]The road where my pothole fun happened was closed the day after I reported it – took a bit of a wander down there yesterday to scope it out.

This is the view down the closed road – in the distance, you can see how the water is puddled either side, leaving a central strip which is where everyone drives trhough the winter. If you’re eagle-eyed, you can see a cone that marks where the edge of the pothole is. It’s roughly central to the right-hand carrigaeway, as you look at it, which puts it right in the way if you’re driving down the middle of the road.

The drop into the hole is sheer. The water is lower than it has been for awhile, which is why you can see the edge.

Scientifically, I mesured it with a stick.

The wet bit is about three quarters of the length of my size nine, which makes that hole about eight inches deep.

When I moved the cone, I found that it covers a nice little platform that means that, if you were unwittingly teetering on the brink, your drop off the edge would be pretty big. That fits – it was a big-a$$ bang, even at 20 mph.

The reason I bring this up again is because Mrs Pondo has just taken the car to have the tracking sorted, and they have diagnosed knackered suspension arms and a bill of £255 – we’ll ask around, of course, but it looks like this whole party could cost something in the region o four hundred quid. Not happy. 🙁

Well, it doesn’t look ‘new’ does it?

have you checked it on fillthathole.org.uk or potholes.co.uk to see if its been reported before?

“Do any of you actually drive cars? Especially after dark? One would reasonably be able to drive a car at or below the posted speed limit without having tyres and wheels trashed, and possibly suspension, thus risking a serious accident due to a tyre blowing off a rim”
No.
You drive according to road conditions which to mean means walking pace in standing water.
There will be exceptions , eg a manhole cover missing, but 99% of the time a car or bike wheel will cope will almost anything at 3mph. Yesterday morning a mate hit a pothole on his bike in 2 or 3 ” of water. Riding almost too slow to stay up. Went down . Result 1 broken femur. whose fault? His for not walking.
It is a pisser when you do a tyre, the councils do have a duty to do their best but hidden holes if not reported cannot be their fault, especially if not found by a inspection plan or in exceptional circumstances. I dare bet that any area affected by flooding would be exceptional circumstances.

Be persistent. Take pictures. Receipts for damage. Threaten small claims. Be persistent.

We pay VAT, tax on our wage, tax on our savings, tax on money we leave to family when we die, council tax, tax on fuel, tax on cars annually, tax on new cars, tax on bits we buy for cars.

If the Council leaders, Quangos or other body leaders say they cant afford stop paying themselves six figure salaries.

+1

If local governments are not maintaining the roads to a less than dangerous state what are they doing?

My wife reported a massive pothole to Derbyshire , no less than 10minutes later she got a call to verify its exact location, and the next day it was ‘repaired’ with loose tarmac. From this I surmise that they only ‘fix’ the reported ones…

Of course they only fix the ones they know about. Each council has hundreds of miles of road, all with constantly changing problems and conditions, especially after recent weather problems. They can only do so much with the money and resources they have.

It’s not like the pothole reporting apps don’t get enough publicity on both cycling and non-cycling media outlets.

Sometimes, despite someone doing the best they can you will be involved in an incident that may cause you some inconvenience, cost and possibly pain. It is called life. Those that can’t cope with that concept need to take a step back some times and gain some perspective. How many potholes could be fixed with the money and manpower used up dealing with your claim for a rim damaged by an unreported pothole?

Two tyres, tracking and a front suspension arm, after hitting a pothole at 20mph. Please don’t think I’m being vindictive (didn’t bat an eyelid for the front spring my car needed for its MOT), but this monster really is a bit out of order. Panda’s got steel wheels, so the ding will knock out for free but the rest is about three hundred quid – when I was taking pics, some lad cycling past said there’d been a crash when a car hit it last week, hence the road closure. Dread to think of some alloy-wheeled boy racer clouting that at sixty.

Right – we’ve had a letter through and the claim has been upheld (and Birmingham City Council do not pay out easily, five times out of nearly 600 in last three years, according to the Birmingham Mail as of last August). But the figure offered is not for the full amount, as it “takes into account a deduction for wear and tear as [they] are obliged to settle on a like-for-like basis”. Now – is that really fair? How often so suspension arms need to be changed? And they don’t know how old the tyres were – how can they make a judgement on what they should pay without what they’re replacing? Really, just wondering whether it’s worth challenging (on point of principle as much as anything, it’s only about fifty quid shy), or whether we should go “up yours” and try and stick it to em? They have offered nack-all by way of compensation of the flippin time and trouble it took to sort out, after all.

