Person two cars ahead of me on I-270 hit a deer; I ran over the carcass and the right sidepipe broke off the rocker panel. No splitter damage I can se, but I have to go out now and detach the sidepipe at the disc junction and see about replacing either the tip or the whole section.

Going to need some long sleeves and gloves; lots of bloody fur on the undercarriage.

This sucks.

 

O.O goodluck


What a welcome home gift for the boss

 

Bummer.

 

Ah yes road kill, I have felt your pain!

 

Well that sucks. Freakin' deer.

 

That blows hard.

 

Other than a little mess, doesn't sound too bad. Definitely a bummer, but at least you're just replacing a bolt on and don't have to do any body work.

 

Stupid deer.

 

Happy ending (for me, not the deer).

Once I scraped away the deer parts, I saw that the pipe was only dislodged from the rubber bushing that holds the bracket and secures the pipe to the rocker panel. Some of the pipe tip was ground off on the drive home, but the damage is only cosmetic and for the most part out of sight for the casual observer.

I would like to go to the car wash tomorrow and get the undercarriage cleaned off. The manual says not to go to through a commercial car wash. Anybody see the harm? I don't want to drive around with deer guts, hyde, and fur and don't think the garden hose is going to do the trick.

Thanks!

 

Maybe just don't let it spray too much or long at the front end around the air cleaner area, just to avoid excessive water spray to the cold air intake. Usually they r well setup to avoid water ingestion, just not too familiar with the boss setup.

 

Might not be a bad idea to order spare replacement side pipes for each side for the future when they may be unavailable.

 

Swirls/scratches in the finish! But shouldn't be any harm using a high pressure spray underneath the car.

 

Ran the GT500 through a good touchless wash once or twice a week for 4 years and absolutely no issues. Ran the Boss through a few times already as well. The ones with a track are to be avoided typically for clearance. Before lowering my GT500 I ran through one as well with no issues. Not sure about the Boss. The CAI is completely blocked off from below so should be fine. You just want to avoid a high pressure wand to the side stripes but they are durable.

 

When you say "The ones with a track are to be avoided typically for clearance" are you talking about the left side tire guide at almost every gas station car wash or the ones that grab your tire and pull your car through?

 

Exactly those. They are guaranteed to damage your wheel.

 

Either one would pose a "potential" risk for clearance. As far as damaging the wheel, it's certainly not guaranteed to damage it. Most modern cars have aluminum wheels, not hubcaps. If it was going to damage your Boss wheel, it would damage the BMW, Mercedes or Ford Taurus right behind you in the line. The tire generally bulges past the rim, so the tire rubs, not the wheel. It also depends on the profile height of your tire and the height of the rail. I think the bigger concern is clearance to the front splitter. I'm not saying you couldn't have a wheel damaged, but if it's a quality car wash you should be fine.

 

I took it to a good-quality car wash and had them check the splitter height against the left-side rail. It cleared by nearly 1.5 inches. Also, as Gary pointed out, the tire protrudes beyond the wheel rim, so fortunately no wheel damage. Most of the venison smell is gone, which is nice.

 

Sorry guys but it will be a cold day in hell before I run the Boss through a car wash but then again I am retired and have lots of time (well even if I was working I still would not)

 

Alex, sorry to hear about the deer - at least the damage was not too severe

I agree with Scott (and I'm not retired) - I'll never run the Boss through any type of automatic or self service high-pressure car wash. That's for my daily-driven Focus

 

The smell of dead animal underneath the car was so powerful that there was no way in hell I was going to go underneath and hand wipe the blood and guts off the undercarriage. The smell is still there one day after the wash, but significantly diminished.