Hey everyone,

I recently rear ended a small CRV in my financee's 2000 Neon and at first I figured it was probably just done, but what happened was the neon's bumper slid under the CRV's bumper which caused the CRV's to push the Neon's hood in and buckle the hood while destroying the radiator/shroud as well as the power steering res is done as well that I can see.

I plan on taking everything apart tonight to see what needs to be replaced and if there is any frame damage but it appears we got pretty lucky. One thing that did happen was after we got the hood off, I had to drive it up our street (from where the tow truck left it) and into the garage. I got the car going and just moved as quickly as possible as I didnt want to run it too long in the condition.

Few things that was happening. Obviously power steering was gone. Second, brakes seemed VERY tight and hard to depress. Not sure what could have caused that on the front end. Also, as I was driving it into the garage the neon was pulsing quite a bit, like a jerking motion so I really had to hit the brakes in order not to go through my home office :S. I assume there is some sort of leak now but if there are things I should be checking as I get the front end apart tonight, that would be super helpful!

Thanks!

 

Sounds like a vacuum line popped off the brake booster, causing it to have no power brakes and run rough.

 

I'll have to take a look at that tonight. I got everything apart last night, took 3 hours, most of the work was trying to bend stuff out of the way to get to the rad and shroud :S.

Looks like the following needs to be replaced.
Rad
Shroud
Had an AC condenser in the front, but probably not going to do that again and find a way to have a replacement pulley there or something.
Air filter box is done
One headlight
Power steering pump (just the res cracked and part of the pulley, but it's easier to get the whole pump than to get the two parts.
Intake manifold got a huge hole in it which I think may have been causing the jerking as I was driving it into the garage.

Needless to say, lots of stuff broken but I think it's doable. Haven't done a project like this before so we shall see! Picknpull said they would give me 220 for it so might as well keep it and try right? haha

Thanks for the info, I will need to look up a diagram for the brake booster.

Cheers

 

Decided to try and post a few pics.

 

Your upper torque strut is cracked. I'm sure the lower torque strut too.
You need to check on the engine mount as well.
4 wheels alignment after everything is done.

Add the total cost, and then decide if you want to keep this car or not.
You will need to pull a lot of things from the car junkyard.

 

That is QUITE the project. I think cost of repairs may exceed value of vehicle in this scenario..

 

Not sure what the upper torque strut is? Is it that bar that runs across in the pictures that the headlight assemblies bolt into and the hood latch is attached to? I was going to remove that and replace but it's welded on either end. It's not cracked, just bent to hell right now. Everything below the bumper is fine, no damage lower than the grill after we checked it out.

As for parts. I have priced out everything at picknpull and it will be roughly 200ish dollars. I considered scrapping the car but the scenario I'm in is kinda crappy at the moment. While we still have my Acura to drive, getting around our city with only one car is a huge pain in the rear and my fiancee is finishing up her masters and won't start working till May. So really, we just want to get this car running and safe and make it last about 6-8 more months. After that we can actually afford to get something else.

So my options are:
1. Spend the 200ish dollars on parts, fix it, see if it tracks straight (when I drove it up the hill there was no obvious pull to either side) and just keep it going till may or so.
2. Scrap it and sell it to pick and pull for 220 dollars and then change the tires on it as the winter tires are worth about 300 so maybe get 500 for it but be down one car for the next 7ish months.
3. Don't really know of a third option.

I always thought if this thing got into an accident I would be done with it, but I've grown fond of the little thing. That plus I just bought 2 new sets of tires over the past year (summer and winters) and did the timing belt and water pump in July :S

 

It's not too bad from the pics, did the exhaust get tweaked any? I mean is it's hanging down low, if so add full set of motor mounts to the list.

Other then junkyard yard parts & your time it's pretty easy to fix, esp if there is 0 car payments

& if you do it yourself you can keep this accident off the carfax reporting for when you trade-in/sell later down the road

 

So other than the crack in the intake manifold that you can see in the pics, I dont think the engine took too much damage.

Haha I think if I go to sell it it will be very very obvious that it was fixed. Few things that I can see being dead giveaways. 1. If I can't find an exact colour hood, (which I dont care about the colour), then it might be clear. Plus that cross bar that the headlights is attached to, I can't get it off so I am just going to have to bend it back as much as possible so that will be pretty clear there was some damage. Overall if someone wants to buy it in 7 months time, I will tell them the truth and if they offer me the picknpull price plus what I want for the two sets of tires, I will be happy. My fiancee got this car as her first car 5 years ago for like 3k and her dad paid for it. I have put maybe 1500-2000 into the car in the past 3 years. Pretty decent ROI if you ask me, a new car can't beat that! haha

 

He still has to pay for the damages done to the other car.
Only if he is planning to spend out of his pocket, he did has to call the police, and his insurance company. It will be on the carfax report of course.
It's not on the carfax report if he bring his car to a shop.

I wouldn't be worrying about this car being salvaged title. You just drive it for a few more years, and then you crap it.
You make mistake, you just have to pay for it.