A few days ago the back end of my car began making a BONK noise when I went over potholes. Sigh. The mechanic says that the springs attach to the frame through a big block of rubber, which absorbs vibration; on my car, one of the rubber blocks is broken. So when the wheel goes down into a pothole, the spring momentarily falls away from the frame, then clangs back into place.
A couple months ago I spent $900 to have my front wheel bearings replaced.
A year and a half ago I spent $1500 to have the rear axles of my last car, which was AWD, replaced.
I am looking for a smoother commute. So far my choices are (1) eight miles each way at good speed, over roads that do $1000 worth of damage to my car every nine months. Or (2) twenty miles each way on a smooth highway. Or (3) ten miles each way on smooth surface streets, with a stoplight every block and police cameras that issue tickets automatically.
Did I neglect to mention that my wife cracked an alloy wheel recently?
And did I mention that the front end of my car bounces like a basketball after every bump, because the shock absorbers are worn out? I've been resolutely ignoring that.
Cleveland: rocks.
I suspect you're discovering one of the motivating factors behind the wholesale adoption of truck based SUVs in the Frost Belt states. When you're driving one, the road doesn't kick your ass. When I worked in downtown Detroit, one of my co-workers lived downtown. He drove a nice Golf that always had bare steel wheels instead of the stock alloys. I asked if his wheels had been stolen. He said they were all shot within 12 months from hammered up pavement, at $300/each. His mechanic can pound out a bent steel rim somewhat, but he was still buying a replacement wheel every 3 months or so. Those are the hidden costs of delayed infrastructure upkeep.
ReplyDeleteThis never happened when I lived in the Chicago area. On the other hand, back then, I'd get hit by some craniorectally inverted freakbasket every twelve months. Getting rear-ended at a stop sign was enough to convince me to buy 3600 pounds of German steel and airbags. Which needed its axles replaced in Cleveland.
ReplyDelete