Nothing beats waking up on a monday morning and pulling your groin whilst climbing in through the passenger side of your 2002 mc, to access the driverside of the vehicle.

I was driving on New York City's wonderfull Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (yes, that was a joke... it is a **** show), and was cut off by a ford explorer (i cringe with hatred for drivers of the ford explorer) with a rear bumper that looked like it was about to fall off. i briefly considered shooting out his rear window with my roof mounted potato gun, but then opted for the "drop back one car" option.

shortly thereafter--naturally--a large piece of the explorer's body breaks free from the car. i watch as it bounces and hops its way around the car that seperates us, and then makes contact with my front spoiler/grill. since the crapiness of ford explorer is so thorough, the piece of for debris probably knew body damage wasn't enough (yes, the piece of debris now has conscious thought), so it then said hello to my front ends undercarraige.

at that point i sort of accepted the fact that i lived in new york, didn't own a gun, and that all i could do was pull over. the ac compressor was leaking so i slowly made my way to a warehouse that i have access to, in order to get the car up to take a peek.

then i clipped my driverside door when backing into the warehouse.

ahhh life.

so i punched myself in the face a few times, paid the MC service dept $3,700.00 for a new radiator, fan, ac compressor, recharge, power steering junk, and one or two other blessing repairs that inevitabely come with the 2002 mc.

so here is my actual question...

is replacing my driverside door lock something that is within my mechanical reach? ie, is it an easy, or a difficult process?

the door hinge was not bent, but the door face that the lock sits in was crumpled in a bit. i removed the panel. window goes up and down fine. i took it in for two quotes and both said the lock replacement was necessary. (ps: the lock may have been fine, before my 67yr old father thought it was a good idea to force the door shut without my consent). so anyway, on the inner door near the lock needs to get pulled out.

can i/should i remove the damaged lock, have them repair the door body and then replace the lock myself? the second quote i got was $700. so, that would bring my running total of repair work to $4,400. not to mention i spent $1,800 at the mc srvc center in february, and $900 a year earlier, when i bought the car used for $10,500.

yayyy!! buy a car for 10.5k and spend $7,100 over the next 1.5yrs on repairs/maintenance!! what an deal!!!

guhhhh. i'm such a sucker for a good looking car. if only it weren't a good looking european car. or a good looking european car with a really really compact/unique engine compartment. or a good looking european car with a really, really compact/unique engine compartment with a lot of first run design-flaws. :<

infinite saddness. my beloved 2002 mc has become a bank breaker.

any/all help would be appreciated.

next question... resale value of the 2002mc!

okay.

 

Nice post and I'm sorry to hear your car got tagged by a crappy ford explorer who's parts just fall off . Can't your insurance cover some of the repairs? After all it was from road debris. And the door damage should be covered as well.

 

in truth, i don't have insurance. nor do i have a clear title. or a vin number for that matter(i scratched it off). also i am an illegal alien.

yeah, insurance covered most of the $3700 damages, since it was no fault.

but why would insurance cover my door? i am a newbie to 1. car ownership 2. mini ownership and 3. life.. i'm 25. funny, my first insurance claim.. just a few months after i turn 25. suckazzz!! jk of course.

i mean, the warehouse wasn't moving.. i was.

 

Replacing the lock is not hard. Look under stock problems thread for lock/unlock problems. Not particularly costly either. Will probably take an hour or so and a few basic tools along with some torx bits.

On the positive side you were not hurt - anywhere but the wallet - and kharma will catch up with the Ford exploder owner - sooner - rather than later probably.

Cheers

 

nosilw -

sorry, i thought i was getting email notifications on this post but apparently not. i will try the stock probs area of the forums.

thanks for pointing me in the right direciton

 

Hey kerikino I can't help with your situation but had the delight of a trip to Brooklyn this past Tuesday (8/18). The first time I ever saw a multi-lane highway with a 20mph speed limit. There were a couple of exits in the Bronx that caught us off guard too. Best of luck in your future driving adventures there. You're gonna need it. And here I thought driving in LA sucked...