Ran over deer carcass
 

My wife ran over a deer carcass today and she thinks it hit the mid section under the car. There is no visible damage, but the car sounds a little rough during acceleration. Any ideas what is causing this? Thanks.

there really isnt any concrete answer anyone can give you without any kind of inspection, just some possibilities as to what can cause sounds under load.

Jack her on up and take a look see.............

My wife is out of town so I can not inspect the car until Thursday. I am trying to figure out if this issue would cause a problem on the way back home. It is about 200 mile trip.

the dealer i work at has free vehicle inspections, perhaps she can find one that will inspect the car for her. there really isnt anything anyone here can say without knowing anything about the car.

The wife or the car??

Maybe the carcass bent a heat shield and that's what's rattling whenever she accelerates. It could be anything of course, but this happened to me before. Not in the Z, though.

That is going to be the only way to know. She could take it somewhere & have someone look at it if it seems serious.

If its not leaking any fluids, there is probably not any serious damage. You may be able to convince her to look under the car and make sure the engine undertray is intact. If its still there and whole, with no bones stabbing through it or anything, the only vulnerability I can think of is the secondary O2 sensor cables hang in a way that could pretty easily get ripped out. They are back by the transmission. But you would eventually get a check engine light and the secondary o2s shouldnt have any effect on how it runs either, they just monitor the cats.

I did the same thing Live in Colorado and was headed to Missouri. I went over the dear at 100MPH, huge thump. There was no change in anything oil temp and the sensors looked good so I kept cruising. I looked under neath and found hair and blood but that was it. I also had Z Speed under shroud

:iagree:

Sounds like that shroud saved your ***. But 100mph is fast enough that you wind up cutting through and don't absorb much of the impact (dependent of course on height, angle, density at point of impact..etc). Doesn't mean it'll save everyone.

OP, just like everyone else said and not that I really need to back anyone up but yes an inspection will be required. Whether it is safe or not for that trip? Hard to tell. Safety first. Have her get it inspected before she drives home.

I had the same thing happen to me in another car. The hair, blood, and guts stunk for a month as everytime I would drive the car, the exhaust would heat up and burn off more of the bloody mess.....

I've done this a couple of time. :shakes head: I broke the secondary O2 sensor plugs that mount on the tranny. :shakes head: Now I have them taped together.

Thanks a lot for your input. She called a Nissan dealer and they said since there are no leaks or engine alerts, it is okay to drive home. She took a look under the car and saw some deer parts hanging down :eek:. Also, it started to stink pretty bad. I guess it could be worse as it happened while going 70 mph on a highway.

I did that in my Evo. It's like growing old,you'll find hair in places you never thought you would.

Ewwwww.

GL on the trip home tho :tup:

I am amazed that you can run over a dear in a car as low as a Z and not wipe out. You guys have polarized plates instead of splash shields?

I've been thinking the same thing. I had an incident with a large dog about 25 years ago in my 300ZX and got spun sideways to a dead stop on an interstate in the dark of night. Not a fun experience. And I don't recall my 300ZX being as low as the 370Z.

Update: When she came back home, I checked out the car and to my surprise there was no damage to the front bumper or underneath the engine area. I removed the deer bone/flesh from the mid section of the undercarriage and took it to the car wash to get rid of the smell.
The next day, I took the car to a Nissan dealer to find out the cause for the rough noise. The problem was that the deer hit the section below the exhaust pipe and pushed it upwards. They lowered it so that it did not touch the pipe anymore and the noise went away. I guess we were lucky as it could have been much worse.

Good to hear there was little to no damage.

Good stuff

Was hoping to see some pics.