I Hit A Deer

[nc211]

I posted this over on the 4runner forum as well, but judging by the lack of responses I get over there, I thought I'd post it up here to, for my Lexus amigos ;)

I hit a deer this morning in my 05 4runner. I was able to slow down to probably around 15 mph when I clipped his butt with the passenger side front bumper. He cracked the square section of the lower bumper cover "#25 in the attached photo", just to the right of the fog lights. My question regards the replacement of parts to fix it. The car drives fine, and I can buy the lower cover for $85 bucks.

1) Do these bumpers come painted already to match? Mine is dark blue.

2) Are there usually other parts underneath that get damaged, but don't show, like energy pads or crumple pieces? If so, can you please tell me via the numbers in the attachment?

Everything lines up fine, the lights even work.

Thanks guys & gals!

Oh, the deer? He got up and took off, although I'm sure his butt is quite sore. He must of been suicidal because I was the only one on the road, and he jumped right out in front of me at the very last second. I can confirm, the 4runner can STOP pretty damn good! I was going 60mph, and STOOD on those brakes. ABS kicked in and it came to a stop in no time.

[RX in NC]

Glad you were in the truck instead of the Mazda. Although you probably would have had a better chance of completely missing the deer if you had been in the Mazda. About 10 years ago when my daughter was driving her old Honda CRX, a deer jumped completely over the hood of her car and scared her to death. She thought she hit the deer because there was "blood" all over her windshield. She drove home and I went outside to have a look at her car while she was still shaking at the kitchen table. The "blood" turned out to be deer !Removed!. My daughter wasn't the only creature involved who was scared sh*tless. We still joke about that today - no harm came to either her or the critter, and she knows she was lucky....

I doubt if your new bumper will arrive already painted to match - you'll probably have to get it painted.

And yes, there may be other parts damaged underneath - you won't know until you pull the bumper and have a look. If your impact was indeed no more than 15 mph, you may get lucky here.

Glad to learn that your encounter was relatively minor. Deer crashes can be devastating as you well know....

[SW03ES]

No, the bumper will come unpainted, it'll have to be primed and painted.

The truck is new enough, IMHO its worth it to take it to a body shop to be repaired. You'll be sure its done right, and you'll be sure to maintain the vehicle's value.

That repair will cost you $500.

[nc211]

I don't know if I would of missed him or not in the Mazda, but you're right RX, it was luck that I was in the 4runner, as that Mazda would of taken a pretty severe hit. I was on Green Level Road heading towards 751. You know, when you come to High House Road and 55, if you turn west, it'll take you to 751 along Green Level. With the Toll Brothers new residential development going on back there, the deer are all over the place, at all hours of the day. Gotta' watch it! I saw a pack of about 10 yesterday hop across the road, in broad day light. We've even got them in our yard at home, which is in the middle of a subdivision. I know they're there, because the cats all puff up like balloons and start creeeping around like they're constipated.

SWO, I called the dealership, and you're right, it's not painted. With the wife at home now fulltime, the baby due in a month, the economy in the can, and my acceptance that the 4runner is probably going to be a diaper haulin', spit up catchin', suburban buggy for the next few years, I'm not too concerned about it's visual condition as much as I was with the LS. If the internal components look ok, I'm gonna try and buy the part online for the $85 bucks "$215 quoted via dealer", and take it by a body shop with a $100 bill attached and see if they'll paint it. Honestly, it's just a couple little squares that need the paint, the rest is just black plastic. Granted, this is all conditional on the downloaded manual I pulled down a few months ago, and my ability to remove the part. If it's too difficult, or more damage is underneath, then I'll just hand it over to the body shop in general. From what I heard over on the 4runner site, that piece appears to be nothing more than visual aid, with no real support behind it. I don't know about that though, as it sure sounded like I smacked the hell out of Bambi's butt. Hope it's ok, sure looked stunned running away. Why on earth it decided to leap out into the road at that moment is beyond me. I was the only car out there.

[RFeldes]

That Deer will cost you a few "Bucks" :whistles:

[nc211]

That Deer will cost you a few "Bucks" :whistles:

Oh man, now that's just bad, in a good way ...

No skin off my back though...

[SW03ES]

Deer are weird, completely unpredictable...

lol RF

[nc211]

I guess...geezzz. I've seen crack-heads make better decisions than that.

[jcrome04]

Glad to hear everything is basically ok NC. could have been a lot worse though thank God!

[nc211]

Thanks jcrome B) !

It appears my bumper is actually a one piece, not a two, so my part price has jumped a bit. after looking behind it tonight, it doesn't look too bad, nothing crumpled up, but a large plastic block was knocked loose, and fell out onto the driveway. I believe it's #2 in the diagram. it's a little loose though. Gonna call my insurance guy in the morning and get his opinion on who to take it to. I've heard that sometimes accidents like this waive the deductible, as it's really a no-fault situation. Can't really blame me for a friggin' dear flying out of the bush at me. We'll see.....oh just what I needed...:cries:

One question though, would something like this show up on car fax? no police report or anything, just a possible insurance claim... I can't remember if it would. My insurance company is USAA.

[RFeldes]

Deer have insurance too....USDA...

[nc211]

Ralph, you got the cat's litter box too close to the air vents in your house again? Man, you gotta' get off that stuff! Hahaha...

Called insurance, and with a $250 deductible, the repair shop is going to fix it. Since it's a no-fault accident, my rates won't be adjusted. So, figured what the heck, would cost me at least that to get just the parts anyway. Let them do it!

[blake918]

That Deer will cost you a few "Bucks" :whistles:

LOL Or, it might cost a lot of "doe!" haha

Rob, I hope they get your car fixed up good as new! I had some body work done a few years back, and it amazed me by how well they color matched the existing paint. I had a deer run out in front of me while I was barreling down the interstate a few years back; luckily, my horn scared it off. It did take about 10 minutes for my heart to stop fibrillating though! LOL That would have been one hell of a mess if I had hit it.