny bit more carbon on it, but hard to tell. The dealer at first told me it was fouled, so I asked him how it could be fouled and the others not. I specificially asked him about an injector. He said that "the injector flow tested good", whatever all that means. Is there some way to test injector flow?

I asked the guy to save the plugs for me and mark the #3 plug. When I picked up the car, he gave me the plugs and showed me the one that was supposed to be #3. Like I said, it was hard to tell it from the others. When I said it didn't look too fouled, he said it was arcing....

So the bottom line is.. they charged me $279 for a set of plugs! WTF? I realize maybe they get $100 per hour labor.. which is BS, but there's this $149 diagnostic fee that they charge also. The plugs were only $8 dollars and some change, so they weren't that expensive.

I went to every parts store in the area yesterday looking for a spark plug tester.. nobody even knew what I was talking about.

I sent E3 a message via their web page, but I doubt they will contact me about the plugs..

coldkj · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:04 pm

Did the 400 pounder look like she could mover her neck to see? Sometimes those big'uns can't move their head so well. Unless there's food involved. Not helpful I know, but I was just curious.

jeepetorp · **Posted:** Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:31 am

Well. Sometimes it´s extra nice to ride a Jeep. I ran my KJ front...

... in the rear end of a Ford Mondeo.
My winch klimbed over the trailer hook, and smashed the bumper. Not a single scratch on my Jeep, but no more bumper on the Ford.
The Ford driver just looked on my winch, smiled an drove away. :shock:

It was absolutley my fault, so I don´t complain that he left the scene...

Maybe he was drunk, or just had stolen the Ford. "Frankly, my dear. I don´t give a darn."

rickm · **Posted:** Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:52 am

just as I suspected, no reply at all from E3. :evil:

Jeep Liberty 1 - Toyota Camry 0

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