Driving over a high kerb... « Singletrack Forum

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Driving over a high kerb...

30 posts & 24 voices | Started 4 months ago by mbr30 | Latest reply from Toasty

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mbr30 - Member

Took the missus for a meal tonight and went to a pub I'd not been to before. Had to use an overflow car park and as I turned into it I heard an almighty bang and a horrible scraping noise. Couldn't believe that there was some random six foot length of kerb at the entrance I just hadn't seen in darkness. My Golf is my pride and joy and it left me devastated!

Had a little drive around and nothing appeared loose or noisy and there was no affect on performance. Drove home and looked underneath with a torch on the drive. Can't see anything other than scrape marks on some plastic covering down the side. What could I be missing and what's the worst that could have happened? There were two bit bits of plastic on the ground which I presume came from mine unless some other poor bugger did it before me

Rand VW and they are going to look at it tomorrow

Posted 4 months ago #
mikewsmith - Member

if you still have oil then you are lucky, missed the sump

Posted 4 months ago #
mbr30 - Member

Yeah that's what I thought. Not taking it anywhere tomorrow as VW said they would come get it. Think I'll have another quick look and turn the engine over before I get a lift to work

Posted 4 months ago #
unfitgeezer - Member

write a letter to the pub/brewery and let them know the situation with kerb.

Posted 4 months ago #
couldashouldawoulda - Member

Well done for knowing that it's potentially serious!

Last year in the snow we had an age to wait for the RAC to turn up and when he did his previous call was a young person who had slid in the snow and whacked a kerb. Shorty afterwards "a light that looked like a gravy boat with some drops at the end came on - I didnt know what it was so I just carried on". Apparently new engine in a nearly new car time.

Otherwise - for you hopefully nothing. Possibly suspension damage, damaged / dinged alloys. Scraped sills. Steering slightly off kilter.

Hopefully none of the above. Just keep an eye on the oil level!

Posted 4 months ago #
garage-dweller - Member

Get someone to look underneath properly. Dented alloys, damaged tyres or bent arms/ suspension parts is a POSSIBILTY not a certainty and good prospect of knocking your tracking out would be what i would be checking on.

Posted 4 months ago #
stucol - Member

Sump and exhaust (cat ?) most likely to cop it. Fuel tanks being plastic tend just to deform.

Get it up on a 4 poster ramp while your with it to make sure the garage don't try and stiff you. Any damage will be obvious.

And fit a sump guard before your do it again !

Posted 4 months ago #
bigyinn - Member

Just check the dipstick in the morning.
If it feels ok to drive and isnt bleeding it'll be fine.

Posted 4 months ago #
mbr30 - Member

Cheers for those replies. Didn't know you could have a sump guard fitted, will look into that

Posted 4 months ago #
dogbert - Member

Its a VW, everything seems to be encased in plastic bits all over the shop......which is fine when it's new, when the car gets old and fasteners start coming away there are rattles all over the shop

Posted 4 months ago #
Taff - Member

My old mans mark 2 was his pride and joy. Did exactly the same in a morrisons car park. Dented the sump but not that badly. Scratch marks on the exhaust too. Other than that fine. Hope yours is ok. Glad you've been wise enough to look and be cautious

Posted 4 months ago #
radoggair - Member

just sell it on.......... its only a golf after all and buy something else with erm........ personality !!

Posted 4 months ago #
stgeorge - Member

Scrape the bottom of your car and you're "devastated", hope nothing serious ever happens to you.

Posted 4 months ago #
Cougar - Member

Ah yes, the infamous VAG Sump of Softness.

Worth getting checked I'd say.

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

Get it to a local indie and up on a ramp and checked out. You don't want to find out on the motorway that its something you should have checked.

Droplinks, trailing arms etc etc etc... in addition it may have knocked your tracking out.

Even if its for peace of mind.

Posted 4 months ago #
brack - Member

Funny enough parked my old vw van at the supermarket last night, came back outside to find group of people stood round my van.. With someone sobbing.

Asked if all was ok then saw the dent in the side of my van...

Transpires that the sobbing lady had opened the door of her very nice sports car onto my van..

She was soo worried about what her husband was going to say/ do about the damaged paintwork to his pride and joy. She was so upset for my damage also.

I threw my box of crunchy nut cornflakes and milk on the passenger seat and drove off smiling- it's only a piece of metal on four wheels??

Funny how some people are.

Posted 4 months ago #
globalti - Member

Get a Land Rover.

Posted 4 months ago #
davidrussell - Member

it's only a piece of metal on four wheels??

in its purest sense yes, but in reality its probably the second biggest purchase people will ever make so i do sympathise with people wanting to keep their possessions looking good.

