Forum members might wish to note my recent experience of going over a pothole which I  failed to see in heavy rain in the dark. From the thud, I knew I had hit a bad one and was most annoyed having just had the tracking done on the car and a new set of all season Vredestein tyres fitted a few weeks earlier.  Further investigation when I arrived home,  revealed the front wheel hub was quite warm and the disc was too hot to touch. Managed to limp it to my local auto repair centre the next day.  As I suspected, the car needed a new brake calliper, two new  front disks and brakes pads. I probably got off lightly as there was no damage to the suspension. Will probably have to get the tracking done again. Just demonstrates how damaging these potholes can be.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/pothole-claims/

Many thanks for your response. I am so relieved to have the car fixed and back on the road. The website you highlight is very informative.   

Ah.

This is a subject very close to my heart.

I had a similar experience 2-3 years ago. Hit what I thought was a pothole in the dark. Turned out when I doubled back and waited for daylight to arrive a very short time afterwards (after having swapped out the offending wheel for the spare), that it was a sunken manhole cover I'd hit.

 

I parked up and took several pictures of the street location, GPS coordinates, road layout, offending manhole etc, plus the physical damage to 1 wrecked tyre, and mangled alloy wheel...

 

I then tracked down the council responsible for that stretch of highway. Went on their Website and filled in an on-line vehicle damage claims form, detailing my incident and the indicated cost of repairs in the form of quotes. ( In my case 1 x knackered tyre, 1 x mangled Alloy, new wishbone, suspension alignment, and labour charges.

 

What I received back from the council was a dismissive, (default) email quoting chapter & verse, the Highways act Section xyz and how they maintain their section of the public highway.

 

I decided to dig my heels in out of principle and submitted a  freedom of information request  relating to when the offending manhole was last inspected AND for details of any other pothole claims made for that same manhole cover on that particular day....

 

Their 2nd response? Very different..  This time they pointed out that they would agree to pay my costs in this instance, but that this was in no way and admission of negligence on their part for the upkeep of the highway.... Now there's a thing...

 

Sometimes perseverance and bloody mindedness does pay off. Just be prepared to dig your heels in.

 

I hope this long, and maybe boring message helps someone else 😊

Your perseverance did pay off and your message will give hope to others that there is light at the end of the tunnel. .. Your car suffered a significant amount of damage- I was so so lucky, it was just the brake calliper  and discs.  I am going to get the tracking  checked again. When I had it done previously, the assistant showed me how it all worked and how a computer assessed each wheel. it was really illuminating and he put so much effort into correcting the offside front wheel.  The charge was about £40 for all four wheels but it is well worth it. Thank you for your really helpful reply. 

Very unlikely that hitting a pothole would damage the brakes on both sides but not the wheels, tyres or suspension. I think you've been lucky in a way to have the brake faults brought to your attention.

I agree 100%

I would agree, I have been very lucky to have the brake fault identified. There seems to be no other damage. Many thanks