So this morning I leave my house for work and to drop the kids off at Daycare.
I get on the main highway (I-4) im driving along in the fast lane doing about 60 to 65 MPH.
All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see something black flying towards my car.
Before I could do anything I ran it over. It was a tire tread from a tractor trailer. Im not talking a small piece either Im talking it was about 3 foot long. It scared the S*** out of me.

So I can't pull over and check at the moment if everything is ok.

I was pretty close to where I would be off the highway all together.
I got off just before I got off the low coolant light came on. I nursed it the best I could.

Pulled over in a parking lot to check it out.

And to my eyes I find coolant all over the ground when I park.
Look closer and see that the lower air guide was hanging out from under the car. Also the bumper cover is torn between where the little black grill is and the bigger air flow hole.

Damb so I have the kids in the car and am broke down.
Call the wife first to come get the kids.
Then call the tow truck.

Get it towed to work. (Ouch $75.00 later) Also don't get to work till almost 10:00.
Call around and get estimates for a new radiator.
The nicest one I can find is $165.00. (Ouch again)

So to make a longer story short the new radiator is in.The old one was trashed the tank was almost ripped clean off the core.
It also broke the cooling fan up pretty good but still works fine.
Thank god I had the lower air guide on or I would have lost the intercooler and condensor as well.


So becareful when driving on highways.

 

Bummer! Glad to hear it wasn't a major accident, and that it wasn't more damage.

You get cars back on the road quick too!

 

Yes I try to but I think I am going to still have to buy a new R bumper!! Ouch to that I will have to invest about $300.00 into the bumper and painting.

 

After all the advise you have given every Volvo owner on this forum, I can't believe that you didn't have a spare radiator in your trunk.On a serious note, shouldn't insurance cover the whole mess?

 

Only have very basic on it.

 

Hey Tech,

Sorry to hear the damage. On a different note, here're the positives:

1. None of you was hurt (your heart may be hurt but time will heal it).
2. It was a rubber tread, not a metal wheel.
3. The Volvo has suffered minor damage, it was within repair and was not totaled.
4. Everything can be amended with money.
5. You have a new radiator to serve the car for another 200,000 miles.

It was indeed a downer but again no one in the car was hurt. You can spend Christmas with everyone in your family and I think that's priceless. And if you need to convince your wife for another bumper, let me know and I'll be more than happy to provide you with the latest version of Suggested Scenario.

I always give a very wide berth to trucks. When a truck pulls in ahead of me, I slow down to make enough room to avoid the worst. The rear wheels/tyres on heavy trucks seem to wear & fail unexpectedly and could cause a fatal damage to those near the trucks.

Anyway, you're far more important for us than some guy sitting in an egg-shaped office[8D].


JPN

 

Sorry to hear about that tech. If I'm not mistaken, that kind of stuff is covered under comprehensive insurance which most people carry even with very basic coverage. It's very cheap. I would check to see if you have comprehensive coverage. It's usually something like a $100 deductable. I don't carry colision on any of my cars either, but I do have comprehensive.

 

And the truck responsible for the damage just drove away[:@]. The main thing is no one was hurt.

 

ouch tech that sucks, i think they call those highway gators lol. one gotcha, but im so happy your okay.

 

The tire must have come off a truck hours earlier no tucks in site at all.

 

Tech, sorry to hear about that. I can totally relate. Last summer (or maybe the one before) I was driving up I65 to Nashville and was passing a tractor trailer truck as we were heading up a hill. All of a sudden one of his tires blew out and got flung up in the air. I slammed the brakes and swerved (a little) but couldn't get out of the way. A huge chunk of the tire slammed into my windshield. Somehow, I still don't really understand it, my windshield stayed intact. All I got was a ton of black rubber smudged from the top to bottom (like someone burned out on my windshield). That was pretty frightening, but since there was no obvious damage, I kept on going (trying to make a flight out of Nashville). The truck pulled over a little ways down the road.

After that, I was thinking, I don't see how there aren't more accidents caused by that. I see those tire scraps on the sides of highways all the time. I wonder how many accidents are caused by that. If I'd lost my cool I could have swerved off the road to avoid it OR if my windshield had broken, that could have definitely resulted in an accident OR.. any number of other scenarios.

Anyway, glad to hear nobody was hurt and that you got everything running again.

 

Thanks to everyone for chiming on.
Yes it sucks I wish they would out law the recaps on the trucks like they did on cars many years ago.
Then we wouldn't see those tires on the road all the time.

 

Amen on outlawing retreads.

 

Truckers call retreads that come off the tires "Alligators".

When I was turning wrenches on Alfa's nearly 30 years ago, A customer with an Alfetta hit a "Alligator" and did nearly $4k in damage to the underside. The Alfetta has a front engine and rear transaxle connected by a two piece driveshaft that used rubber flex joints instead of u-joints . When he ran over the retread it somehow got caught up in the shaft, which yanked the center bearing support out and broke the flex joint at the transmission. Then the driveshaft proceeded to whip around at 5000 rpm for a couple of seconds tearing up everything under the car. Transaxle case was cracked so that along with the drive shaft, center bearing support, shift linkage, brake lines all had to be replaced and about dozen dents taken out of the floorpan.

 

I just busted my rocker panel today due to taking too sharp a turn. The ice/snow totally busted it. Man am I pissed.

 

wow, Im gald to here your O.K. Tech, I didnt realize that stuff could do that much damage, isnt the under carriage completely sealed off?

 

There is the air guide that is only plastic. But that only protects the rad from little things bouncing up.
It broke the bumper and pretty much dropped the air guide out.

 

Here is a few pics it really doesn't look that bad but I still think I need a new bumper.
Before


After

 

Yes on the new bumper. What a shame.

 

Yes I know.
But I need to to come up with the $$$$$.
So much for the other mods I had planned!!!