OK, I did something stupid this weekend and had a spinout. I was a little heavy on the gas in 2nd gear and hit a wet patch on the road and spun out. Luckily I was the only one on the road, spun across 2 lanes, and into the soft shoulder. I didn't hit anything, so there's no visible damage. The car stalled out and took a few tries to restart, but other than that, I can't find anything visibly wrong with the car.

My question is - is there anything specific I should look at after a spin? The tires look fine, though a bit abused. Can I knock the car out of alignment? Can the suspension get tweaked by spinning? Anything I'm forgetting?

The worst part is that I had my 16 year old cousin in the car. My being an idiot sure scared the hell out of him. He's getting his learner's permit this week, so I played the whole thing off as a lesson on why driving like an idiot is unsafe and should never be done. Lesson learned (for me).

Thanks.

 

To check alighnment get on the freeway and get to speed. Then let go of the steering wheel. Make sure you do this in the middle lane(s) since most highways are crowned.

 

Thanks. I definitely tried that this morning, since I had to drive about 100 miles to get to work. Seems like everything is fine, but I'm just ultrasensitive to how the car drives now. I keep "thinking" I hear a new creak or rattle. Damn, I'm pissed at myself.

 

While the car isn't a go fast straight car, it was designed to handle the rigors of track use (or at least it should be), meaning that a spinout is probably inevitable on the track.

While stressful to the suspension, I can't imagine too much damage being caused by what you described, especially since you didn't hit anything.

If you're really paranoid, get it looked at. Might give you the peace of mind you seek, but you'll pay for labor to get it looked at (just a FYI).

 

Yea the spinning out itself is no problem. But he says he ran onto the shoulder. Now that could knock the ailignment out of spec. But if the car goes straight when you let go of the wheel you should be fine.

 

 

Be glad you got to a stop before you fully left the road. Too many bad stories lately.

 

Don't feel too bad...I did the same thing when mine was about a week old. I got lucky too...scared the hell out of myself, but that was it.

A big sigh of relief first that no one was hurt and second that the car is (hopefully) OK.

Good luck.

 

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I managed to scare myself pretty good, but I'm glad I got it out of the way when I did. I know better than to get up in the revs when it's a little wet out. Luckily I was all alone on the road and had plenty of room to screw up. Hopefully my little cousin took something away from it too (and not, "it's okay if you don't tell your mom about this"), like driving is harder than it looks.