Well I'm pissed!
 

:mad0260:

This will probably seem insignificant to many but I'm pretty pissed after my drive to work today...

I was driving on the freeway going to work this morning and traffic was atrocious as usual...

Coming off one of the exit ramps I ran over something and heard it loudly smack my passenger side wheel well/under carriage. I immediately got nervous hoping I didn't scratch or dent anything since my car is brand new and I baby the shit out of it...

I pull over at the closest gas station and as I'm going up the small ramped entrance I heard a scrrraaaappppeeee loudly on my undercarriage. My car is stock height and the ramp was not that steep so it couldn't have been my actual car. I immidiately feared that part of my front bumper was scraped or something...

As I get out to inspect the damage I notice a 2 foot chunk of wood speared through the little rubber thing by the rear tire (the thing I guess where the mud-guards attach) I know that you don't normally see this part at all and it's a pretty unimportant piece of the vehicle but I'm pissed that the piece of wood shot itself through that little rubber piece.

It was actually lodged halfway into that and into my tire, but did no damage to the tire at all, thankfully.

That's my rant for the day, don't flame me for overracting lol

dude I have seen too many pictures of random sticks and wood piercing that little rubber flap. I would have thought it was like a one in a million thing lol..I guess I will be on the lookout for random debris puncturing that.

I think there may have even been a thread on it, actually.

LOLZ...where are the pics?

We need to start a thread dedicated to pics of this happening.

I'm in search mode now, I know I saw this thread within the last few months. C'mon Google, don't let me down

I win

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45684

Well now, Trmx2, you have just witnessed the purpose of that little rubber piece. Yep, it was placed there to intercept sharp objects heading for the tire. The classic had to be what looked to be a push rod that it trapped.

Yep, one of those little known safety features of our fine cars.

Actually, it's your lucky day ..... that projectile could have speared your tire causing you to crash ..... or worse yet, to puncture the gas tank, causing you to crash and burn..... :bonk:

humfrz - :D

Really?!? I thought it was like a one in a million thing too. As pissed as I was I was like "Well, at least it didn't puncture my tire, or worse my my front end."

Yeah, as insignificant of a piece as it is, I'm still pissed getting a hole in there when the car is barely a month old. :mad0260:

I'm also pretty anal retentive, I might just go to Toyota and say "Hey man, I just noticed there is a hole in here, can you give me a new rubber piece." lol

Will be posting pics later today, it's a pretty small hole, but it bothers me! :mad0260: I was already running late for work when this happened so no time to take pics of it.

I figured it had to be something like that, the rubber is pretty soft and seems to mold easily around whatever punctures it. That's good to know that they thought of these things, do things really end up puncturing that area that often? I'd assume so if they invested the time to design and place it there...

Well, now, Trmx2 ...... sometimes ol humfrz jest makes things up .... in between brain farts ..... :D

humfrz

It makes sense though so perhaps they did do that?

You are fortunate it wasn't worse. If your tire was punctured you would probably be posting from the hospital instead.

Imagine being the guys that ran over metal objects on the highway then watched their Tesla burn to the ground. One of them was in Washington, not sure about the other one.

I try to avoid freeway driving when possible and when I have to I stay a lane clear of the big trucks.

I destroyed this in Jackson WY a few months ago. Just got home, ordered a new one, installed it.

Guess it didn't bother me as much.

-alex

Yeah, I am thankful that it wasn't worse. I couldn't imagine watching my car burn to pieces...:(