d0ubl3ba55

Hi everyone!

Wanted to ping you all here for information about proper procedures post-pothole incident.

I had the misfortune of hitting a freshly burrowed pothole on Saturday with my front left tire, which caused subsequent blow out of tire sidewall and bent my rim.

I have wheel + tire coverage, so my local Audi dealership is dealing with that, but I've been quoted $1,260 dollars for a 4 wheel alignment and "Driver Assist Calibrations." Can anybody shed some light on what these are, and whether such a thing should cost over $1200? I have a fishy feeling. Picture of quote is below.




Thanks everyone!! 😁

M4D

Regardless if it's necessary or not isn't this what car insurance is for?

d0ubl3ba55

good point, but the 1200 dollar fee is not covered by wheel warranty, that would need to come out of my pockets per my warranty provider.

d0ubl3ba55

While practicing my Google-fu, I stumbled upon these threads of others reporting the same costs for an alignment after pothole-type damage: https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...er-removal-WTF and https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...alignment-WTF-

Sounds like it has to do with any additional electronic assists like Lane Departure, Adaptive Cruise Control, and others. Apparently these are all keyed off of measurements related to alignment, and can be thrown off after a hard realignment from an impact. Shucks

M4D

Again, you hit a pothole....your car was damaged....car insurance covers damage...what are you not understanding here exactly?...what your wheel warranty doesn't cover turn in to your car insurance provider and they will pay the balance minus deductible....ever seen the State Farm commercial where the guy curses out a pothole?...turns out it's not just a funny ad..

d0ubl3ba55

I appreciate the response, but there's truly no need to be hostile. I was just curious about whether anybody had more insight into what this expense was.

With regards to the insurance claim, I didn't honestly think about reporting it to my auto insurance because I wasn't sure if a pothole is something with which they would be concerned. Pump the brakes there, friend!

M4D

This is some pretty elementary stuff here my friend, good luck with your repairs.

numerobis

After a severe pothole incident, an alignment check is acceptable. However, i doubt that the driver assistance stuff (camera, radar, etc) would be mis-aligned by the pothole incident... I would only get the alignment (about 100-150$). Then I would drive the car and test the performance of the various assistance systems - adaptive cruse, lane keep assistance, etc.

Jnjrowland

If the car is returned to factory spec on the alignment then any sensors or the like being out would be a warranty item I would hope. I personally think this is total dealer BS, and I've heard a lot of that over my lifetime from all the brands you can imagine. If it were me I'd get a quality 4 wheel alignment at a reputable shop and go from there. Likely would be $150, at least that the going rate around here. If this does turn out to be an insurance thing for the alignment then even better.

rynrynryn

Just a guess but all that cost sounds like something they'd want to do because if it's been borked up by the damage and somehow later you get in an accident partially because something is wrong with these sensors they don't want you or your insurance company suing them. "But my lane assist should have ______!" Here they can say "look, we told you we needed to fix it."

I think it's unlikely you'd get audi warranty fixing sensors and the like which were damaged or misaligned due to an accident. Find out what this is going to do to your insurance (how much extra money for how long on top of the deductible) and see if out of pocket is ultimately cheaper. I would think using insurance is your best bet unless you have a high deductible and heavy rate penalty.