Purchase Details

• Date: 2022-Jun-03
• Location: Copart in Raleigh, NC
• Winning Bid: $1,350 Total Fees: $678

The Joys

Once fixed, this car was very fast, and very fun.

Interior was nice with leather seats and all electronics functioning properly.

No painting or body work was necessary, just ordered a new front bumper cover pre-painted.

The Struggles

Entire dashboard needed to be taken out to replace the passenger side airbag. This was apparently a deer strike directly on the airbag sensors, so it was labor intesive, not expensive.

Final Outcome

Sold to Carvana for $300.

The Experience

Taking apart the dashboard for airbag replacement was a very useful challenge. Helped identify the need for clear documentation and guides beyond youtube videos, the presence of specific tools, and general parts management strategies. Replace the driver airbag and passenger airbag with a slight wheel alignment failure. It was 0.5 degrees off, so I tried to take the wheel off again to realign it. During that process I stripped the star bolts holding the airbag in. Moreover, I seem to have caused electrical issues with the remaining shredded pieces of metal. An alternative theory is some other problem with the vehicle manifested about the same time. The overall symptoms were: 1. Driving down the road, the immmobilizer light flashed on and off and the tire pressure light was illuminated. This was on the way to carmax to try and sell it. I thought, ok, i'll stop and put some air in the tires. 2. When stopping at the inflation station, pushed the start/stop button, engine kept running, tach and speedometer when to 0, then immediately back up. Vehicle would not turn off. 3. Went back home, and could not get the vehicle to turn off, ended up disconnecting the battery and pressing on/off to turn it off. 4. Would not start after that. Took it to meineke, and they very courteosly and helpfully showed me that with the number of errors being reportted, it was unlikely they or anyone else would be able to fix it cost effectively. 5. Decided at this point it was a stray ground, or some other form of electrical gremlin, and sold it as non working to carvana as they would pick it up.

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