Trolley jack damage to my car

[dwalker109]

Having never jacked a car up in my life, I managed to make a bit of a mess of it today.

I used a trolley jack positioned on the thin sill/rail in what LOOKED like the right spot (right at the front, near the wheel), and this has bent the sill outwards somewhat (about 15 mil). Having seen that the manufacturer's jack doesn't lift on the sill at all, it seems obvious now and I feel stupid.

I was just wondering whether this is worth getting sorted out (i.e. bent back into position), and whether it can wait 5000 miles for my next service before I do. Is this just going to be cosmetic? Or is it more of a big deal?

FWIW, I can still jack the car without problems because, thankfully, I was jacking the wrong bit anyway. I've put a load of underseal on the damaged bit, so rust shouldn't be an issue.

Any advice anyone can give would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks in advance guys!

Dan

 

[JonB]

It sounds just to be cosmetic. I might be worried if it was a pretty new model or a classic. If it's just the lip at the bottom try bending it back into shape & re underseal it.

 

[Diyisfun]

Just leave it. How old is the car?

 

[dwalker109]

Thanks for the responses guys...

The car's about 7 years old (X reg, 2001), and yes, it is just the lip at the bottom. Sounds like it's not too big a deal then...

I tried bending it, but it's pretty mangled (15 mil was quite an understatement - it's actually more like 30 mil, and has been warped a bit). It's not going anywhere without quite a lot of force...

 

[Nige F]

leave it alone If you ask a garage to bend it back, chances are the heating/ pulling about will cause sealer damage inside the cill and it`ll be the 1st. place to rust through eventually.forget it

 

[dwalker109]

OK, sounds like I don't have a major problem. The sill has actually split already, but is currently nicely bonded/sealed away under the underseal I painted on. It looks like the end bit (the bit I damaged) is actually a separate bit of metal, so it would (hopefully, I know nothing about car repair) not be too big a job to replace it.

I may ask for some info on the damage when it goes for service, but I shan't worry too much about it till then. Cheers!