As the title says, I made a dumbass mistake with my parents G6 convertible.:forehead:
No, it's not totaled but heres what happened:
Last Friday, my dad called me to get the G6 out of the garage so he could drive it for the weekend to go pick up my brother from college for spring break.
Well, considering the amount of snow we got from the last snowstorm has been a bitch to melt and where our detached garage drive is at on the north side of the house that is downhill, there was at least 2" in front of the garage to 7" deep snow drift half way up the drive. My dad mentioned to take my truck down through the snow to make ruts for the G6. Well, I said, the last time we tried this in December was almost as much snow and my mom and I almost gave up on it because the fact is, the 18" alloy wheels on the G6 with AS tires has very poor traction in snow. As soon as I pulled out of the garage to get up the drive, I lost traction in it and was not going anywhere at all. So, I had the bright idea to try and pull the G6 up the drive with my truck. Genius, right?
Not so much.
First off, I have no idea if the dealer removed the transport loops or GM did not design the car with any sort of recovery hooks because it is a sporty convertible, there was no place to hook a tow strap to except the radiator supports. Hooked up the G6 to my truck, put it in neutral, and then started up the hill. I was doing pretty good until half way up the drive where the 7" snow drift was. I lost traction, even in 4LO I couldn't move with the G6 strapped to my truck. So, I started to get the G6 repositioned all over that part of the drive but it could not go anywhere at all and then I had the other bright idea to try and yank it up the drive. That's where the dumbass mistake came up. Somehow, when tryign to yank the G6, the hook on the recovery rope nicked the bottom corner of the radiator and now was leaking coolant. By the time I was done trying to pull the car up, the temp gauge had now gone to 230*F and shut it down and went inside.
Fast forward to Wednesday night. I told my dad would not be able to go anywhere this weekend because of how much I would have to do to get the front clip off the G6 in order to get to the radiator. So, he grabbed me and we got the G6 into the house garage and went from there. Took us 2 hours from start to finish to disassemble the nose of the G6.
A few things I noticed while taking the front clip apart:
1) I see a double whammy for dead car brand car owners: first, resale value is decreased majorily, but the second is just as bad or worse: if in any sort of collision with the front, there are a lot of small plastic pieces on there that will become hard to find or very expenisve to replace later on down the road.
2) There was a lot plastic coverings underneath the nose of the G6 for aerodynamic purposes. I wonder how much longer until the entire bottom of new cars will be completely covered for aerodynamic purposes.
3) The lack of any sort of hard points to hook to underneath this car is unacceptable. Unless the owner has a set of winter tires to put on, this car is going to end up on the side of the road in wintery conditions and any sort of recovery is going to cause damage to the car because of that. If this is GM's fault, then they should have known better.
4) And finally, because the transmission fluid cooler is built into the radiator, I had to pull the hard lines to the trans out fot he radiator. When we finally got the radiator out, there was a good amount of trans fluid in the cooler still. But, heres the problem and my question: where is the transmission fill tube? I did not see anything that looked like it says transmission fluid(all the fluids in the G6 engine bay were marked by simple pictures) and I think I still need to add a little trans fluid to replace what was lost by removing the radiator. Will this have to be done at the dealer then? The G6 will have to be taken to a dealer to clear any codes that have popped up after we try and see if the radiator can be fixed or not, so we may have to take the car to the dealer anyway.
5) Last thing, does anybody know if the radiator can be fixed or not? The bottom corner of the radiator that was nicked by the tow hook was at the end of it where the plastic ends are crimped onto the aluminum part.
Ok, I know that was long but I am very detail oriented and it helps to tell the story.
Now, let the dumbass comments and smilies fly.:funny:
No, it's not totaled but heres what happened:
Last Friday, my dad called me to get the G6 out of the garage so he could drive it for the weekend to go pick up my brother from college for spring break.
Well, considering the amount of snow we got from the last snowstorm has been a bitch to melt and where our detached garage drive is at on the north side of the house that is downhill, there was at least 2" in front of the garage to 7" deep snow drift half way up the drive. My dad mentioned to take my truck down through the snow to make ruts for the G6. Well, I said, the last time we tried this in December was almost as much snow and my mom and I almost gave up on it because the fact is, the 18" alloy wheels on the G6 with AS tires has very poor traction in snow. As soon as I pulled out of the garage to get up the drive, I lost traction in it and was not going anywhere at all. So, I had the bright idea to try and pull the G6 up the drive with my truck. Genius, right?
Not so much.
First off, I have no idea if the dealer removed the transport loops or GM did not design the car with any sort of recovery hooks because it is a sporty convertible, there was no place to hook a tow strap to except the radiator supports. Hooked up the G6 to my truck, put it in neutral, and then started up the hill. I was doing pretty good until half way up the drive where the 7" snow drift was. I lost traction, even in 4LO I couldn't move with the G6 strapped to my truck. So, I started to get the G6 repositioned all over that part of the drive but it could not go anywhere at all and then I had the other bright idea to try and yank it up the drive. That's where the dumbass mistake came up. Somehow, when tryign to yank the G6, the hook on the recovery rope nicked the bottom corner of the radiator and now was leaking coolant. By the time I was done trying to pull the car up, the temp gauge had now gone to 230*F and shut it down and went inside.
Fast forward to Wednesday night. I told my dad would not be able to go anywhere this weekend because of how much I would have to do to get the front clip off the G6 in order to get to the radiator. So, he grabbed me and we got the G6 into the house garage and went from there. Took us 2 hours from start to finish to disassemble the nose of the G6.
A few things I noticed while taking the front clip apart:
1) I see a double whammy for dead car brand car owners: first, resale value is decreased majorily, but the second is just as bad or worse: if in any sort of collision with the front, there are a lot of small plastic pieces on there that will become hard to find or very expenisve to replace later on down the road.
2) There was a lot plastic coverings underneath the nose of the G6 for aerodynamic purposes. I wonder how much longer until the entire bottom of new cars will be completely covered for aerodynamic purposes.
3) The lack of any sort of hard points to hook to underneath this car is unacceptable. Unless the owner has a set of winter tires to put on, this car is going to end up on the side of the road in wintery conditions and any sort of recovery is going to cause damage to the car because of that. If this is GM's fault, then they should have known better.
4) And finally, because the transmission fluid cooler is built into the radiator, I had to pull the hard lines to the trans out fot he radiator. When we finally got the radiator out, there was a good amount of trans fluid in the cooler still. But, heres the problem and my question: where is the transmission fill tube? I did not see anything that looked like it says transmission fluid(all the fluids in the G6 engine bay were marked by simple pictures) and I think I still need to add a little trans fluid to replace what was lost by removing the radiator. Will this have to be done at the dealer then? The G6 will have to be taken to a dealer to clear any codes that have popped up after we try and see if the radiator can be fixed or not, so we may have to take the car to the dealer anyway.
5) Last thing, does anybody know if the radiator can be fixed or not? The bottom corner of the radiator that was nicked by the tow hook was at the end of it where the plastic ends are crimped onto the aluminum part.
Ok, I know that was long but I am very detail oriented and it helps to tell the story.
Now, let the dumbass comments and smilies fly.:funny:
