Picture this: you’re cruising down the highway at 55 miles per hour. All of a sudden, you see it: a pothole! You attempt to avoid it by changing lanes, but you don’t make it in time. Next thing you know, you’ve hit the pothole at full force.

If you’ve even found yourself in this situation, there’s a good chance that your vehicle incurred some type of damage…but that’s not always the case. Potholes can certainly cause damage to automobiles, but they aren’t guaranteed to cause damage every time.

Are you interested in learning more? This Lombard auto body repair shop is going to explain everything you need to know about potholes as they relate to your vehicle.

What Can a Pothole Do to a Vehicle?

Hitting a pothole can do all sorts of things to your vehicle. Most commonly, it will do one or more of the following:

Damage Your Tires

When a vehicle hits a pothole, it essentially goes through a minor collision. In many cases, this collision is small and leaves no damage. However, in more severe cases, this collision can cause your tires to become damaged.

Not only can potholes cause wheel rims to bend, but it can cause tires to pop and puncture as well. In the latter cases, a simple tire replacement will fix the problem. In the former cases, an auto body repair will likely be needed.

Damage Your Suspension

The impact caused by potholes can also lead to suspension damage. This is particularly true in cases where the pothole is relatively deep. The inertia of the collision can break components within the suspension, which generally require auto body repair.

Cause Misalignment Issues

Another thing you’ll want to look out for after hitting a pothole is misalignment issues. If you feel as though your vehicle is off-center, odds are that one of the components in its frame is bent or damaged. This component will most likely need to be either bent back into shape or replaced entirely. In either case, your local auto body shop can help.

Damage Internal Components

There are a number of internal components that could become damaged by a pothole as well. For instance, components in your transmission could break, or valves could be knocked out of place. The impact caused by the pothole can create all sorts of chaos under the hood, which may require repairs and/or replacements.

What Makes a Pothole Dangerous to a Vehicle?

Not all potholes are the same — some are much more dangerous for vehicles than are others. The question is: what makes a pothole dangerous?

First and foremost, it’s the pothole’s depth. The deeper the pothole, the greater impact the vehicle will suffer. This is because the wheel has further to fall, and the further it falls, the more inertia it faces when finally making contact with the road.

Another thing to consider is the pothole’s diameter. In many cases, longer potholes will do more damage than shorter potholes. However, this has a lot to do with how the length coincides with the depth. For instance, short, deep potholes tend to do a lot of damage.

Steepness matters as well. If there’s a lead-in to the pothole, it generally won’t cause as much damage as it would if it dropped sharply.

Looking for a Lombard Auto Body Repair Shop to Service Your Vehicle?

Has your vehicle taken on damage as a result of a pothole? Are you looking for a reputable Lombard auto body repair shop? We here at Lombard Body & Fender are the people to see.

We’ve fixed pothole damage on countless vehicles throughout the Lombard area. Regardless of the auto body problem you’re facing, we would be more than happy to help.

Contact us today to get the process started!