So this morning, I was removing my throttle body and going to replace the IACV gasket. When I was packing everything up to get back to the house to clean the idle air control valve, I noticed that the right side skirt of my 2002 Toyota Corolla S was "lower" than my left.
Upon inspection, I noticed two of the plastic clips have popped off (can't slip it back on, need to get new ones after cutting the old ones off with a wire cutter). And the plastic weather stripping was ripped (and for some reason, tucked).
You might be able to see a huge scratch on the ridge where the side-skirt is supposed to mount over. The sun glare was concealing it.
Now, the only reason why I took notice is because it was really obvious, to the point where I suspected someone did a hit-and-run, like a minor scrape, or something is trying to steal something (weeks ago, on my way to school I found humongous, dusty handprints on my driver side window). I chose this parking spot in my apartment because it's far away from other people's cars and still close to my apartment.
However, my neighborhood is known to be a spot for tweakers, drug addicts, squatters, etc. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping because around 2:00am there would be fistfights, screaming, etc. Occasionally, a police helicopter hovering around for half an hour. I'm definitely not renewing my lease.
I checked the local crime map, and zoomed in to my immediate city block. Since the November that I moved in...
19 auto thefts
25 burglaries
3 assaults and batteries
3 homicides (one in the small street intersection, one at the nearby bus stop, one murder-suicide in the apartment complex)
39 incidents of disturbing the peace
Which led me to believe that someone is trying to steal something from my car. Not sure if it is plausible, but it definitely can't be a hit-and-run because I would have seen something more that amounted to damage. Like paint from the perp's car.
And it can't be a attempted theft (of a auto part) like a catalytic converter, because my TWC is located under-and-in-front of the transmission linkages, so it's basically the bottom front-center of the car, right after the exhaust header junction.
It's just this morning that I noticed that my side-skirt orientation is noticeably different.
Upon inspection, I noticed two of the plastic clips have popped off (can't slip it back on, need to get new ones after cutting the old ones off with a wire cutter). And the plastic weather stripping was ripped (and for some reason, tucked).
You might be able to see a huge scratch on the ridge where the side-skirt is supposed to mount over. The sun glare was concealing it.
Now, the only reason why I took notice is because it was really obvious, to the point where I suspected someone did a hit-and-run, like a minor scrape, or something is trying to steal something (weeks ago, on my way to school I found humongous, dusty handprints on my driver side window). I chose this parking spot in my apartment because it's far away from other people's cars and still close to my apartment.
However, my neighborhood is known to be a spot for tweakers, drug addicts, squatters, etc. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping because around 2:00am there would be fistfights, screaming, etc. Occasionally, a police helicopter hovering around for half an hour. I'm definitely not renewing my lease.
I checked the local crime map, and zoomed in to my immediate city block. Since the November that I moved in...
19 auto thefts
25 burglaries
3 assaults and batteries
3 homicides (one in the small street intersection, one at the nearby bus stop, one murder-suicide in the apartment complex)
39 incidents of disturbing the peace
Which led me to believe that someone is trying to steal something from my car. Not sure if it is plausible, but it definitely can't be a hit-and-run because I would have seen something more that amounted to damage. Like paint from the perp's car.
And it can't be a attempted theft (of a auto part) like a catalytic converter, because my TWC is located under-and-in-front of the transmission linkages, so it's basically the bottom front-center of the car, right after the exhaust header junction.
It's just this morning that I noticed that my side-skirt orientation is noticeably different.
