CRASHED PRELUDE!

[98PreludeSHTX]

I was driving home the other night, and it was cool out, so I did a little spirited driving when a damn deer jumped out on to the highway smashing my 98 Prelude SH. The hood popped open at 100mph wrapped around the windshield. That crushed the roof in a little, and smashed the windshield and sunroof out. The deer was cut in half, but luckily I wasn't badly hurt, because of the shield formed by the hood. Anyways I had to get rid of the car. I'm selling my KYB AGX dampeners, service manual, new brake pads, and WIX oil filter. I don't care if I make any money off of these as long as the go to someone who will use it. I'm selling them for the price of shipping, and auction fees. No reserve. I just don't want to throw this stuff in the garbage. I don't want to violate any policies , so I'll just say this stuff is listed in a wholesale auto parts lot on a popular auction site. Search for yourself. My prelude was a great car, and I sold it to a guy that will be able to straighten it out properly. I will definitely miss it, but at the price they are selling for nowadays I may have another one in the future.

[spiffyguido]

98PreludeSHTX,

First of all, welcome to the site. Glad that you're okay from your accident. I lost a lude to a deer once as well.

Your post is bordering on being against the rules, but I'm going to leave it because your offering of free parts may genuinely help someone out who's just getting started.

Not to call you out, but driving that fast on a public road was pretty daft, deer or no deer. Hopefully those who read your post will extract a useful lesson out of it.

Again, glad you're not hurt. Please be more careful.

[RedRacer]

Glad you weren't hurt. That's most important, because you could have easily been killed. Enough of that, you know what you did, I don't have to bust your chops for it. You learned your lesson (i hope), and in the hardest way, you killed your car, (which really sucks) not to mention the deer. But then deer are like THE dumbest animals when it comes to cars and roads......I've had two encounters and both times I was very lucky with little damage to the car or the deer.

Everyone else, take heed. You never know what can and will go wrong...and there are no second chances when it comes to death.

I look at some of the stupid stuff I've done in my car(s) over the years and dude, I can honestly say that I am VERY lucky indeed.

Sorry about your car, that sucks.


Oh yeah, did the airbags deploy? Curious.

[98PreludeSHTX]

No, believe it or not, no airbags. I have to guess the deer was 100lbs(doe). I thought I hit a person or motorcycle at first. Everything runs through your mind when you don't see what you hit. It had to look like that GT car hitting a bunny youtube video. I glad that you've decided to leave my post. At the price I have this stuff listed at I'll probably owe a $1 or $2 in final value fees.
It's in a wholesale lot under auto parts. I'm not here to make money. I'm an enthusiast of automobiles, and that's all. Ive had a 300zxTT that I went to TT.net with. I have a sandrail I go to dune-buggy.com with. And I had a SH that I went here and temple of vtec with. I switched to gmail, and lost my old yahoo account, so I made a new name. These forums have saved me thousands of dollars over the years, and gave me the confidence I didn't have to work on my cars, build houses, build computers, build projectors, build headphone amps, and much more. My listing fee was $1.65, so I started it at $2 which about what I'll be charged when it is over. I'm going to list these parts below. If I am in violation please take it down, and I'll never be back or violate again, and I'll put this stuff in the garbage can like I was planning. Thanks to the help from people on these forums and you guys like me that belong to a hundred different forums helping our friends that we will never meet. THANKS. IT HAS BEEN A GREAT FORUM, and the best front wheel drive car on earth.

[spiffyguido]

I hope things work out well for you, in the end.

On the air-bag deal:

From what I've seen, the air bags in preludes are really not that sensitive. My buddy once crashed his '94 into the back of another car (not really his fault) going pretty fast. He hit a Neon hard enough to spin it 180 degrees and make it sail right over a boulevard. No air bag deployment, and the car did okay too. Fenders were mashed and the radiator was half above the engine and half below. Oh yeah, and his carbon fibre hood....well...it more or less exploded. He drove home though. It's a real testament to just how good the quality in a Prelude is. For their size, they're pretty safe.

The non-sensitive air bag thing I actually think is a safety feature. What have an air bag break a passengers nose and hands when the accident wouldn't have anyway.

RedRacer, did you air bags deploy when the tree fell on you?

[98PreludeSHTX]

The roof was dented in, both doors dented,hood gone, radiator core pushed in to engine, a-arms bent. I've paid high insurance rates(full coverage+) my whole life, and this is my first claim. They decided to total it, and pay me KBB value. I sold the car to a friend at a car shop who will be able to salvage it. The engine was fine. Mainly body. May get another one some day. I've always wondered if the ATTS really matters.
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[RedRacer]

No, Spiffy, as a matter of fact the airbags did not deploy when the tree attacked my car during hurricane Katrina, and I am very glad for that, or the car would have been totaled. Airbag replacement costs are one of the main reasons that older cars get written off by insurance companies. Replacing one airbag w/sensors and all can cost upwards of $1000.00 dollars. That sucks.

Unlike a lot of other cars out there, I am glad that the Honda airbags are not tuned so sensitively.

That's why I was wondering if yours went off, SHTX.

I've heard people complain that their airbag didn't go off....they should be glad. The car sensors know what's best and Honda does a real good job with their collision sensors to avoid useless AB deployment.

Poor deer. Sliced her right in half, that's too sad. I know you didn't intend to harm the animal, it's just that I'm just a big ol' girl when it comes to animals being hurt.

