Hit a deer at 45mph- I am impressed -no damage

charley654

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2009
Location
Central Texas
TDI
2015 GSW S DSG
I've hit the back end of a deer at 45 mph- with the right front side of my GSW. Right headlight kept working -so I did not stop until I arrived at my destination.
When I stopped I looked for damage, low and behold... nothing.
It must of hit it right where the tow hook mounting is and I am assuming the area of the bumper is reinforced more to the frame.
The tow hook plastic cover popped open.
There was plenty deer hair stuck between the bumper and headlamp, but I do not see any damage, bumper is tight, headlight is tight nothing misaligned all looks good.
Good job Volkswagen!
 

PlaneCrazy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Location
Province of Quebec, Canada
TDI
Gone...
Good to hear; coming home last night, on a 90 km drive I had close encounters with 5 deer. Two adults, one of which bolted across 4 lanes of autoroute, the other grazing by the side of a two-lane 90 km/h highway, and three young ones standing in the middle of the road that required I come to a full stop. The dummies just stood there staring at me until I honked, then they dispersed.

I'd be careful to check for hidden damage though. Once, coming back from the Magdalen Islands, we just got off the ferry onto PEI and had a full night of driving home ahead of us. We hit a small animal, about the size of a medium dog (say a Border Collie or about that size). No apparent external damage until about 6 hours later when the low coolant light came on. Stopped, opened the hood and there was coolant everywhere. The car (an '04 Mk IV Jetta TDI wagon), had to be towed. At 7 am on a Sunday morning in Edmunston, New Brunswick. Home was an all day bus ride (actually three separate bus rides) and a lift from a friend for the last 100 km. NOT fun!

What happened, was that the rad got knocked off its mounts, and the fan eventually chewed through one of the rad hoses.
 

charley654

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2009
Location
Central Texas
TDI
2015 GSW S DSG
I went out to the garage just now and looked with a flashlight -closely.
Bumper is solid. Radiator all good.
I found a slight movement of the headlamp - it moved back about 3/16 inch, but it moved back evenly- meaning it is not crocked. moved the same amount left and right side of the housing.
I found the mounting tabs for the headlamp.
One is just behind the large rubber caps where the bulbs are accessed, and the other is up front - just below at the edge of the front radiator shroud with the VW emblem where it meets with the headlamp.
I can see it slid back 3/16" clean painted surface without road dust.
Now the right side clear headlight lens is perfectly flush with the radiator shroud, where as the factory setup on the left is sticking out about 3/16" inch forward.

Because I have OCD about perfection, I will move it back to factory :)

I am glad the headlamp clear lens did not crack or broke.
 

Random_Vibration

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2014
Location
Florida
TDI
2015 Golf SEL TDI (6MT, LP, Driver Assist)
If it happened to me, I'd take it to a dealer or body shop, get them to put it on a lift for a proper inspection. Bare minimum, I would remove the bumper cover to inspect the bumper beam, bumper supports, and foam absorber, and core support.
 

hankster88

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2014
Location
Peoria Illinois
TDI
2015 MK7 Golf TDI S 6M-Sold
I would agree with vibration on getting a full inspection. I hit a raccoon last year at 45mph and I thought I only popped out a few pieces of trim. Once removed there was about $1500 worth of broken supports and various bent prices
 

PlaneCrazy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Location
Province of Quebec, Canada
TDI
Gone...
I would agree with vibration on getting a full inspection. I hit a raccoon last year at 45mph and I thought I only popped out a few pieces of trim. Once removed there was about $1500 worth of broken supports and various bent prices
That's what happened with my Mk IV Jetta wagon many years ago. Looked OK on the surface but underneath about $2k damage, including the rad off its mounts mentioned above. I couldn't identify the animal but it was the size of a medium dog, hit at about the same speed as you.

The $2k was with OEM parts. As I wanted to avoid an insurance claim (my wife had another claim a few months previous), the dealer manage to repair it for $900.
 

325_Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Location
West Central Texas
TDI
MkV Jetta
Wow, lucky for you. I agree with other folks on here, tempting as it is to settle for "yup, it's good!", you may want to do a thorough inspection for any hidden damage. My wife had a minor parking lot accident earlier in the year in her MkVI. If it wast for the cracked headlights, I probably wouldn't have even reported it...apparently, either we got really unlucky or the cars are designed to transfer impact forces to everything in the car, as the total shop bill was nearly $10,000, including repair to a tweaked frame rail.

It's that time of year though, I got hit by a deer about a month ago. Yes, he hit me...I saw the first five running across the road and stopped. Deer #6 ran right into the front fender and completely smashed it in. It's all cosmetic damage but did take some work with a bottle jack to bend enough so that the tire didn't rub on it.
 

PlaneCrazy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Location
Province of Quebec, Canada
TDI
Gone...
It's that time of year though, I got hit by a deer about a month ago. Yes, he hit me...I saw the first five running across the road and stopped. Deer #6 ran right into the front fender and completely smashed it in. It's all cosmetic damage but did take some work with a bottle jack to bend enough so that the tire didn't rub on it.
Same thing happened to my eldest son, driving our old Odyssey van. Not the brightest creatures on Earth. Hit the fender and driver's door, jamming the latter.
 

Mike in Anchorage

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2016 Touareg Lux, 2015 Golf Sportwagen SE, new 4 Sept 2017;2009 VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen (Ruby) sold to VW on 22 SEP 2017
I've had two accidents involving others running a stop sign in front of me. Both times I was driving on ice, so not much of a chance to slow down. Yes, there was damage tot he car, but no air bags deployed and I felt totally safe. The car was fixed and there was no damage to the frame or to the engine. I'm thinking the car is well made for the offset frontal collision that is so prevalent.
 
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