I managed to dent the door sill on my 200 on Friday night, after failing to spot my bike crank was being held by my thule roof rack instead of the down tube cue reverse out of friends drive and bike slipping out of its holder and smashing into side of my car. The dent is noticeable but apart from that its only surface scratching which will correct out. Not so sure about the dent though...

Anyway the point was it could have been a lot worse, but it didn't stop me kicking myself because the paintwork was almost pristine before that.

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

brack you own an old VW. For most people they are paying circa 200 a month on repayments that has to go back to the lease company pristine (or of their company car scheme) or its straight forward company property and they may get in trouble if its damaged repeatedly.

Saying that I also own an 'old' car...
Even though my 12yr old Puma is 12yrs old its immaculate and I worry that someone may put a scratch on it..

Posted 4 months ago #
stumpy01 - Member

As above, get it checked over for bent components - probably mainly suspension/steering bits.

A bloke at work whacked a kerb in the snow last year and bent a steering rod, but he hit it side on while sliding, rather than hitting it squarely.

Posted 4 months ago #
gravitysucks - Member

box of crunchy nut cornflakes

.... And there in lies your reasoning. If it had been Muesli of porridge you'd have hit her in the face with the box.

Posted 4 months ago #
rocketman - Member

Funny enough parked my old vw van at the supermarket last night, came back outside to find group of people stood round my van
A few years ago mrs rocket bought a new Fiesta ST and because it was my duty to run it in, I went to work in it on Day #2. At lunchtime I nipped up town and parked in a side street. Walking back I noticed a crowd of people had gathered where I'd parked and there was an MPV at a crazy angle in the road. The MPV driver had misjudged the corner into the side street and gone straight into the side of the car in front of mrs rocket's

I picked my way through the wreckage in the street, got in and drove off.

Posted 4 months ago #
D0NK - Member

in reality its probably the second biggest purchase people will ever make so i do sympathise with people...
...who should open their doors more carefully, I guess you'd have to use a fair bit of force to dent the van. (or are VW vans bodywork made of tinfoil?) Scuffs/scrapes easily done but dent?

Reminds me of a training course I was on, one lady was nice enough to give a few of us a lift to the lunch venue, after she parked up the tubby guy in the back seat slammed the door open into the adjacent car then as the cars suspension was relieved of his corpulence the rising door made a nice vertical scratch on the adjacent car. Bloke didn't even blink, dunno if the driver noticed.

Posted 4 months ago #
Cougar - Member

you'd have to use a fair bit of force to dent the van

A gust of wind easily could be enough to do that if you're not expecting it.

Posted 4 months ago #
_tom_ - Member

Check your wheels, I ran over some debris in the road that just looked like a plastic bag (couldn't swerve it as there was traffic going the other way), turns out there was a brick or something in the bag which I hit with a full car. Back rim had a massive flat spot and this crack. May not happen to you though as I imagine you'd have been going a lot slower and had less weight in the car..

Posted 4 months ago #
woody2000 - Member

tom - i think your problem might have been caused by the rubber band tyres more than owt else

Posted 4 months ago #
ski - Member

I managed to rip the plastic sump cover completly off and dent the floor pan last week on my golf, but I was driving over a rutted field with a load of chopped wood in the back at the time.

The sumps do seem to be quite low on tdi golfs, not the first time its been bashed, tbh my Golf has taken a right bashing as a work car.

Does feel weird having to drive with you right foot resting on a dent in the floor mind

Must get the hammer onto it and ding it back.

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

I've just remembered, driving down the M62 I saw a wheel coming fizzing (sparks from where the brake disc sits) past my car. Ahead was a car that had simply shat its wheel. Now it could easily have been not doing any of the wheel nuts up or it could have been a suspension failure which led the assemply to collapse and spit out the wheel.

Was amusing (no time to be scared) to see this wheel bouncing down the road!

Posted 4 months ago #
_tom_ - Member

tom - i think your problem might have been caused by the rubber band tyres more than owt else

Possibly, it's only a standard fiesta zetec s though so nothing properly sporty.

Posted 4 months ago #
Toasty - Member

"a light that looked like a gravy boat with some drops at the end came on - I didnt know what it was so I just carried on".

Pfft, everyone knows that's the Magic Lamp warning light. He should have stopped the car immediately, I bet his genie escaped.

EDIT: Mrs Toast btw, once again using Mr Toast's laptop and forgetting to log him out beforehand before posting nonsense....

Posted 4 months ago #