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A nice winter project and a learning/teaching experience for you and your son. Hopefully you have a garage! Post photos and show us what damage you have to address and how you address it.
I have it in the garage with heat so we are good there. It took me awhile to appreciate this opportunity but yes I am looking forward to a few saturday mornings working on it. We worked on it this morning for the first time finally. Got a lot of the damaged parts off and now doing some research. I can finally see the damage a little clearer now. This forum is great so far. I am going to start scrolling through the instructional sections on here.
Fastsuv- I finally got to work on it this morning with my two sons. We were discussing possible ideas to get that support back square short of using a sledge hammer or big pipe wrench and muscle. We discussed a chain pulling it with a tractor but I can see it sliding like you mentioned. Slack idea with a jerk makes sense. I hadn't thought about the measurment to the hood bumper. I was thinking to the center hood latch but that's where it caved in at. I'll measure the hood bumpers and see where they are at. Thanks for the input.
It took quite a hit, but the windshield isn’t broken, air bags didn’t deploy, just a matter of straightening up the rad support , a chain from one side to a tree and the other side to the tractor and gently pulling, until it looks good!
if that’s a no go, a 10 ton Porta Power kit makes a nice gift!
chain the back of the hhr to something heavy to hold it in place then use your fork lift in front to hold a come along too use that for pulling force , cut a piece of 2x4 maybe 12inch long so u can put it on the back side of the core support for the hood latch then wrap a tow strapthe support and the 2x4 it will keep it from caving in , hook the cable end of the come along too the strap and pull use a big hammer to help work out the bends good luck iv done a lot of those make sure to pull the air bag sensor on the support , dave
make sure u get the part num off the abs brain thats gone be fun to find lmk i may have one ,
the no start is from the abs brain damage fix that and it will start ,
Quick update on where I am with my rebuild. There was a lot more here than I originally thought but I did learn a lot (still learning) I got it started and driving down the street finally. I replaced the following from my donor vehicles. Hood. Radiator. AC Condensor. Hood latch. All of the radiator surround piece. The electric fan in front of the radiator. Drivers fender and headlight assembly. All of the front inner plastic wheel covers both sides. Bumper cover (donor has fog lights which I had no wiring for mine. I plan on hooking them up at some point) Passenger side steering knuckle. Passenger side CV axle. AC sensor and wiring. Passenger side brake hose. Both front seatbelts as both of them had discharged the explosives and locked them in place. (which I thought was strange because my son was alone when he hit the deer and the passenger seatbelt locked up too.) Passenger lower control arm (mine was bent). Other things I had to replace without donor. Brake wiring that had broken at the wheel. The intake vaccum connector had broke off right at the surface of the intake. I ended up tapping in a barbed fitting used for hydrolic hoses (it fit snug so...) and clamped the hose to the fitting. Seems to work quite well. I had to also buy a used EBCM because the collisoin with the deer had smashed the circuit board. I replaced all of it including the pump rather than just the circuit board. The car started up right after that fix but the ESC and traction control systems are still offline. I bought new for both sides tie rod ends and control links. My donor car I bought had new front struts as well that were still in the box. The guy hadn't put them on yet so I installed those on both sides. New wheel bearing on passenger side. I ended up using heavy clamps and angle iron to press the top radiator support back into location. I need to tweek the hood down more I think will fix some of the issue with the gaps in my fenders. The hood shuts and locks nicely but it ain't perfect. The camber in my front wheels are pretty bad too. Hoping an alignment will fix that. I need to rebleed the brakes as they are still soft pedaled until the second pump while driving.
Oh the irony. I just noticed this in the photo with my son and wife standing there looking at the car being loaded onto the tow truck, there is a deer crossing sign in the background.
if that’s a no go, a 10 ton Porta Power kit makes a nice gift!
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Yes this would make a nice gift. I ended up using angle iron across the radiator support from corner to corner and using heavy clamps to pull the thing out. And then also down toward the engine cradle. I got it back decent but I do think it needs to go down more after getting the fender and bumper cover on and I'm out of adjustment to get the lines just right.
If the camber is out more than a quarter inch you will need a body pull, at least. An alignment only changes the toe. Less than 1/4 inch you can use a camber kit.
The EBCM needs to be programmed.
Did you replace the SDM (airbag brain), that needs programming too. If the seat belts locked it needs to be dealt with, either new or sent off for refreshing. It is one and done.
How about the front impact sensor? It is a one and done part.
All of those have a part in the ESC/Traction warnings.
Thanks for the input. As far as the camber I haven't measured it yet. I thought about the camber bolts and I guess I have no way to tell if a body pull is required yet until I measure. What about shimming the strut tower at the top? Is that possible? I thought maybe the car hitting the ditch sideways might have pulled the tower bolt position in enough to camber the passenger wheel top toward the engine.
I have heard both ways on the programming of the EBCM but I figured I might have to take it to a shop that can do the airbag/EBCM reprogram at some point. Airbags never deployed but yes the seatbelts were both discharged. I pulled both driver and passenger seatbelts out of the donor and installed them into mine. These were not in a wreck and they look identical other than the donor is from an 07 and the passenger side has three wires hooked to the belt at the far end from the retractor (bolts near the floor next to the seat). Mine is an 11 and did not have those wires on the passenger side. I was able to get it unplugged from the unit and reused the plug portion. My plug was wrecked but the wiring was still intact so my thought was it would all be good once I get the airbag stuff reset in terms of the safety seatbelt airbag portion.
The body determines the camber and caster. I don't think shimming is an option; sounds really unsafe.
I know for a fact the SDM needs programming, the Book says the EBCM needs it, no personal experience.
Technically, you are not supposed to use seatbelts not specifically made for the year/model. Do what you want, you are on your own doing mods to the SRS because it is probably not "legal".
There are people that can reprogram or sell a programmed EBCM and SDM, check on ebay.
Thanks again for the input. I did buy the used ECBM on ebay and the seller said "may or may not need programmed" so I was aware of that. From the same year 2011. It didn not start (no turn over at the key start, no electronics anywhere dash, lights) until I installed the used ECBM. Now it starts, drives and brakes. I'll probably have it programmed to clear up the system. The dash message is telling me that the ESC system is turned off. No abs. No airbag. No traction control. No actual codes with a reader though other than an evap system code.
I guess the used seatbelts I robbed from my donor are what they are. They work and catch normally when you jerk it fast and I have to trust that the circuit will set off the charge to pull and lock the belt in the event of a collision same as it would with a rebuilt or new seatbelt. I am planning on getting the airbag system checked and fixed so that it works as it should. Beyond my repair ability. As far as the camber I was guessing that the body is probably twisted in the strut mount is why I thought about the shim. It doesn't look bent or twisted visually but it did take a hit when the ditch broke the knuckle. From the skid marks I think he was sliding sideways or angled at least into the ditch. I might just try a washer on one of the bolts between the strut and the mount hole to see if I can get the camber in a better position if the camber bolts don't bring it to zero. It runs up and down the road straight and no vibration at 60mph.
01-15-2022, 10:32 AM
