Has Poor Road Conditions Affected Your Alignment?

Potholes can be a Pest for Wheel Alignment!

Your vehicle deals with wear and tear every time you drive it. The most obvious hazard it faces, of course, is poor road conditions. In North Carolina, with our heavy rain and recent frozen winters, we are seeing roads deteriorate at a rapid rate. We can do our best to avoid the worst areas of the road, but we’ve all hit that one pothole that was unavoidable! When you hear the telltale jarring sound of wheel on pavement and you feel the abrupt jump as one wheel finds it isn’t where it is supposed to be, you immediately start thinking about how much damage was done. Our technicians at DK Hardee put together a checklist so you can take inventory after your pothole incident and see if you need professional maintenance.

A Shock to Your Suspension

After a pothole incident, the most likely part of your vehicle to sustain damage would be your shocks and struts. As part of your complicated suspension system, your shocks and struts absorb the impact of your vehicle on the road and smoothes out the ride for you and your passengers. When your shocks or struts have been affected, one or more of these signs will start to show up in your vehicle:

• Unusual Noises: After an intense impact, you may begin to hear rattling or squeaking sounds from your vehicle. This could be the noise made by a blown strut.
• Bouncing: If your shocks have been affected by the pothole, your vehicle may have an odd bounce when you depress the brakes. The bounce results from your shocks not absorbing the force of braking in your vehicle.
• Misaligned Steering: Your steering may also be affected after a bad impact. If you experience your vehicle pulling to either side when the wheel and the road are both straight, that’s a sign your alignment has been affected by the pothole.
• Shuddering: If the impact was strong enough, you may not be able to drive without feeling the damage to your vehicle. Any shuddering in the vehicle or rough riding means your shocks and struts could have been affected all the way up to your suspension.

Expert Alignment & Suspension Services in Fayetteville, NC

Depending on the number of issues you experience after accidentally hitting a pothole, the best option is to have it looked over by factory-trained professionals like our team at DK Hardee Auto. Driving on damaged struts, blown shocks or damaged suspension can cause other problems in your vehicle as well. Early repairs mean fewer repairs!