Your driving on the expressway and you hear this loud bang, like something hit your car? Your tires kicks up pebble/rock and it hits your wheelwell, under your car, or the side of your car. Only you can't make out exactly where it hit. Where does it usually hit?
Does this happen to your TL more than it does to your other cars?

 

yup...

 

That's happened to me once or twice and each time it's been near the bottom of the rear passenger door (on the right). I even had it get dented once (probably some roadkill that spun out under the wheels) and had to get it repaired.

 

The plastic lower body side moldings make a loud noise when impacted. I also had rocks occassionally hit the mirrors before installing factory mud guards.

 

happens all the time. makes me cringe every time i hear it.

 

I hate when it happens.

I just found some really really small paint chips on my driver's door behind the side mirror. This is above the line that goes through the sides of the car right below the window.

On my SSM TL, I had it happen in the middle of the driver's door and some chips/surface scratches on the passenger side rear window. Not sure if it was caused by the tires kicking up pebbles. Most likely caused by other cars and trucks on the BQE.

 

How much do those mud guards cost with installation?

 

You can install it yourself. It's really easy. The splash guards costs $65.
How long have you had your TL for? Are you friendly with your salesman or sales manager? Maybe you can get them to give you a set for free. That's how I got mine.

I can PM you instructions if you want.

 

I am handy, I could do it, I am in auto club and auto class. We dont have the car yet but living in new england it would definatly be something I'd have installed. When we get the car its gonna be a real splurge on my parents part, so I dont want them to have to pay 900 more for a piece of plastic, but it seems that wont be a problem. Thanks for the info.

 

A number of years ago, I was cruising across the Mojave desert in the middle of
nowhere. I heard a loud *bang* and instantly lost power and also felt a wheel
go flat.

I thought "OMG, I am going to be stuck in the middle of the desert with a
totally disabled car". ( Pre cell phone days...).

As I was losing speed I looked around for a place to land and glided over a small
rise and saw an Agricultural inspection station and was able to manhandle the car
into a service area at the station (remember no power).

My left rear tire was flat and the car would not start even though there was
plenty of gasoline.

Fortunately there was a Pay Phone and at the time I was a member of AAA.
I called the help line and they where able to locate someone that was willing
to come out from a small town 30 miles back from the way I was traveling.

Eventually help arrived and we unloaded the trunk and installed the spare.

We then thought about trying to get the car started, nothing seemed to work,
there was a hot spark and I knew there was plenty of gas, we pulled off the
air filter and peered into the carb while the engine was cranked, we had a
good vacuum but it appeared that gas was not "getting through". The service
man said there must be a problem with the fuel pump.

It then came to me in a flash, the car had an electric fuel pump and the
emergency shutoff was just above the left rear tire. I checked the cut off switch
and saw that it had been knocked to "off". I reset the switch and the car
started up

I evidently ran over something ugly enough to hole the tire and then get
hurled against the top of the left rear fender well with enough force to shut
off the electric fuel pump.

The rest of the trip was, thankfully, without any problems....

Jerry