So I’m in my '00 Honda Civic, making a left turn at a low-moderate rate of speed into (what I think is) a sidewalk/driveway. (I’m not sure what you call it; it’s where you have a wedge cut out of a sidewalk so a car can drive up a gentle incline into the lot or whatever.)
However, what I don’t see until it’s too late is that the entire “wedge”/driveway has been removed for some reason. Thus, it’s like I’m driving headlong into a curb (or maybe a little higher). Obviously, I hear this huge metallic scrape! Ack, what a sound. Nothing like it to induce a heart-jump.
My question is, it’s obvious that the bottom of my bumper got scraped; I don’t particularly care (unless it’ll cause said bumper to fall off on the freeway or something). But any chance anything important got scraped/damaged before the tires elevated the car above the “curb”?
I’d say you have an 80% chance of no functional damage. However, that curb is huge for a tiny car with those little tires. The forces can bend tie rods arms and so on or at least knock them out of alignment. Keep an eye out for unusual tire wear or the steering pulling to one side or the other. The chances of damage are slightly greater if you hit on one side first as opposed to meeting the curb equally on each side and spreading the forces. It’s a crap shoot and you can’t change it now.
Hmm. I’m due for an oil change in about a month, where I’ll almost definitely mention this. Would that be enough time for “unusual tire wear” to really develop? I ask because I just got a realignment at my last inspection/tune-up, and I hadn’t noticed it then.