Pot-hole from Hell

[Gotham Taffer]

I was driving through New Brunswick, NJ, the other day and hit a huge pot-hole. It was a rather annoying setup, in that I had to swerve left to miss a deep pot-hole, and in the process, ended up hitting a slightly smaller pot-hole on with the left-front tire of my MCS. It was still a big one, though. The noise was trememdous. I thought I left the whole wheel assembly behind.

Steering appears to be okay while driving, braking hard, and accelerating hard. Still, I'm concerned that I did some damage. The car is going in for some other issues in a week. What should I have them look at? Anything in particular?

-Gotham Taffer

[markjenn]

Wheel damage. Usually the wheels are the weakest link and you'll have a flat spot in the rim flange near the tire bead. You can easily inspect for this yourself.

- Mark

[Jerseygirl]

Also be sure to check your tires. I've hit a couple potholes in my other car and ended up with a nice bubble in the sidewall of my tire. Obviously, that can't be repaired so it was a new tire both times.

[CooperS4us]

I would have them do a visual tire/rim inspection and perhaps take the opportunity to do a tire balance to all 4 wheels. Usually during balancing problems are discovered with a bent rim or a tire with a flat spot (The machine won't balance each side of the rim to ZERO).

If you feel that the car pulls either to the left or right when you briefly let go of the steering wheel, you may also have to get a 4 wheel aligment done.

Sorry to hear about this! I hate potholes!!!

[CHRYSt]

I had the same problem. Hit 2 potholes, about a week apart. Big scary noise, sure something broke. Didn't see any damage tho.

My commute to/from work keeps me under about 40 mph, so I didn't even notice any problems.

Finally had a chance to hit the highway, and noticed a vibration at about 50 MPH. Took it in, assuming I'd thrown a weight or something.

Nope. Service guy brings me back to look. It still looked fine from the outside. Then he turned on the engine and had me look under the car. Both front wheels had big bent out notches on the inside of the rim, and the tires were obviously not even round on that side.

Ouch. $225 per new rim, $231 per new tire, $99 BMW labor.

The real suck was that I thought I had a $250 insurance deductible. Found out that it only applied to comprehensive, and that potholes count under collision. My Collision deductible is $500.

So insurance covered about $450 out of the $1100 total. Suck. Ass.