Wife was driving her work 96 T+C the other day (the high end one) and yes i kow its not specifically a dodge, but I know you lot here, and caravan/T+C differences are non existent, yeah? anyway, she was at a juction, about to turn, and someone cuts across her, forcing her to swerve. She hits the curb, and the two passenger side tyres are damaged, and go flat. There's a firestone place about 3 doors away, so she crawls there, and gets the tyres fixed. Now her boss is claiming that shes done extensive damage to the vehicle in that, according to his mechanic, and it'll cost $5000 to repair.
Night before, though, knowing she was going a long ways away (working in an area some 100-odd miles away) checked the tyres, and fluids on the van. (Its the 3.8 V6). TRansmission fluid was off the bottom of the stick, oil was off the stick, expansion bottle was empty thogh the radiator had fluid to the top.. The two front tyres were at the treadwear markers, and the rear passenger tyre was at 22psi (which I pumped up). She doesn't usually bring the van home, so i don't get to check it more often, she only had it because it was already loaded, and she was to leave at 5am. I'd have filled up the fluids myself, only It was 10pm, and I didn't know what were the correct ones to use, there being no user manual in the car, so I sent an email to the wifes superior saying what it needed.
The accident happened at about 3pm, in the middle of Atlanta, so high speeds are not likely either. According to the wife, the sidewall on the back tyre went (probably weakened by the low pressure they had it at) and the front popped its bead.
In short, is there any other kind of damage that these vehicles are susceptable to in this sort of incident. I'm thinking the mechanic is either trying it on, or he's including work for damage done to the vehicle by the poor maintaince. Its got 168k on it (roughly) and the transmissions going out. I've gone through the TSB's ( 131 of em) and the recalls, and can't find anything that is any kind of match to whats happened. Any insight guys? (specially you glenn)
Flobert