Bloody pot holes

[Weebawbag]

Driving along minding my own sweet business to only find my front n/s wheel disappear down the mother of all pot holes.

Thought I’d got away with just a bad jolt to only find the dreaded noise and feel of a flat, upon inspection tyre wall split and alloy damaged 🤬 thank f*#k I bought a spare and never relied upon the puncture repair kit. 
£60 to get alloy repaired and powder coated .

[roaddetective]

I feel your pain mate. When driving my previous car, an earlier 2011 Octavia VRS TSI, my front N/S wheel hit a pot hole. Buckled alloy along with a large bulge in the sidewall of the tyre. Had the wheel repaired and a new tyre fitted. One month later, the same wheel hit a pot hole when turning right at a roundabout. The new tyre burst open, ruined again. Like you, thank goodness I had bought a spare wheel that got me home. As for my present car, still in the garage/bodyshop after a late night hit and run driver rammed into my car while parked in our private car park. Oh what luck I am having!!!!!!

[unclerichy]

I feel for you there after hitting a pothole just a few weeks ago with an immense bang that made me think I'd burst the tyre. Fortunately the tyre took the hit in that it deformed so much that it left rubber on the outside of the alloy. No actual damage done (tyre is ok; no bulges/tears and I've been monitoring frequentll) but I need to pop in and get the tracking done as it was the NSF.

 

I live in a village with one road in and one road out with few street lamps on said roads and it's scary how many potholes there are (and how deep they are) after the recent floods.

[Auric Goldfinger]

Sent the pictures and the bill to the Highway department.

[MASKO]

18 minutes ago, Weebawbag said:

Driving along minding my own sweet business to only find my front n/s wheel disappear down the mother of all pot holes.

Thought I’d got away with just a bad jolt to only find the dreaded noise and feel of a flat, upon inspection tyre wall split and alloy damaged 🤬 thank f*#k I bought a spare and never relied upon the puncture repair kit. 
£60 to get alloy repaired and powder coated .

 

Have you reported the pothole to the Local Council or Highways Agency? Have you made a claim against them for repairs to your car? You are fully entitled to do so and if you are not satisfied with their response then take your case to the small claims court.

[roaddetective]

Impossible to get any safe photos at the time when the tyre burst, as it was on a very busy Buckingham roundabout, A week later it had been repaired! Old news now I guess, just be glad when my present car gets fixed.

[dunc69]

59 minutes ago, Auric Goldfinger said:

Sent the pictures and the bill to the Highway department.

Agree!

 

@Weebawbag photograph everything (seems you’ve done that), keep all the invoices & receipts, and bill the local authority. 
 

Good luck! 

[Carlston]

Your tyres are too low profile to cope with big potholes. Easy answer is to get tyres with plenty of sidewall.

 

Try 215/55R17 tyres on 6.5Jx17 ET41 steel rims.

 

Steel Rims 6.5Jx17 ET41 5/112 57.1

 

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/steel-wheel/alcar-kfz-hybridrad-132801#21105998

Edited 27 February, 2020 by Carlston

[Weebawbag]

18 minutes ago, Carlston said:

Your tyres are too low profile to cope with big potholes. Easy answer is get tyres with plenty of sidewall.

 

Try 215/55R17 tyres on 6.5Jx17 ET41 steel rims.

 

Steel Rims 6.5Jx17 ET41 5/112 57.1

 

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/steel-wheel/alcar-kfz-hybridrad-132801#21105998

Tbh I love the Pegasus rims, tho those you posted are sweet

[Bap33]

4 hours ago, Weebawbag said:

Driving along minding my own sweet business to only find my front n/s wheel disappear down the mother of all pot holes.

Thought I’d got away with just a bad jolt to only find the dreaded noise and feel of a flat, upon inspection tyre wall split and alloy damaged 🤬 thank f*#k I bought a spare and never relied upon the puncture repair kit. 
£60 to get alloy repaired and powder coated .