That’s normal (reduction for normal wear and tear) it’s to do with you being better off if you get a new part as the previous part had X % life used. Its a bugger but normal good luck fighting it, as as you have found life and insurance companies are not fair.:-(

Argue argue argue, that’s not good enough.

Its all to do with betterment

http://www.irmi.com/online/insurance-glossary/terms/b/betterment-clause.aspx

I’d tell them they are lucky you are not claiming for 4 new tyres so you have matching wear on each axle. Now you have 2 new tyres on the left side and the ones on the right have different levels of wear being front and back.

Interesting this should pop back up; I’ve just had to have a busted spring replaced on my Skoda to get it through the MOT. I was told that springs are pretty cheap these days because they’re having to be replaced in such large quantities, it’s actually one of the most frequent repairs the garage has to carry out these days.
If that isn’t a savage indictment of the outrageously poor standard of road maintenance these days, I don’t know what is.
And that sort of damage is cumulative, it can’t be blamed on one particular pot hole, unlike a smashed rim, hit at 50mph in the dark, but months of driving over increasingly poor roads.
I suppose I’m lucky in that I’ve only had to replace two alloys and a spring on the Skoda, but I only do around 4k miles per year, so it’s perhaps the law of averages, I dunno.
I still can’t quite understand how someone can be held responsible for not seeing a water-filled pothole on a wet road in the rain, driving well within the posted speed limit.
But I guess these days the victim is always responsible for their own misfortune… 🙄

Not necessarily – not unless you include lots of speed humps in “poor standard of road maintenance”. I’m not suggesting that’s what caused yours, but I’d imagine it’s a significant factor in the numbers breaking.

A mate of mine got a new alloy wheel and tyre off south derbyshire CC after damaging it on a pothole. They did try to reject initially but he didn’t take no for an answer. You have to take photos immediately rather than going back a day or so later, but they paid out. I think it is normal practice for councils to reject most claims as they receive thousands of fraudulent claims a week. The issue about the pothole not being reported previously is BS. Someone has to be the first to report and the only reason someone will report is if they incurr damage.

Hope it works out for you Pondo.
I’m in the middle of a pothole claim myself, in which 2 of my tyres exploded at once in a huge local pothole.
I just emailed how it happened etc, provided garage receipts, and after quite a few weeks, I have been told it has been passed to their insurance department.
I wouldn’t have bothered, but it was a windy road, and the potholes reached out into both sides of the road making them unavoidable in the dark, even at slow speeds.
I didn’t bother asking for costs for damage to suspension- just the 2 burst tyres, so I hope they follow through!
Interestingly, the potholes were fixed within 3 days of me emailing pictures of the potholes.

If that isn’t a savage indictment of the outrageously poor standard of road maintenance these days, I don’t know what is.

Well not that. Some random mechanic telling you that means nothing at all, maybe the quality of springs are poorer now, maybe it’s the extra weight cars are these days or maybe they’re talking bullshit.

How much were you asking for?Why run Runway tyres?

Do you run cheap halford tyres offroad?

20mph through a country lane is too fast through unknown standing water. either swerve or crawl.

20mph through a country lane is too fast through unknown standing water. either swerve or crawl.

Good job we’re not dependent on your failure to grasp the situation in order to get this sorted, hey?

Well not that. Some random mechanic telling you that means nothing at all, maybe the quality of springs are poorer now, maybe it’s the extra weight cars are these days or maybe they’re talking bullshit.

Rubbish, I’ve heard it from several mechanics myself one of whom is a well known and trusted tuner. Fact is roads are getting worse and councils aren’t doing anything about them. I take it you must live somewhere with decent roads or you would be less inclined to try and call bullshit on an obvious fact.

And speedhumps shouldn’t break springs unless you are missing the point and taking them at 30 all the time, we had them on my road for years when I was small and nobody seemed to have issues.

I still can’t quite understand how someone can be held responsible for not seeing a water-filled pothole on a wet road in the rain, driving well within the posted speed limit.

Because some people like to find fault in the victims regardless of the circumstances. God forbid someone drives or rides on a road like it’s a road and not a poor excuse for a farm track.

Good job we’re not dependent on your failure to grasp the situation in order to get this sorted, hey?

