Got into an accident the other night. Driver side front tire blew out causing me to lose control and slide off road into a tree (summer tires in below freezing weather, i knew it was a matter of time smh)
Wont be able to check car out thoroughly until Monday when the lot opens up and I get the car towed home but I have some details from the 5mins I spent checking it out Friday before this shop closed.

Steering wheel and both side curtain airbags deployed.
But both fenders and headlights are 100% straight as far as i can tell. Couldn't lift hood up but it seems like the crumple zone took the majority of the impact. Don't know if radiator cracked but I didn't see any stains so I think I mightve lucked out. Frame rail adapter/extension is only bent at the outermost edge, so frame itself is fine I think. Just would need to swap out the extension with a new one.

I know the work it'll take to fix everything, ive done a few engine swaps so i know my way around a car. First things first would be to get it drivable. (Hood, bumper, crash bar, radiator, wiring....then work on sensors and stuff later) Just want to see what some of you guys had to say, I can't find much info online about front clip repairs for these cars.

Not yet sure if serpentine belt snapped, or if engine is damaged at all. Battery was dead when I went to check the car out the morning after accident.

And shout out to lexus/Toyota making such a good car. I'm still baffled how the headlight and fenders seem to be in stock alignment

 

What year is your car?
I suspect your insurance will total it.

 

2016
don't want to go through insurance, for multiple different reasons. If I can get the car back on the road for a few thousand dollars I'd rather do that

 

In my opinion, that car is totaled!! If you wanna repair it yourself, a few thousand wont cut it!! The repair money would be best put on a replacement car...but I am not an auto repair guy but that is a hard smack!

 

Yep, looks totaled out to me. Would probably take at least $12k - $15k to repair.

 

At a shop maybe. I could buy parts and do it myself for prob less than 5k, assuming engine didn't get touched at all.

Suspension and frame seem to be completely fine

 

Not nearly as bad as it seems. These cars have huge crumple zones in the front. There's a chance the radiator didn't even burst.

It's mostly cosmetic stuff and a few sensors

 

Get a parts list of what needs to be replaced and shop around, I was actually surprised at how low cost some of those front end parts are, especially used from a breaker. Best of luck!

 

Yea even a few quick eBay searches showed me a lot of decent prices. I'm pretty relieved after knowing it won't cost too much. I'll know more tomorrow when I get car out

 

IMHO, the airbags are going to be your issue, from an expense standpoint. My wife was hit in the drivers side door of my old ride. Front and drivers side airbags deployed. The insurance estimate on those alone was thousands of dollars. I was pretty shocked.

I actually drove the car home after the accident. But between the airbags and some minor frame damage to/around the A pillar, it was totaled.

Best of luck to you!

 

Also getting insurance on a car that was in a big crash that you then repaired yourself.

 

Are you able to inspect the frame for damage? It looks cosmetic but cars are really good at distributing crash energy around the car away from the driver. There’s no way the brunt of the force of impact landed solely on the junked up parts you can see.

Not sure why you would have insurance and then not use it when it’s needed. This seems sketch to me. Good luck repairing that, I suspect it’s going to be a lot more than you anticipate. Even with replacing all the Lexus parts with junk from ebay.

 

Exactly, if the OP does wanna go through insurance is maybe because there are none on the vehicle. Driving knowingly with bald tires in freezing conditions and trying to repair himself leaves .e with more questions than answers

 

Tires weren't bald, I said they were summer tires. Compound isn't good in cold weather, I've caught flats before.

I just don't want to use an insurance claim and raise my premiums. They're high enough as it is.

I've worked on cars extensively. If I can single handedly do an engine swap with hand tools I can replace some cosmetic ****. You online forum guys always anticipate something to be illegal or stolen smh

 

Mate, you provided enough information to tell anyone with even a small amount of critical thinking to conclude there's more to this story than you're letting on, and your plan to repair this car is a bad one. I hope you tell you insurer it was in a wreck.