Good Mechanics/Exhaust shops?

If this is the wrong place to post I apologize, I'm very new here. :confused:

So my 2000NB just got in a fender-bender (bumped from behind by an SUV) ::Rant:: and while the visual damage is near non-existent, something with the exhaust (guess) is very definitely messed up. Thing sounds and bounces you around like an old muscle car with more horsepower than brains, but the throttle response is just gone, to the point where both these combined makes it undriveable.

Does anyone have mechanics that they would recommend to look at/fix this in the North Dallas area (carrolton, lewisville, etc, pretty much east side of Lewisville Lake)?

Thanks

Sounds like you may have a problem with the differential. Pretty common with these cars in rear end collision. www.trackdogracing.com or there is a miata guy on 35 just south of Lake Lewisville on the east side.

http://www.acepdr.com/

http://acemiatasandmore.com/

Sharpie's right. Look under the car from the rear and see if the right yoke arm is cracked or broken. It's the right arm coming off the differential. They are factory notched to break so damage isn't done to the diff itself.

It was a very low speed collision, I had started to move forward just a bit to get ready to go (was waiting under one of the u-turn things beneath 121), and I guess the woman thought I was going and started to go, just bumping the rear passenger corner of the bumper. Visually there's very little, and it didn't move the car anywhere (had my foot on the brake). Would this still cause damage to the diff?

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Originally Posted by NB1.8

It was a very low speed collision, I had started to move forward just a bit to get ready to go (was waiting under one of the u-turn things beneath 121), and I guess the woman thought I was going and started to go, just bumping the rear passenger corner of the bumper. Visually there's very little, and it didn't move the car anywhere (had my foot on the brake). Would this still cause damage to the diff?

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Nope everyone is just making stuff up as we go. ;-)

Have you had a chance to get under the car with a flashlight to see if you can spot what is broken?
http://www.rx8club.com/attachments/g...roken_diff.jpg

It could be as simple as the muffler hitting the underbody, but it may be more serious. Best thing to do is get it checked by an expert. Based on your location, ACE Miatas and more is the place to take it. They do paint and body too. Ask for Hugh and tell him Mike from the forum asked him to take a look at it for you. They'll steer you right.

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Have you had a chance to get under the car with a flashlight to see if you can spot what is broken?

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I haven't yet, it only just happened this evening and I just took a quickie look to see if I could drive it home. Didn't feel like dragging out the jack and getting down in the wet, though I plan on doing it tomorrow, wet or no. I did hear one "clunk/chunk" sound, but just once and it wasn't terribly loud, I very likely could have just driven over something. The car's handling/suspension doesn't feel any different, which is why I was thinking it was the exhaust, since it was just the sound/vibration/throttle response.

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It could be as simple as the muffler hitting the underbody, but it may be more serious. Best thing to do is get it checked by an expert. Based on your location, ACE Miatas and more is the place to take it. They do paint and body too. Ask for Hugh and tell him Mike from the forum asked him to take a look at it for you. They'll steer you right.

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Alright, thank you, I'll be sure to check them out. The car doesn't actually have a muffler (previous owner), just a cut and downturn pipe bolted on. I did look under it for a quick second and the exhaust seemed to be bouncing around quite a bit, I'm not sure if it had been like that before and I had forgotten, but I don't think so.