 

I understand your feelings. I faced the same problem last year. Pothole, tyre perforated on the side wall, alloy wheel bent on the inner rim. Fortunately for me, it was time to switch for winter wheels. Thus, I had enough time to find a reliable specialist to get the 19" alloy wheel properly repaired. But I had to buy 2 new tyres, since the non-perforated one on the same axle was to worn to be able to buy only one tyre (Pirelli P7). I took this opportunity to moint 2 Michelin PS4. Now, I'm eager to change the 2 remaining P7s for 2 PS4s.  

 

Edited 27 February, 2020 by Bap33

[IJWS15]

If anyone has read "Roadcraft" you will understand that you need to be lucky to succeed with a claim for pothole damage.

 

You should be assessing the quality of the road surface and driving at the appropriate speed.

 

Part of a previous role was claims handling and I never accepted them and never had one taken to court..

[unclerichy]

1 hour ago, IJWS15 said:

You should be assessing the quality of the road surface and driving at the appropriate speed.

Around my area that would be:

 

a) Absolutely atrocious

b) No more than 5mph, slowing to 2mph in darkness

 

[Pesmog]

My best mate was stranded on a back road in Norfolk recently when he hit a deep pothole at 20mph in the dark. The problem was he heard a double bang...……….🥺😢

[g_tee]

I munted a wheel earlier. The outside looks ok, but the tyre is flat as a pancake. No idea what the inside of the rim looks like, will see what happens when I get a new tyre slapped on tomorrow.

 

[BOD20]

My wife called me on the way home from work a couple of weeks ago to say she'd hit a pothole. Initially she called roadside assistance but they were going to take a while to reach her so I drove out to see if I could change the wheel.

 

Just before I reached her I passed 4 other cars with their hazard warning lights on, at the side of the road who had clearly hit the same pothole. When I reached her car there was another one behind her with a burst tyre. That's 6 cars in the space of an hour or so !!

 

Got the car jacked up, wheel nuts off but could I get the wheel off the hub ?? No chance. I tried everything but was reluctant to throw too much weight at it as it might have come off the spindly jack supplied with the car. I ended up having to wait for the roadside assistance who jacked it up with heavy duty trolley jack then applied several hard kicks around the tyre with a steel toecapped work boot before it finally relented.

 

Lesson learnt. I'm getting a spacesaver spare for my new (to me) car and I'm taking all 4 wheels off mine and the wife's car at home then applying a dab off anti-sieze compound to the hub centres before I put the wheels back on.

 

We made a claim to the council for the damaged wheel and tyre but haven't heard anything yet.

[Ootohere]

@BOD20 

Did that happen to be on the A9 between Stirling and Blackford.  I was in one of the 2 lay-by there for a long time as car after car had tyres and wheels wrecked in torrential rain and i was one of the first sorted out. When i got up to the Filling station 2 police officers had been there for hours as mayhem was going on 2 miles down the dual carriageway.

Or was it on the A90 near Laurencekirk?

 

Is where it was the Council that maintain it or BEAR or Amey?  Makes a difference.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/272686-motorway-blowout-2-tyres-wrecked-evergreens-fitted-oh-dear

 

 

[g_tee]

Here's the pothole I hit.

 

Had a new tyre, fortunately the wheel is ok.

[BOD20]

18 minutes ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

@BOD20 

Did that happen to be on the A9 between Stirling and Blackford.  I was in one of the 2 lay-by there for a long time as car after car had tyres and wheels wrecked in torrential rain and i was one of the first sorted out. When i got up to the Filling station 2 police officers had been there for hours as mayhem was going on 2 miles down the dual carriageway.

Or was it on the A90 near Laurencekirk?

 

 

Quote

 

 

 

No it was in the Borders between Peebles and Galashiels. 

 

And yes, there was torrential rain that evening too !!

