What's new
By:

Racoon ran in front of car...gonna be expensive

A

Alset2

Member

Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2025
Messages
95
Reaction score
99
Cars
Gravity - Tesla-Nissan
Last night my wife told me a racoon ran under the car on her way home, so I went out in the garage for a quick look and didn't notice any damage to the front end, so I didn't think too much about it.
This morning we go on a 100 or so mile round trip and I notice I have a waring indicator. Since we just got an update, I did a reboot and it went away, thought all was good.

However, on the way home it came back on, so once we got home, I took a few minutes to look over front of car more carefully and found a crack in the black trim at bottom of the air dam.

Upon closer inspection I noticed a cooling louver was out of place! Fast forward a few minutes and the complete louver system is just lying in the bottom of the bumper.

The picture shows the parts after I fished them out.
It appears the impact from the racoon shattered the center support structure (from below) that holds the louver control motor, and everything just fell apart

I have a feeling this will be expensive !! lol
What's worse is the closest repair center is 300 miles away...ugh . I just hope this is not the beginning of a long, drawn-out nightmare
 

Attachments

  • 9075.webp
    9075.webp
    1.4 MB · Views: 420
Ughhhhh!!
My condolences. I think you could be right about it being expensive. Anything more complicated than replacing a windshield wiper blade seems to start at several thousand $$$ :)
 
I actually don’t think that will be that expensive. Let us know!
 
One of our Bay Area members let her husband drive the car and he hit a coyote. I do believe it was somewhat expensive.
 
Alset2 said:
Last night my wife told me a racoon ran under the car on her way home, so I went out in the garage for a quick look and didn't notice any damage to the front end, so I didn't think too much about it.
This morning we go on a 100 or so mile round trip and I notice I have a waring indicator. Since we just got an update, I did a reboot and it went away, thought all was good.

However, on the way home it came back on, so once we got home, I took a few minutes to look over front of car more carefully and found a crack in the black trim at bottom of the air dam.

Upon closer inspection I noticed a cooling louver was out of place! Fast forward a few minutes and the complete louver system is just lying in the bottom of the bumper.

The picture shows the parts after I fished them out.
It appears the impact from the racoon shattered the center support structure (from below) that holds the louver control motor, and everything just fell apart

I have a feeling this will be expensive !! lol
What's worse is the closest repair center is 300 miles away...ugh . I just hope this is not the beginning of a long, drawn-out nightmare
Click to expand...
oh man that sucks !
I think Racoons are specifically excluded from the warranty!

[...day dreams of going on Shark Tank with newly successful aftermarket Roo Bar-for-Gravity business]


Joking aside, this could happen to any of us...hope it isn't that expensive
Please post about what they charge you
 
SaratogaLefty said:
One of our Bay Area members let her husband drive the car and he hit a coyote. I do believe it was somewhat expensive.
Click to expand...
That was a much more significant impact with much more damage.

Source: I saw the car at the body shop and sent @AirDoll a picture of the fur left inside the vehicle body gaps 😬

(But you’re right that body work is always expensive on Lucid’s, so it’s anybody’s guess)
 
Thanks everyone for the replies

I'm hopeful because there really is not any damage except to the black "insert" looking grill area.
What does concern me is that mobile service said it has to go to service because the whole thing is a module now, unlike on the Airs.
They set an appointment for April 6th at West Palm service center. I'm waiting to see what that entails since I'm 4 hours away, but mobile service said maybe they can incorporate my issue with the warranty work that needs to be done (2nd row seats leaning and motor is very loud). I have emailed service and asked what to expect, waiting on reply now ...fingers crossed

Added a few more pics
 

Attachments

  • 9085.webp
    9085.webp
    1,007.7 KB · Views: 301
  • 9084.webp
    9084.webp
    521.8 KB · Views: 231
  • 9083.webp
    9083.webp
    632 KB · Views: 276
Alset2 said:
Thanks everyone for the replies

I'm hopeful because there really is not any damage except to the black "insert" looking grill area.
What does concern me is that mobile service said it has to go to service because the whole thing is a module now, unlike on the Airs.
They set an appointment for April 6th at West Palm service center. I'm waiting to see what that entails since I'm 4 hours away, but mobile service said maybe they can incorporate my issue with the warranty work that needs to be done (2nd row seats leaning and motor is very loud). I have emailed service and asked what to expect, waiting on reply now ...fingers crossed

Added a few more pics
Click to expand...
BOOM!...wow, that's far from the SC but at least it's not too many weeks out.

Looks like a good opportunity to shop vac out those leaves whilst the louvers are missing though
 
SaratogaLefty said:
One of our Bay Area members let her husband drive the car and he hit a coyote. I do believe it was somewhat expensive.
Click to expand...
Do you happen to remember about how much it was?
 
AirDoll said:
It was $7k. Broken running light, grill, and actuator.
Click to expand...
Ouch lol
Thank you. I'm hoping I don't need all of that but my luck, its probably all one big unit.
 
Thank you for that info

I considered the body shop, but I have warranty work that needs to be done anyway. Might as well knock that out too

They are working p an estimate so I'm waiting to see what that comes in as

The car drives fine, might not be so goo if weather gets cold...
 
Alset2 said:
Thank you for that info

I considered the body shop, but I have warranty work that needs to be done anyway. Might as well knock that out too

They are working p an estimate so I'm waiting to see what that comes in as

The car drives fine, might not be so goo if weather gets cold...
Click to expand...
Lucid will definitely refer you out to a certified body shop for anything that they don’t handle in house. They will get them the parts and will handle any recalibrations if needed.
 
msaunders9430 said:
This may not help much, but could have been worse ... hit a skunk. ;)
Click to expand...
Other than the odor I'd say that I'd rather have hit the skunk (or more likely missed the skunk). Skunks have a much lower profile than a racoon and might not have caused any damage (ask me how I know this, it has to do with walking dogs)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top