Hit a pothole last night in the dark rainy weather. Never saw it coming. Heck of a bang... actually two bangs. Immediately heard hissing of air. Doh.

Two flats meant a tow home... Currently back at work but leaving early to arrange getting the car to a shop for inspection. Anybody want to guess what the damage will be?

20 cast aluminum factor wheels.... I'm guessing cracked wheels as I didn't *see* any tire damage... in the dark and rainy night...

What's the over-under on suspension damage???

It is gonna be a good weekend.

Maybe just lost the seals for an instant?

$25-$225,000

What model car?

I doubt your rims are cracked but they could have a big enough dent to cause the bead to break which resulted in your two flats. The good news is if your rims are damaged they can be repaired depending on the extent of the damage. I hit a pothole and bent my aluminum rim but had it repaired for a nominal price which was significantly cheaper than buying a new rim. The best you can hope for is your side walls may have been damaged which means at least two new tires the worst while unlikely your rims are damaged beyond repair which means new tires and rims.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
$25-$225,000

What model car?

Super safe bet.

2016 Ford Flex

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
I doubt your rims are cracked but they could have a big enough dent to cause the bead to break which resulted in your two flats. The good news is if your rims are damaged they can be repaired depending on the extent of the damage. I hit a pothole and bent my aluminum rim but had it repaired for a nominal price which was significantly cheaper than buying a new rim. The best you can hope for is your side walls may have been damaged which means at least two new tires the worst while unlikely your rims are damaged beyond repair which means new tires and rims.

So you think they'd bend before cracking? For some reason I assumed the cast aluminum was more likely to just break, but I don't know much.

It is an AWD car so I might end up having to get all 4 tires... They are about 22 months old, and I did get the road hazard replacement warranty thing... so that should help offset the cost if the tires do need replacing.

quote:

Anybody want to guess what the damage will be?

Sounds expensive. Let us know.

quote:

2016 Ford Flex

Sounds like it didn’t Flex…

After the tires/wheels, also add on the cost of an alignment.

Only one way to tell unfortunately, inspect on a lift.
I would count on at least the tires and likely bent wheels and maybe alignment.
After that, you'll have to tell us once it's been looked inspected.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

Anybody want to guess what the damage will be?

Sounds expensive. Let us know.

quote:

2016 Ford Flex

Sounds like it didn’t Flex…

I can attest that there was little flexing happening in that moment.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Only one way to tell unfortunately, inspect on a lift.
I would count on at least the tires and likely bent wheels and maybe alignment.
After that, you'll have to tell us once it's been looked inspected.

This afternoon I'm going to pull the wheels off and bring those over first and see what is going on with them... Going to have to bring the car itself in at a later date.... Don't want to keep having to call a tow just to get it around. If I can get it rolling I can then load it on my brother in law's flat bed and tow it myself if it remains undriveable.

I didn't notice any significant weirdness as I finished driving across the short bridge I was on just after the pothole... but who knows.

Hopefully you got lucky.
I can attest that those Flex 20s are heavy. Hated doing rotations on ours. Haven't done our Expedition yet, and expect those 20s to be even heavier.

My smokin hot wife hit a pothole, bent the rim and popped the tire. 21" wheel on a Buick Envision. Dealer wanted $1300 for a new rim. I found one used, the only one on the entire interwebs on ebay for $400. I think the tire was about $400 too

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:

I can attest that there was little flexing happening in that moment.

Not for the car anyway!

Since your location shows Modesto...

Get a picture of the hole in question then send it a copy of the repair invoice to the city for compensation.

Your auto insurance might take of of holding the city accountable.

Once found out that is part of what our $0.68 / gallon tax is supposed to pay for - roads which do not cause damage.

If you're going for OEM from Ford, I'm guessing $945 for the pair.

Sure you weren't street racing against a DB-5?

"A double blow-out! I've never sheen that before!"

[/QUOTE]

So you think they'd bend before cracking? For some reason I assumed the cast aluminum was more likely to just break, but I don't know much. [/QUOTE]

Absolutely...I only know this because I bent an aluminum rim when I hit a pothole and it put a dent in the rim that was repairable.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Since your location shows Modesto...

Get a picture of the hole in question then send it a copy of the repair invoice to the city for compensation.

Your auto insurance might take of of holding the city accountable.

Once found out that is part of what our $0.68 / gallon tax is supposed to pay for - roads which do not cause damage.

It was actually a county road, not the city. It was in the part of town that is very confusing, jurisdictionally, but I was able to ID who it belongs to already and do plan on filing a claim, even though I'm not confident it'll be covered. I can at least try.

I talked to my insurance last night... they said they don't "typically" cover tires.... My deductible is $500 so if both wheels need full replacements I'll likely be in insurance claim territory... but at this point it is just speculation.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
If you're going for OEM from Ford, I'm guessing $945 for the pair.

Google shows you are likely pretty close... I might call the local dealer just to see. I like the OEM rims enough but I'm not married to them. I'm open to options if the tire shop has some. Again, should it prove necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:

Absolutely...I only know this because I bent an aluminum rim when I hit a pothole and it put a dent in the rim that was repairable.

Hopefully!

hopefully you're lucky. my boss just hit a pothole in his ram truck and got two flats. he only needed new tires, wheels were fine. he said he'd let me know about the alignment. I usually only get alignments when I get all four new tires.

My wife blasted a pothole in her 2018 Ford Escape.

Both passenger side rims dented/stressed beyond repair.

Factory rims (18” upgrade) were north of $1100 each. Being AWD, had to replace all four tires due to amount of tread wear.

Total came out to around $3200. Insurance covered rims under collision cover, but tires/alignment for some reason are excluded.

Picked up some aftermarket “copies” of the factory rims and saved enough to cover rims and two of the tires so out of pocket for me was my deductible and another $600 or so

Once you get to two wheels that you are replacing, you can usually get full set of some nice aftermarket wheels and tires for less than the cost of two OEMs, sometimes one.

No WAY am I spending $1,500 on two replacement wheels/tires for a Flex, let alone $3,200 for an Escape.

Also as with any aftermarket wheels be verrrrrry careful that you aren't getting some brittle Chinese replica crap. You're really signing up for trouble then.