trancenental

I hit this major pothole on Saturday night going about 60...felt like I got hit...

I pulled over and checked what I could with my ghetto flashlight in the pitch black..but the problem is I didn't really know what I was looking for...

So my question is what are some general things I should be checking out?

Right now, the ride is rougher than before...it's like when your rotors are warped, and you get that rattle..a lesser version of that.. It still holds straight though on the road, and the tires have good pressure.

So any ideas or thoughts on what to check are greatly appriciated. Thanks!

Roddimus Prime

look VERY Carefully over all wheels outside and inside...check for bent rims around the bead seal, feel the sidewalls in and out for nipples in the rubber. These sidewall nipples can rupture and completely shred your tire at speed.

Also, take a spray bottle of soapy water and spray them around the lip of the rims and pay attention to see if it bubbles any. This would indicate a leak.

Roddimus Prime

ps. if you are still unable to find the cause of the rattle take your car in to a shop to ahve a high speed balancing...this will EASILY give away a tire that is out of round.

juddz

Bent rims can be a fact of life in pot-holed Detroit. As Matty advised, I would check for a bend. Sometimes, this bend will be gentle (and hard to see), but still present. Once a wheel is out of round, on the freeway it will shake like Robert Downey Jr. going through detox. If the wheel is indeed bent (not just imbalanced), it may be time to replace it. But again, you will find this out on the computer balance machine (if you cannot see it visually).

And, you may also want to get your car aligned as well. Big potholes around here are known to make alignment more crooked than a weekend at the Neverland ranch.

rhendrya

I've hit a curb while trying to turn into a driveway with curbed borders on an icy winter day. Not only did I damage my wheel, but also I had to replace the tie rods. Just warning you....

tom grossmann

sounds like bent wheel.....get it fixed or it will start shaking the car to death.

Tom

MC

it could also be the alignment.... i hit a pot-hole here too.... and one of the front wheels was pointing out... it did shake like a mother *BEEEPER* usually @ speeds over 70kmh a simple alignment fixed the problem.... also one thing to be careful is if u been driving it for a bit since it went crook... the inside of ur tyre may be warn out pretty bad..

i didn;t realize this till like 100km after it happened to me... and the inside of the front left tyre was BALD..... so yeh... i donno if this is just that aggressive alignment u guys were talkin about with mazdas or related to this incident...but yeh.... watch out for it hehe

trancenental

I checked the rim out the best I could, incl. soapy water, but no dice. So I popped my hood today to check things out before I took it down to Big O for a spin balance, and I noticed that the engine was moving a lil more than usual while sitting there. So I checked out the mounts, and bingo, it looks like I done gone and toasted the mount that's in the front right. ...there's a little dingleberry (my high tech term) that's loose as hell in it, so I am hoping that I found the problem...I remember other posts were talking about how the mounts were weak on the pro..could this be it? I'm still planning a spin balance tomorrow though, just because it can't hurt, and the rim could still be damaged where I can't see it.

mazdaspeedpower

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE.

hey man, just be thankful all you got is a rattle. I hit a massive pothole concealed by leaves....I hit it going about 60km/h, and it grabed the wheel(left front passenger side) and cause the car to turn sideways a bit...I blew the tire, and mashed the steelie rim in harcore. Also bent the tie rod..costly ******* pothole.

trancenental

Got back from Big O today( it was like a bad scene from fast n the furious with shitty rice rockets parked in a row in the front..but the dude who helped me had a sweet 1.8 turbo miata). the verdict is two toasted rims and a jacked up motor mount. This quote summed it up: "Dude, what the hell did you hit?"

juddz

You should have told him "I dunno... but if you see any blood spatter that I missed, just don't tell anyone, ok?"

dudeondacouch

classy