As most of you have discovered, winter is hard upon us and the snowbanking seaon has begun.
Well, my daughter had her first ever run in with one of them. Here is the story.
She was returning home, approaching a snowy hill at speed in order to get a good run up it, and was about halfway up when a car appeared coming down in her lane. She made the split second decision to put the Benz into the snowbank rather than the oncoming car. The offending driver kept right on going and she was buried to the front doors in the snow.
A good sam coming by stopped and managed to pull the car out but it slid across the road and became stuck tail in this time on the other side of the road. The good sam could not get it out so he brought her home.
I fired up the GMC plow truck with wheel chains and drove down and dragged it out and up the hill. She was then able to continue on home herself.
Now to the point of the story...the car sat in the driveway for the day and on a whim I thought I ought to give it a once over before it went back out. Hokey smokes...talk about snowpack!
I spent about an hour removing all the snow that had jammed up into every open space in the front end of the car, from the backside of the front bumper to the guiderod mounts at the firewall and halfway up the aux fan were completely full of snow.
Luckily it was soft and came out ok but if it had been neglected and had frozen, I shudder to think of the possibilities...slow or no steering jammed suspension, broken fan, overheating etc.
The only damage was the lower apron was slightly bent, I had concerns over the oil cooler lines and the like, but they were fine.
The lesson here is look before you drive after a snowbank experience.
There always is a first time and I am glad she was in the Benz.

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1981 240D 143k 4 spd manual -SOLD

2004 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed 300k -still driven daily