Hit Racoon, Grill Problem?
 

Welp, I hit an animal for the first time EVER in a car.

I was doing 27-30mph around a turn, and this little bastard jumped out literally at the last half second, giving me no time to react and, well, I just plowed his ass like the prom queen on prom night.

Saw a flash of him, then a bang, then some more weird noises. Then silence.

Then all of a sudden I hear the delicious sound of bones and other things being thrashed around and torn in and out of my wheel well, or under my car, or something...

Then a loud thud and I feel a sigh of relief from my car. Then my rear wheel runs whatever is left of him over.

Although, when I did get out of the car...he wasn't there! That's besides the point.


When I got out to check the damage, it appeared he just pretty much blew through my front grill, knocking every clip off, breaking one, and pissing on my car.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8241/8...c2a68477_z.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8256/8...5717b3a7_z.jpg

Welp, I went to where I was going, and plugged all the tabs back in. (God that's a bitch.) But something is still off, those top tabs. I don't ever remember it looking like that, so I don't think it's right.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8...565fff0d_z.jpg

Do you guys know how to move/pop in those tabs? They wouldn't budge. Thanks!

And RIP.

lol cool story, take out the bumper and see the damage

Crazy. Should probably put it up in the air and make sure it didn't get lodged somewhere underneath since you said it wasn't there anymore. I've seen it happen. Not fun.

X2. Plus the smell of three day deceased raccoon cooking on your exhaust can't be bueno.

-Chuck

I'll check it out tomorrow, haha. I drove ~65 miles right after this happened, so I can't imagine it's still up in there, but I'll check.

I'd say to take off the bumper and manually check for any other issues that could be affected when hitting the racoon. If not just push the grill in and resnap it from the top to the sides then the bottom

Haha get it checked out.



"well, I just plowed his ass like the prom queen on prom night." LMAO

We had a shipping container with a couple of cars arrive at our facility with a dead rabbit in it. Now imagine that it was sealed for weeks on a boat coming from Germany. We spent a lot of time trying to get rid of the smell. Needless to say, you can still smell it from time to time. lol

What other types of damages should I be looking for?

You should braise it first before grilling; takes away a little of the gamey flavor.

Just check if anything has became cracked, loosen, or broken when you hit the raccoon because it seemed like you're not sure if you hit the raccoon full on with your bumper(or grill) or that it just went under your car and into your wheel wells. In my opinion, there doesn't seem like anything has been damage besides the grill popping off, but its better to check and be safe.

Lol that description of the crunching was terrible.

If you're having grill problems, I feel bad for you son.
I got 99 problems, but a racoon ain't one...