I ran over this pothole today, and I thought I ran over some trench or something. It really startled me because the shudder was quite jolting. I thought it blew out my passenger front tire! It was never there before. There had been some road construction on that road, so I'm pretty sure the pothole was a fresh, deliberate one. What pisses me off is that the road construction crew did not put up any warning signs. I drove back to it an hour later to check out the size of it. Seriously, I thought it would be huge considering the jolt and sound my car made when it ran over it. But it wasn't huge in size. There was just one part of it that was quite deep, and my car must have ran over that part. Funny how when I went to lunch the pothole was patched up. F#$K! Why didn't the road crew put up any signs?

My alignment seems fine. The strong jolt really concerns me. Anything to be worried about? I ran over it at around 30mph in my 190E. I'm quite angry at the lack of no warning signs.

check your rims. Put the car on a jack and rotate the wheel (it's the front, i assume). Check the inner and outer rims for any sign of being bent, while the wheel is rotating.

if you have the stock wheel/tire combo, then the tire should have absorbed much of the shock and saved the wheel.

You could have bent your rim but if you have a stock/stock size rim then that is not very likely it was bent. Lower profile tires do not protect as well if you think you may have bent your rim it should be repaired. You might want to take it off and look at the inside of the rim as well I have seen them bent on the inside and no signs at all on the outside. If you bottomed out extermely hard (like dropping your car from the air) then there could be some suspension damage. If your wheel is bent you may be able to get money for it I have heard of guys wrihting the state and getting money for their bent wheels.
Subman

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I just hate pot-holes too!

I would think the front alignmnt would have been knocked a few degrees off. As a rule of thumb, I always go in for an alignment job whenever I drove into a freakin* pot-hole. Thats when I think we're in some kinda 3rd world country .... perhaps.

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... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

Hopefully, you have not bent a wheel. I have seen the owners of 17, 18 and 20in wheels cry when they have had to replace a wheel after hitting a pothole. Super expensive!

I have 15 in wheels, and have not damaged a rim on a pothole, but have had tire damage. A hard pothole hit can break a steel belt or cord on your radial tire (this has happened to me 3 times) and the tire never balances well after that.....you are also more susceptable to a blowout at speed as the tire sidewall has been weakened.

Good luck

don't know where you are, but winter does tend to create those potholes that weren't there yesterday rather quickly. water freezing and expanding into ice is the main culprit. good thing they patched it right away...

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joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
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I did the same thing several months ago--hit the pothole from hell! The car immediately afterward pulled to the left with the steering wheel now cocked to the right. I went to two shops, one a dealership. Both told me there was nothing wrong with the steering or the alignment. After months of pulling, and correcting, I found a shop that rechecked the alignment, made a few adjustments to the "toe" and cautioned me about one very important but little thought of item: radial tire tread separation, caused by the pothole imact, that is not obvious upon inspection, but which will affect car handling, and of course pose an eventual safety hazard. If your tires begin to wear oddly, or your handling begins to "float" I'd suspect the tires were damaged by the pothole. I'd also suspect that both your front and rear tires hit the same pothole, as did mine, and both tires may be suspect. Use care.