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I hate potholes

K

KIAman

Diamond Member
So after my excitement of installing a set of coilovers, I took my car out to settle the suspension and BAM, pothole at 60MPH.

I swear to God my car sounded like it was hit with an RPG, like an explosion.

So... now I got about a 1 inch diameter bubble coming out about 1/6 of an inch on my front driver's tire. Local tire shop does not have my tire in stock and earliest shipment is Wednesday.

Do I drive? Yay or nay?
 
My guess is that nothing will happen in the near future if you continue to drive, but keep in mind you alone are responsible for more lives than just your own.
 
thescreensavers said:
If your lowered, and your tire is the only thing thats bad your lucky.
Click to expand...

I did get lucky, my wheels were not bent but have a slight rash on the outer edge where the tire is bubbling. I can buff that out.

My wife is convinced I have POS tires considering her michelins on her Honda has hit that same pothole at least 10 times without incident, LOL.
 
KIAman said:
I did get lucky, my wheels were not bent but have a slight rash on the outer edge where the tire is bubbling. I can buff that out.

My wife is convinced I have POS tires considering her michelins on her Honda has hit that same pothole at least 10 times without incident, LOL.
Click to expand...

what tires do you have?

you should avoid potholes now that you are lowered... everytime I hit a bump it feels like an explosion in my car too, i haven't messed the tires or rims at all though (not that big of a bump, more like spike)
 
KIAman said:
I did get lucky, my wheels were not bent but have a slight rash on the outer edge where the tire is bubbling. I can buff that out.

My wife is convinced I have POS tires considering her michelins on her Honda has hit that same pothole at least 10 times without incident, LOL.
Click to expand...

You DO have POS tires.

Michelins or GTFO.
 
Theres this one expansion joint on the 73 north to 405 north connector in OC that made my cobalt sound like it was going to explode when I hit it. Like the entire car would shake and the front suspension sounded like it bottomed out all the way to the max and then some.

Ironically, in my Jetta its just a little bump.
 
BassBomb said:
what tires do you have?

you should avoid potholes now that you are lowered... everytime I hit a bump it feels like an explosion in my car too, i haven't messed the tires or rims at all though (not that big of a bump, more like spike)
Click to expand...

Bridgestone RE50A RFT. These are OEM. My next set will not be RFT. My coilover drop is only 1/2 inch in the front and 1/4 in the back. I had stock ZSP.

I probably need an alignment soon.
 
I got the tire replaced and got a 4 wheel alignment. Amazingly, my fronts were almost within specs with minor adjustments needed, my rears were way too much negative camber, even beyond BMW's aggressive camber settings.

Now the only thing is the driver's front looks a tad higher than passenger front visually. I gotta break out the ruler again.
 
KIAman said:
I got the tire replaced and got a 4 wheel alignment. Amazingly, my fronts were almost within specs with minor adjustments needed, my rears were way too much negative camber, even beyond BMW's aggressive camber settings.

Now the only thing is the driver's front looks a tad higher than passenger front visually. I gotta break out the ruler again.
Click to expand...

Is that with or without you sitting in there? Oddly on my car passenger front and driver rear sit lowest 😱
 
michelins are beasts, i drove a couple hundred miles with 2 nails in one tire, no biggie. obviously I didn't know it or I would have stopped.
 
If you tires is bubbled whereas the other car's tires are not, it is more likely due to the hard hit from the suspension being so much harder.

Michelin are not the be all end all tire, they are just expensive.

I've had tires from most all brands and the only tires I can uniformly say suck, are Toyo.

My favorite tires for overall performance have been Bridgestone. Usually a little noisier, but grippy as can be! (depending on model)

Also, Coopers are awesome for the $. I love them.
 
BassBomb said:
Is that with or without you sitting in there? Oddly on my car passenger front and driver rear sit lowest 😱
Click to expand...

That's without me sitting inside. Oddly enough, I took a quick look at my car here at work and now both sides look pretty even... maybe the suspension is still settling or something, idk.

The funny thing is now I got 3 tires that have around 30% life left with 1 tire brand new...

I'm thinking my next set will be some PS2s or Yokos.
 
KIAman said:
That's without me sitting inside. Oddly enough, I took a quick look at my car here at work and now both sides look pretty even... maybe the suspension is still settling or something, idk.

The funny thing is now I got 3 tires that have around 30% life left with 1 tire brand new...

I'm thinking my next set will be some PS2s or Yokos.
Click to expand...

How long did you wait before you got your alignment, normally on my accord forums people usually go a week before the suspension settles
 
CraigRT said:
If you tires is bubbled whereas the other car's tires are not, it is more likely due to the hard hit from the suspension being so much harder.

Michelin are not the be all end all tire, they are just expensive.

I've had tires from most all brands and the only tires I can uniformly say suck, are Toyo.

My favorite tires for overall performance have been Bridgestone. Usually a little noisier, but grippy as can be! (depending on model)

Also, Coopers are awesome for the $. I love them.
Click to expand...

Haha, I googled "sidewall bubble" and it seems the common theme is BMW, hahaha.

Also, Bridgestone developed their new RFT2 that is supposed to be much smoother and grips better than their original, I just don't know if I can justify the extra cost of an RFT.

My wife got Michelins on her Honda simply because the local costco was doing an $80 off sale and it was the cheapest, lol.
 
PricklyPete said:
How do you like the ride in your car with the coilovers?
Click to expand...

I got PSS9s and the ride feels really tight without extra harshness. The biggest difference is no body roll during turns and no choppiness on uneven surfaces. I don't know if it is characteristic of coilovers or not but it feels like it tramlines a little more than my old ZSP, I dunno. The best thing is the ability to adjust rebounds on both impact and release. My hands are screwed up from the install so I wont be adjusting anything soon.

My old struts were completely shot and floaty so these make my car feel brand new. My wife commented on how smooth I brake now because there is no nose dive along with a bounce. Also, the traction control doesn't kick in as much as there is more consistent contact with the road.
 
KIAman said:
I got PSS9s and the ride feels really tight without extra harshness. The biggest difference is no body roll during turns and no choppiness on uneven surfaces. I don't know if it is characteristic of coilovers or not but it feels like it tramlines a little more than my old ZSP, I dunno. The best thing is the ability to adjust rebounds on both impact and release. My hands are screwed up from the install so I wont be adjusting anything soon.

My old struts were completely shot and floaty so these make my car feel brand new. My wife commented on how smooth I brake now because there is no nose dive along with a bounce. Also, the traction control doesn't kick in as much as there is more consistent contact with the road.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great upgrade. Sorry for my ignorance...but what does "tramline" mean? Also, how many miles do you have on your 3?
 
PricklyPete said:
Sounds like a great upgrade. Sorry for my ignorance...but what does "tramline" mean? Also, how many miles do you have on your 3?
Click to expand...

Tramline is when your car steers itself depending on imperfections in the road, for example, cracks in the road. It's not a huge change in steering, it's just a little noticeable, especially when accelerating hard.

I have 90k miles on my 3. Bushings all looked great but the struts and rear dampeners were shot.
 
KIAman said:
Tramline is when your car steers itself depending on imperfections in the road, for example, cracks in the road. It's not a huge change in steering, it's just a little noticeable, especially when accelerating hard.

I have 90k miles on my 3. Bushings all looked great but the struts and rear dampeners were shot.
Click to expand...

Ah...gotcha...I know what you mean by tramlining now...just hadn't heard the term.

Wow....lots of miles on the 3...what year is it?
 
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