A few weeks back, a lorry scraped + dented the driver side rear quarter panel of the car in a ultra slow speed collision.
Took the car to my regular HASC to get the denting + painting done. Denting was done in a day, while painting is still pending as I wanted the car fast as I had work pressure in office (had to work for a few back to back weekends).
A few days after the denting work was done, I passed over a small black n yellow plastic roadbump, and all hell suddenly broke loose.
Multiple error lights came on, the car lost momentum, and seemed stuck in a gear. Luckily this happened during daytime barely a km from office so was able to limp to office and parked in the basement.
Once parked, further strange problems were unearthed wherein the car refused to move when put in D mode, only revved as if in N. The backup lights blinked when indicators were tapped, and indicators stayed on all time.
I suspected that some electrical issue happened during the body work, and tried to reset the electricals by removing & re attaching the negative wire of the battery (to no avail), removed the driver side taillamp assembly and tugging onto the wires, only to be disappointed when the problems remained unresolved.
Discussed the problem with the Kolkata TBHP community, and after a short chat, it seemed like a punched wire or a loose grounding.
Initially planned to remove the trims under TBHP expert guidance by myself to look for the issue, but then realized a professional would do this much faster and easily.
Called up my dad, and the HASC where the body work was done. Dad picked up the mechanic who normally works on my car (not the person who worked on the body), and came to my office. Described the problem to the mechanic, and in no time he removed the entire rear seat, rear trims and all cladding.
Then we saw that the body denting was resolved from inside by cutting through the sheet metal, and the place where the cut was done had a grounding point which was to be bolted back once the welding work was done, but the bolt was missing and the grounding was merely slipped onto the metal sleeve. After one too many number of shakes and jerks, the wire fell out of the sleeve and chaos ensued.
The mechanic simply bolted back the grounding, and normalcy returned. He then put the trims and seat back on.
So a careless mistake during body denting made the car immobile. Funny thing is this happened 3-4 days after the denting work was done. Imagine what may have happened if this happened during nighttime or midway during commute !
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackasta the horn periodically gives up, especially in slow traffic. |
The horn issue resolved on it's own don't ask me how !