Minor accident, Air Intake Resonator Fell Off

So I was letting my friend drive my 2008 Prius and my friend hit a big rock. Knocked the front grille off the car and the black plastic protective thing on the bottom of the car. Also, this thing fell off. Bumper is also hanging down a little bit but that could be because last time I took it off I lost 2 of the bolts and it just jumped free a bit.

On the bottom it is labeled 17893-21030 which tells me it is a Air Intake Resonator.

From a brief reading online it seems like the sole purpose is to make the car quieter. The car was driven about a mile after the incident with no signs of trouble, aside from a slight leak of a clear liquid yet unidentified. Clear like water but slightly slimy. My best guess is that it is just water from the A/C that mixed with various fluids that accumulated on the black plastic guard on the bottom of the car. I have yet to pull off the entire black plastic thing and fully assess the damage. Engine oil levels are okay, Invert coolant levels good, wiper fluid levels good, coolant for the ICE engine itself looks slightly low (below the L line but not by much), but I don't think there is a problem there I'll just top it off a little bit.



I'm still investigating for trouble, but if anyone has any specific suggestions for things I should check let me know.

If this part is just to make the car quieter I might just leave it off or find a way to reconnect it rather than buy an undamaged one. Do you think I should replace this part? I'm not really sure where it hooks up so that's a potential big issue. I can't imagine the air intake is working properly with a giant hole in the system where this is supposed to be. I'm guessing the car was mostly on electric on the way home.

 

Thanks for the replies.

That cold air intake stuff looks cool but I am way too ignorant in my point of the learning curve.

How hot is the air that reaches the top of the air intake resonator?

I think mine looks good enough to reattach but I would like to fix the tear at the top. Just need to use something with a high enough melting point. I am thinking milliput, which is supposed to be good to 130*C

 

I used pliars to bend some things back to shape and filed some rough spots. Next step, I will add a bit of milliput to fill in the voids at the top and reinforce a bolt spot. Then figure out if I can reuse the original mounting spots!

There is one spot on the side where there is a hole that's not supposed to be there, too, not shown in images. I also think I can seal it with milliput.

 

I have applied the milliput, now for it to cure. Can sand it later I believe if it is creating an interference.

 

I reattached the rubber fastener damper washer things into the holes. They slide in through two, and the third one requires a flat nose screwdriver or something to force the rubber through.



When attached the frame was bent such that it didn't make a good connection so I bent it back a bit with a wrench but it still wasn't perfect. You can see at the top there is a gap between the intake and the resonator.


So I filled in the gap with some milliput. I am aware that under vibrations this is like 90% guaranteed to split. However, airflow in the gap will be reduced to what escapes from the crack. Then after it cracks I can cover the surface with more milliput and it should be under less stress for the second application



The black plastic guard was bent to hell. To protect my water pump, I installed a 9 inch pie plate tin:

 

Unfortunately it appears that something else may be damaged. The air conditioning is now blowing hot air. I'm guessing it could be the A/C condenser since I think it is close in proximity to the air intake resonator.

I started a new thread on this issue: Collision damage to AC Condenser | PriusChat

 

Well, I let my same friend drive the same car again, and the result was a collision with a mailbox.

The Air Intake Resonator is no more!



Importantly, what I notice is that the Milliput seems to have melted near the air intake, obscuring the hole considerably. The engine was apparently too hot for the Milliput. So this repair material cannot be recommended by me for this purpose.




On the bright side, the newly installed AC Compressor seems to have survived this blow and the metal plate I installed to protect the fan belt may have done its job here.

The turn signal bulb broke, and one of the fog lights is totally, completely gone. The air intake resonator is destroyed, and the air intake hole is warped so much I couldn't install an new one without some major bending.

The headlight and running light still work.

The fortunate thing is that most of the damage is cosmetic. It still drives just fine, just looks a little ugly after applying some zip ties and reattaching the missing bumper piece.