Pothole Damage – Are Potholes Bad For Your Car?

You’re out with your family driving somewhere unfamiliar. Out of nowhere, you spot a large chunk of concrete missing from the road. It’s already too late to swerve and avoid it, you’re forced to drive through it and hope for the best. You can’t help to be annoyed with yourself when this happens, wishing you had seen it sooner, but with over 900,000 potholes reported on our roads, this is just a part of driving in the UK. 

 

You now have concerns over the damage this had done to your car. Well, luckily not all potholes can leave you broken down, many cars can just be absorbed the sudden shock with no problems. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Even the president of the Automobile Protection Association confirmed that potholes can cause damage to multiple areas of your vehicle. 

 

Stop what you’re doing and go outside to check the car, the last thing you want to be doing is driving around in a damaged vehicle which is a ticking timebomb to break down.

 

Chipping Your Tyres And Rims

 

The first and most obvious place you would expect to find the damage is on tyres and rims. This area of the car is what will be sinking into the pothole when you travel over it. If the pothole is deep and or has sharp edges, you can find that the tyre can have a chunk taken out of it. This is one of the most dangerous places to find damage as you are now in risk of a full blow out. A scratch is on your rims is only an aesthetic problem, tyre damage is where you are at most risk of a breakdown.

 

Substantial Damage To The Shock Absorbers 

 

A sock absorber is a mechanical device which is designed to help your car cope with all the bumps and lumps found in the road. One thing that they are not designed for is the sudden impact caused by an unexpected pothole. This is because only one shock absorber will be dealing with all the impact when you come in contact with the hole, increasing the chance of the sock absorber becoming damaged or even completely broken. 

 

Car Suspension Damage

 

Whilst shock absorbers are an essential part of the suspension in your car you also need to consider what this pothole can do to the rest of your suspension system. The sharp angle of your car entering the hole can lead to all sorts of problems such as misalignment and broken ball joints. Although this may not be as dangerous as a damaged tyre it can lead to the car becoming near undrivable resulting in you requiring instant mechanical attention. 

 

Uneven Vehicle Alignment 

 

When you go to get your tyers changed you will often hear the mechanics talking about your tracking. Well, if your tracking is off you will find that your vehicle can pull to one side by itself. Potholes can also knock off your tracking which can make driving feel very uncomfortable as you end up battling your own steering. Luckily this is a much easier fix than some of the other problems caused by potholes. 

 

Potholes can cause a substantial amount of damage to our vehicles. Although you make a conscious effort to avoid them, it can sometimes seem like they are just to frequent to miss. Luckily every year our councils fork out millions of pounds on pothole repair. Whilst this may sound like a large sum of money we are still dealing with over 30km of potholes. 

 

If you have recently come in contact with a pothole and you’re worried about the health of your vehicle, we highly recommend that you give your car a once over and check for signs of damage.