amiro

Great... so wife says she hit a huge pothole at regular city speeds (I drove by after and it seemed like it was a good 3 to 4 feet in diameter, no idea how deep). This is on our AWD wagon with 235/50/18 tires, so luckily there is some sidewall on those tires.

Two questions:

For bent rims, how can you tell? From outside should be visible, or you must pull off the wheel? The car doesn't vibrate at any speed, is that another way to tell normally?

For alignment, if the car's not pulling to one side, is that good enough to leave for now, and maybe check for uneven tire wear in a few months? How else can you check without spending money at an alignment shop?

Tanner

I made my three of my four rims oval but it wasn't noticeable visually but you could feel the car shimmer. Also, if the rim is bent, but not enough to throw something out, the damage maybe on the inside of the rim, so yeah, you'll need to take the rim off and inspect it visually. You can always head down to your fav tire shop and put the tire on the balancer to see if it's still aligned properly or slightly wobbling. If it's still perfectly straight and balanced, great. If it's looks straight, no damage, but slightly off balanced, get it balanced of course.

When I bent three of the four rims, the car still tracked straight on acceleration and braking before and after the rims replaced, so I never bothered getting the alignment checked. Still getting the typical Audi-tire wear on the inside of the tire and not noticing any other odd wear after this incident over a year ago.

amiro

Thx 4 the tips, will go down to a tire shop and see.

koz4.2

If you've bent it out of round, it <u>will</u> vibrate, usually starting somewhere between 80-120 km/h. If it's a front wheel, the steering wheel will shake, if it's a rear wheel, you'll feel a rumbling in your seat.

If you've just bent a lip, it may still be balanced, but you could have other problems. The tire seal may be broken, and you could start losing air. This could also happen with a badly out of round wheel, or one that did not bend, but developed a hairline crack somewhere.

Have them checked out if you like, but even if they pass inspection, keep an eye on your air pressure over the next few weeks. Good luck, you're probably fine.

Koz.