Yesterday on the way home from watching the Super Bowl at UCSC I was driving on Hwy 17 and skidded into the concrete median on a hairpin turn. Stopping at a gas station, I was surprised to see virtually no superficial damage to the car (even though I was certain I hit the wall- there were sparks flying out the side of my car and I felt the impact). Nobody else was in the vicinity so I was very lucky that the skidding happened in the best-case scenario.
Anyhoo, while there weren’t really any scrapes or bent fenders, my front right wheel rim did show contact with the wall and I think it took the brunt of the force, because now after that contact there is a very distinctive vibration felt when driving at 30+ mph. The car still functions but I figure it would probably be a safe bet to get the wheel fixed before I have a blowout/have the whole wheel fall off.
How much would something like this cost? I don’t want to get ripped off…
It all depends.
On what you say.
Well first off is the wheel steel or aluminum? Is it a factory wheel or aftermarket? What size is it? What kind of car are we talking about, year and model?
Next and even more important is there is a high likely hood of there being some damage to the front suspension / alignment when such contact occurs. If the suspension bits are bent, it will wear a tire out in short order due to mis-alignment. Suspension systems are not designed to be slid into curbs from the side.
Lastly and probably most important is there is a strong possibility of hidden damage to the tire itself. It could blow out and not get a chance to be ruined by poor alignment.
My suggestion is to find a competent front end shop and have the alignment checked, then replace any and all bent damaged parts, and have the car aligned so you know everything is right.
If there is any doubt about the tire, replace it. A new tire costs a lot less than a new car.
I will, of course, defer to Rick on any car repair topics, but in my experience this is most likely indicative of an alignment problem. You might not have to replace the wheel, just get the alignment fixed. I think that will probably run you somewhere in the area of $200, but that’s a total WAG. I had it done a few years ago and I think it cost something like that.
Check your insurance documentation. You may have to inform them of the incident, even if you’re not making a claim. Here in the U.K., the form of words is along the lines of, “I’m informing you of this incident; while I am not making a claim now, I reserve the right to do so later.”
I’m sure the cost of an alignment varies, but $200 seems awfully expensive. Apart from components that are damaged and must be replaced, I’d think this should cost perhaps a third that much. The last one I had done was around $60.
But I agree with Rick that based on this description (“there were sparks flying out the side of my car and I felt the impact”) there’s a good chance the wheel and tire are damaged. You definitely need to get everything checked.
The rim was dented by the impact and is now slightly out of balance as a result. This happened to me once; I had aluminum rims and ran the two left ones into a jersey barrier, denting both (but doing remarkably little damage to anything else). A wheel shop machined them straight again for $75. They were always shinier than the two right ones after that.
The impact shook the little lead weights loose and you need a balance. Hope for this one.
I hit a mega pothole once which dented my rim enough to cause the tire to go flat. I found a decent used rim at a junkyard for $75. This was a real basic rim - not alloy or any fancy design, so YMMV.
…and, if it merely needs the rim replaced, you take the “new” rim and the car (or old rim/ture) down to the tire store to have them mount the ture & balance.
You might want to do this in stages
Consult with the tire store/alignment shop (may be the same people) to find the likeliest cause
Balance wheel (did one of your nice wiights fall off?)
Replace tire(s) or rim (if the other side’s well worn, you’ll need to replace both tires) & balance
Inspect other components
Try driving
Check alignment
The problem here is you often can not visually see if a suspension component is bent with the naked eye. if you put new tires on a bent front end you can wind up destroying one or two new tires from poor wear.
The alignment need to be checked/corrected before any new tires are mounted.
