Giant man hole cover in parking lot ruined my exhaust. What to do?
 

Thread title basically explains the whole thing. Here are pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...m/PIC-0014.jpg
This things a fucking monster

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...m/PIC-0022.jpg
I had to jack my car up to take off the broken section so i could drive (open header) to my friend's house.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...m/PIC-0020.jpg
This is where i scraped

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...m/PIC-0016.jpg
Bent exhaust. I have more photos, but they're on a witness' camera phone. He has to email them to me.

Happened at Cambie Plaza in richmond (where dairy queen is)

To sum it up, i drove into the entrance of this parking lot and this man hole/storm drain ripped my exhaust off. It destroyed the flex pipe on my header, ripped off the mid pipe and crunched the axle back. I basically have to get a new exhaust setup.. header and everything.

A city/construction worker walked by and told me i can get reimbursed for the damages if i speak to the property manager and make a claim. Is this true? And if it is, what do i do? Do i call and talk to the property manager? Is there a claim form i have to fill out with the city? Anyone have some insight on my ordeal? My car is obviously lowered, but it's not slammed. To give you an idea, i can make it over lansdowne speed bumps without scraping. I just managed to go over this damn bump without any of my wheels getting any elevation.

How low is your car? It doesn't look like a big bump at all.

your the idiot that drove over it..and btw u lowered ur car so its ur responsibility..they gonna basically tell you since your car isn't factory height u don't count (since obviously if u were normal height or exhaust didn't hang down so low cause its aftermarket it wouldn't bend) sorry :haha:

I can stick about 2 fingers in between my tire and the fender so it's not extremely low. I've had my car inspected before and it passed the height regulation. I've even asked numerous officers if they thought my car was too low and they said it was fine.

The bump doesn't look that tall in the pictures, but remember, the area surrounding it is flat. I drove over it with wheels on either side. If it was a speed bump of the same height, i would've cleared it no problem since both wheels would be driving over the bump as well. Any other stock sports car would've had the same problem as me.. and when i say sports car, i mean something like an s2000.

eurochevy: i don't need to hear that from you dude. Put yourself in my shoes and think about how you'd feel after something like this. I know they're going to give me that bullshit. I'm looking for some advice here - cut me some slack, buddy. I feel like shit!

Honestly, it's probably going to be a bigger ordeal than it's worth to try to get money out of the owner of the property.

I agree that it's higher than usual but probably as much as your car is lower. Thing is, the cover seems like it's not too high for any stock car to clear. Had it been a steep driveway, I don't think you'd be complaining - you would've just been more careful with your approach. Same thing here. If you thought there was a chance you'd high-centre, you probably should've just went around or driven one side on it.

Having said that, if you're adamant that it's too high, file a claim against the property owner. If the claim gets denied, there's always small claims.

GL either way.

Damn... that sucks man... :( slow down next time!

i think the real question is, how low was your pos exhaust! :haha:

Speed has nothing to do with it. It has do with the way he drove over it.

The faster he drove over that thing , the more damage it would do to his car. I'm sure his damage would've significantly decreased if he drove a lot slower over it. May have been just a scratch unless something got caught onto the manhole cover's edge.

True - i should've just went around, but the bump was right after a steep driveway that i turned wide on and the fact that i couldn't see it made it kinda unavoidable.

I agree that it's going to be a huge ordeal, but it's worth a chance. I wouldn't want anyone else making the same mistake i made. Perhaps this will cause them to fix the damn thing by making a speed bump or something.

If I am to make a claim, do i file through the city at city hall?

I guess you learned your lesson the hard way :( I've been to gas stations with fuckin huge "bulges" on the ground bigger than the "monster" you've posted... good thing I haven't lower my car yet... still enjoying the stock height! :haha:

The way he described it, I figured the cover actually caught one of the flanges and took out everything behind it.

I think the concrete before the cover caught the edge of my resonator and the rest of it dragged across the cover.

Oh wow... I guess that's unavoidable unless you drive around it.

Damn that sucks. Is it the property owner that you talk to or richmond city hall? I know if it was on the street it would be city hall.

Offtopic: Has anyone seen that manhole just off of knight and 57th street. It's on 57th street heading east. Damn is that one ever high. I'm lowered and I'm surprised I can go over it with it right in the middle of the car. Scares me each time though...

just tryin to prep u dude cause like u said u know they gonna say stuff

Your exhaust is too big and too low, its your fault. Something similar is going to happen again somewhere else unless you change your car.

i know which one you're talking about. I don't have any problems with that one.

ouch... that hurts should of aim at that height with the wheels bro!

but i doubt that DQ will do anything for you...

next time use the entrance ramp and drive so fast that you fly over the manhole...
oh wait... shocks...

Still sucks though, and whether it's worth hassle is up to you bro, but it's getting annoying to hear all these would've should've comments.

If you have the free time make the claim, not much to lose.

Try driving over this thing.

http://members.shaw.ca/volvoman/inde...Car/!@%23$.JPG

Gutted the under carriage of my car (holes in the frame, bent exhaust and skid plate). Went to ICBC, they contacted landlord of the parking lot, he denied fault, went to City of Vancouver, they denied fault. Went back to the landlord, he went MIA so ICBC is sending a letter from collections to say pay or gtfo.

sigh

well.. .there will be TONS of lawsuit against ALL shopping malls because they have speed bumps....
Good luck trying to claim your damage!

i actually don't find that too big. even in my lowered 240sx, albeit it wasn't that low.

any pics of the damage?

like
how destroyed is it? can it be repaired? if all it needs is $100 of welding, i wouldn't bother getting to carried away w/ getting your money back, but i guess contact the property manager and see what they say, and if you have pics of the damage to your car, that would probably help your case.

ur car sounds like its not too low.

what kinda of aftermarket exhaust did you get? is it full catback or weld on universal muffler type with custom catback? some muffler shops litterally try to just connect from point A to point B. and thus dont do the proper bends. ull end up with a catback that rides low, and if its a honda, usually the area behind the axle is the worse as its not a simple couple bends.