One other thing, I'm curious about your reference to whether the ATTS really matters. Did I miss something somewhere?

~ J

[98PreludeSHTX]

yeah i was sorry the deer was there. ATTS? Automatic Torque Transfer System. Comes with the SH. It can transfer up to 80% of torque to the outside drive wheel. It help compensate for the negative characteristics of front wheel drive such as torque steer. You can't feel it come on. It's just there. I just wonder if you'd be better off scrapping it to save weight, and not flooring it out of parking lots. It works so seamlessly you really don't know if it is working, except that you can turn out of a parking lot under heavy power and not have the wheels go screwy for a second. What's the consensus here?
ATTS. Is it awesome or a gimmick? I've never had a base model to drive.

[RedRacer]

Well, I know what ATTS is, I just was wondering how it tied into the topic, I thought you were making reference to it somehow not assisting you in control of your vehicle during the accident or something and I was kind of like "uh well, that really wouldn't have been a component that would have had much affect on hitting a deer...what is he talking about?" -- so I was just asking what you meant, because sometimes I read in a hurry, between working and focusing on other things, and I tend to skim over posts and miss things that are key to understanding the entire post. Thought I might have missed something and was too lazy to really go back and re-read everything.

I've heard different people with 5g's talk about ATTS. Some like, some don't. I've never driven a 5th gen at all, so I have zero experience with it. I guess it would all come down to a personal choice of keeping it or not, depending on how and what you use the car for on a regular basis.

One thing Honda engineering does well, is to not apply mechanics into systems if they truly aren't beneficial to the overall better performance and stability of the platform. And like most things Honda, as you said, they work seamlessly and you don't really even notice the impact directly -- which is where I would say it would be a really definitive choice by the person who drives the car, making the call of whether to use it, or lose it.

If I had ever driven one of the cars with the system, I could give you a more informed answer, but as it is, it's just based on my overall knowledge and experience of Honda vehicles that I have/do own and drive.

Now, having a very strong 4th gen of my own, I don't have the system, and I know I like having the control or power to switch something on or off....I enjoy fighting the car when flooring it out of a parking lot with the steering wheel turned to full lock...part of the fun, to me, is keeping the car in control and compensating with my own skill to correct the path of travel, while still utilizing as much of the car's power as possible, and of course, to impress those who may be in the area observing.....so I would say when you look at it from a more "dramatic" point of view, I would probably lean to the side of not having ATTS.

That's one of the things I dislike about my G35. All the "controls" for suspension, stability, torque transfer, etc. default to "on" when you start the car, and if you don't think about it and turn them off (thankfully Infiniti does give you the option) then you get in the car, fire it up and head out and when you go to make some kind of "power maneuver" and the car totally shuts you down in the order of what "it" feels is the best disposition to the situation, it's not cool. And actually it can result in an accident, because you're expecting a certain reaction out of your decisions and you unexpectedly don't get that planned response.... which is why I want to to be the one who ultimately decides what the vehicle does.

[spiffyguido]

I too have never driven a car equipped with ATTS, although I predict that I would not be a fan.

Like RedRacer, anything that interferes with a direct connection between me and the car usually upsets me. I don't even like anti-lock brakes. If I want to lock up my Toyos, I should be able to do that.

I have no doubt that ATTS is a brilliant piece of engineering. After all, Honda made it. You have to remember that cars are manufactured for the lowest common denominator of drivers, so if you're not one of those people, my guess is that you'd be happier without the system at all.

There are plenty of systems like this in modern cars, as RedRacer pointed out with his G35 'extras'. Most of them are useless if you're comfortable behind the wheel.

ABS, Progressive steering, active suspension, yaw control, some traction control systems. Boooo! to all of it.

Take the last corvette Z06 for example. It's about as good a sports car as we could reasonably expect to come from an American manufacturer in my opinion. Excellent balance, screaming engine, and some good effort put into keeping it light and nimble. Do I like the corvette? Nope, because personal experience tells me that the Traction Control system in that car is awful and takes all the fun right out of the car. Sure, you can turn it off, but it's the fact that Chevy missed the point of the vehicle that turns me off. While I'm ranting about the Corvette, I'll also mention that the seats are absolutely terrible. Whoever the engineer is that thought putting seats with no side supports in a car that could peel you face from your skull in a corner is clearly not thinking about how the car is supposed to be used. I'm not kidding, I took a corner, and I may as well have ended up in the passenger seat. Silly corvette.

Anyway, if you're the type of person who likes being 'connected' to the road, lose the ATTS.

[hamza13]

Dude i would love to take all of the mouldings off your hands, my 97 prelude was painted and the idiot got red on all of the mouldings starting with the one on the windshield, the one on the doors, even the one around the sunroof! it sucks and it makes my nice prelude look bad. so please just write back and if you have those availabe it would be awesome. Also, the right glass on the side view mirror of my car is cracked so if that is still available it would be awesome. The thing is i'm a high school student getting ready to pay for college and i can't afford to buy all this stuff from a dealership because they are asking hundreds and hundreds for the mouldings and i found one at a nearby junkyard but they aren't selling the mouldings but the complete part that come with them. I am really glad you are ok that could have been fatal by the way. Just get back to me as soon as you can i'll check this everyday to see your responses!

[Smirf]

well im new here and dont know if you got rid of the struts yet so how much to crap to sauk rapids mn zip code is 56379