HDLARRY

Managed to bend the OEM chrome wheels on my new baby recently (<800 miles). Hit a large chuck hole that was hidden in the tree shadows at about 35 mph. It was located on an unincorporated King County Washington road near the Greenwater Gorge. Noticed a little vibration in the steering wheel at 40 mph and above a few days later.

Had the local Chevrolet Dealer check it out and they found four bent wheels. The RF was really bad (about an inch), the two rear were bad and the LF was slightly bent. Tires seem to be ok.

Looks like my insurance company will cover this, I should know more sometime next week. Likely have to pay the $500 deductible out of the $3800 estimate.

King County is know for not being very friendly about paying for this type of damages, probably not worth the trouble to go after them. Why couldn't this have happened in Tacoma where they are much better about paying for this type of road damage?

Hope your week went better than mine.

Mufflerbearing

Sorry for your loss but if I were in your shoes I would take some pictures of the hole and submit a claim to the road maintenance department along with any supporting paperwork you generate and/or consult an attorney (your wife?) for potential litigation. There is no excuse for responsible parties allowing a road to cause that much damage under the conditions you describe.

Just my .02

Kmcoldcars

That must have been a LARGE chuckhole to get all 4 wheels at once, or did you back up and have a few goes at it, until you got it right.

Hope all goes well with getting new ones.

AaronZ51

I had a blowout from a large tank trap disguised as a pothole.

If it bent your wheels, I'd have those tires seriously checked out, especially if they're runflats to see if there's any damage to the sidewalls.

Hopefully it goes smooth with your insurance company. As far as submitting a claim, you may as well since it won't cost you anything. Hope for the best, expect the worst...

ExRedRacer

Glad I'm not the only one to have thought of that.....

HDLARRY

Still playing phone tag with the adjuster but expect to get this worked out later this week. Yes it was a large enough hole to cause the car to briefly bottom out (no body damage). Maybe I should have been going a lot faster to clear the hole.

KIRO TV in Seattle did a report on this type of thing last year. They found that King County has paid out 14 of 120 pothole-related claims, making the likelihood for a payout about 12 percent. This was going back to 2010. Evidently you have to prove that the County was aware of the problem and did not do anything to correct it in a timely manor. I'll let my insurance company do this battle if they think it is worth it.

Even though I have access to plenty of legal advice, it just isn't worth pursuing this if my insurance will cover the majority of the cost and I have nothing else on my driving record.

C6 Snowboarder

I am curious if it will be a Collision Claim or a Comprehensive Claim with you insurance? Please report back once you know,

ExRedRacer

I don't mean to be rude, but how did all 4 wheels get bent?

Good luck with the repair...

HDLARRY

This is falling under collision according to the adjuster. I was hoping that it would have fallen into the Comprehensive category due to a lower deductible. Insurance is through the National Corvette Museum.

C6 Snowboarder

Also - Collision claims count against you and potential for higher rates ... Comprehensive usually do not. That is why I was wondering..

HDLARRY

As I put in the first post, it really was a large pothole that did the damage, I know it's hard to believe. I would never turn in a false claim, especially when the wife has a professional and somewhat political career, just not worth it.

In addition I talked to the insurance adjuster this morning. Turns out the wheels are insured and they will be sending me a check to cover the estimate I got from Jet Chevrolet minus the deductible. Insurance is through the National Corvette Museum.

HDLARRY

Higher future rates are possible but I don't have anything else on my record, so I hope not.

I was debating whether I should turn this in or not because it was on the borderline. The original insurance sales rep I called last week thought it was covered under Comprehensive. For that reason I went ahead and started a claim. Today I find out it was covered under Collision according to the Adjuster.

After hearing that it was going to be covered by Collision I sent the Adjuster an email asking if this minor damage is going to show up on a Carfax report in the future? If it is, we need to talk about diminished value which could be significant on a new car like this.

Rogue C6

I agree with Aaron. Check the tires out. I would hate to see you back on the forum saying you had a blow out due to tire failure.

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you.

HDLARRY

Ordered new set of OEM wheels last week and they have already arrived at the dealer. Was able to get a good price on new set of wheels from a dealer in Sandy Oregon and found a Les Schwab store near them that has a Hunter Force Balance machine. I'll have them thoroughly check out the new wheels and old tires (800 mi.) at that time.