Oh yes. Goodpoint – I thought you said you were doing 20mph..

Still what the bloody ell are you doing driving on Runway tyres? Do you scrimp on mountain bike tyres too?

Oh yes. Goodpoint – I thought you said you were doing 20mph..

As a matter of interest, what WOULD have been the appropriate speed to drive along a flooded road and drop off an eight inch lip without gouging a sidewall?

Still what the bloody ell are you doing driving on Runway tyres? Do you scrimp on mountain bike tyres too?

Not particularly. But if you’ve any recommendations for tyres for the missis’ diesel Panda, I’d be overjoyed to hear them.

Well not that. Some random mechanic telling you that means nothing at all, maybe the quality of springs are poorer now, maybe it’s the extra weight cars are these days or maybe they’re talking bullshit.

Probably a bigger issue is that cars now generally come fitted with much firmer suspension with less travel and lower profile tyres that aren’t really suitable for our roads but might let you drive faster on a smooth race track. In the 17 years I’ve been driving the roads haven’t really got any worse.

Not particularly. But if you’ve any recommendations for tyres for the missis’ diesel Panda, I’d be overjoyed to hear them.

Anything mid-range upwards. Car tyres can last 20,000+. The difference between bargain basement and mid-range upwards really isn’t that much at all if you shop around. Especially at your tyre size. Say £16 a tyre? I also avoid kwikfit. I used my local indie.

On the lip/water. you have a point but in general I hate driving through pools of water. Partly because debris (small stones etc etc) can get between your caliper pads and discs if really unlucky of course.

I take it you now avoid driving down this road?

Anything mid-range upwards. Car tyres can last 20,000+. The difference between bargain basement and mid-range upwards really isn’t that much at all if you shop around. Especially at your tyre size. Say £16 a tyre? I also avoid kwikfit. I used my local indie.

Well, that’s good to know, thanks. I was limited to ones I could walk to, and Kwikfit were the only ones who had the right size in stock.

On the lip/water. you have a point but in general I hate driving through pools of water. Partly because debris (small stones etc etc) can get between your caliper pads and discs if really unlucky of course.

Well, we didn’t drive through it because we’re water babies who fancied a four wheeled paddle.

I take it you now avoid driving down this road?

If you see the pictures above you’ll notice that the road was closed. Fortunately that was in order to facilitate repairs, and they’ve cleared out the foliage on either side too, presumably to improve drainage. So it seems a bit spiteful to avoid it after they’ve gone to all the trouble of fixing it.

I went to a local kwikfit to get my snow tyres swapped off. They wanted £25 a corner to do this and an additional charge for ‘tracking’.

I went to a local kwikfit to get my snow tyres swapped off. They wanted £25 a corner to do this and an additional charge for ‘tracking’.

Support your local tyre specialist, guy near us will swap tyres over for £10 per corner including balancing.
Smallish independant outfit who survives on word or mouth.

In the 17 years I’ve been driving the roads haven’t really got any worse.

You must be lucky then ,certainly the area that I have been driving round for the last 23years the roads have definitely got worse, I can remember the road where my parents live being resurfaced several times from my early years to my teens, comparatively its been done once in the last 17years since I moved out.

You must be lucky then ,certainly the area that I have been driving round for the last 23years the roads have definitely got worse, I can remember the road where my parents live being resurfaced several times from my early years to my teens, comparatively its been done once in the last 17years since I moved out.

It’s more that I grew up in Whitworth and the roads have always been ruined by the quarry wagons so haven’t got any worse as they’ve always been full of potholes.

Major factor in increased spring breakages is modern car design rising rate springs are becoming the norm,reducing the diameter of the spring at the same time as reducing the thickness in the last 15% of the spring gives a nice compliant ride initially that stiffness up under cornering. All great for ride but a really poor design for robustness. Compare a fiesta front spring mk 5 and its rising rate and regularly fails, earlier versions no problem.
In the past only the pig tails used to fail and often not noticed by driver or at MOT time, these days the pig tail extends far into the spring so the fatigue point is further up and the car needs a new spring.
State of the road is a factor as is driving style but design also a major issue, much like lower on-board wishbone bushes (track control arms) that are today bolted vertically, great for driving dynamics compared to a horizontal secured Bush with no lateral compliance but now a new common failure mode of Bush to arm bonding failure meaning New arms for MOT.
Ever sportier sales bumpf is reducing the longevity of today’s cars.