[Carlston]

7 hours ago, BOD20 said:

Got the car jacked up, wheel nuts off but could I get the wheel off the hub ?? No chance. I tried everything but was reluctant to throw too much weight at it as it might have come off the spindly jack supplied with the car. I ended up having to wait for the roadside assistance who jacked it up with heavy duty trolley jack then applied several hard kicks around the tyre with a steel toecapped work boot before it finally relented.

 

To free a wheel that is rusted/seized on to the hub, undo the wheel bolts by no more than one turn each before jacking up. Then grab the top of the tyre with both hands and rock the wheel back and forwards until the wheel has unseized. Then jack up the car, remove the wheel bolts, and remove the wheel. This rocking motion is very effective at unseizing a wheel that is stuck to the hub. It's very difficult to unseize a wheel from the hub if the wheel is already in the air.

Edited 29 February, 2020 by Carlston

[Pesmog]

Carlstons advice is good. Another trick to release a stuck wheel that I have used many times if you already have the wheel off the ground (and nuts still attached but loose) is with the stuck wheel just a few mm clear of the surface to roll the spare wheel towards the stuck wheel edge and it usually provides enough of a shock impact at exactly the right angle to release the wheel.  You need to be careful that you don't bend the wing, but it usually works. Doing this is safer than kicking it when it is up on the jack as you are standing away from the car. I changed hundreds of wheels back when I was a mechanic and some can be an absolute pig to unstick - mainly truck wheels)

Edited 1 March, 2020 by Pesmog

[g_tee]

On 28/02/2020 at 09:29, IJWS15 said:

If anyone has read "Roadcraft" you will understand that you need to be lucky to succeed with a claim for pothole damage.

 

You should be assessing the quality of the road surface and driving at the appropriate speed.

 

Part of a previous role was claims handling and I never accepted them and never had one taken to court..

 

Well, in my case the rain was so heavy the pothole was virtually impossible to see at night.

 

I'd gone back the next day to take a photo, but what made me laugh - there were three of us at the side of the road whom has all been caught out the night before. We were stood there, pointing at the road, yet at one car smacked it in broad daylight! In the light and not raining - you honestly would have to be blind NOT to see it! 

 

[BOD20]

On 28/02/2020 at 09:29, IJWS15 said:

You should be assessing the quality of the road surface and driving at the appropriate speed.

 

Part of a previous role was claims handling and I never accepted them and never had one taken to court..

 

Agreed, but this particular pothole was on the left side of the road where the road bends to the left. With the darkness, the rain, and oncoming headlights from the other side of the ropad it was virtually impossible to see, and swerving to avoid it would have meant swerving into oncoming traffic.

 

Going back along the same road in the daylight, and knowing the the pothole was there, it was still very difficult to see until you were right on it !

[MASKO]

Latest stats I've seen is that Councils are paying out claims for pothole damages in 1 in 4 cases.

[310golfr]

depends on which part of the country your from, only 1 in 20 claims successful in sunny glesga

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/revealed-potholes-on-scotlands-roads-that-so-big-they-can-be-seen-from-space/

[NJRJ]

12 minutes ago, MASKO said:

Latest stats I've seen is that Councils are paying out claims for pothole damages in 1 in 4 cases.

 

Councils don't pay out if reports of potholes are responded to in a reasonable time, and that an inspection and repair program exists. However a pothole that causes multiple problems like that is likely to be nodded through for claims as it is clearly outwith reasonable expectations of safety, after all any road shouldn't need to be dry and light to be safe to use...

Insurance companies loss adjusters might well try and wriggle, but the council 'owned' one's will always back off when it is clearly demonstrable that multiple cars have been damaged in short order - any decent inspection program would have detected such a fault well before failure.

Pothole damage in daylight and in the dry isn't going to end well for a claimant - it's like saying 'I ran him over as he was in the middle of the road and I wasn't swerving' (obviously killing pedestrians is expensive bodywork wise, but really cheap in court).