w1ngman

I've searched on our site for "speedbumps"..."Speed AND Bumps"..."Speedbumps AND Alignment"... pretty much you name it...I've searched to no avail. So UTH I come ...

Okay... so I have recently:

• Mounted all four 17" RH C2s back on The Bruised Banana (once one was repaired from the previous owner's run-in with a pothole).
  
• Set the air pressure to 35 Rear & 33 Front cold PSI.
  
• Installed my Konis to their lower perch setting.
  
• Installed my KG/MM Super Sports at the same time.
  
• Not yet done an alignment.

Okay...so...how stupid could I be with all the above things basically going right? Let's seeeeeeeeeee....

Leaving work yesterday. Approaching an intersection within our office park complex (that I have driven through 2x per day for a number of years now). About a car's length before the stop sign, I slowly crawl over the speed bump (liiiiiiiiike usual...because I *know* its there!). As there is no one coming in aaaaaaaaany other direction through the intersection, and as there are 3 cars (two in my lane, one in on-coming lane) that are parked in the road with hazard lights blinking in front of another corporate office waiting for their significant others (rather than parking their lazy asses in the parking lot ), and with the evening sun shining directly in my eyes, so I just see parts of their cars...I decide I'm going to "gun it!" to make them highly aware of how pissed I am at their repugnantly lazy asses....

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Except...

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I forget (don't ask me how I forgot...didn't I already say that I drive this intersection 2x per day?!!) that approximately a car's length on the *other* side of the intersection, I get to visit a 2nd speed bump in my lane. Well ...doncha know I slammed that bugger at every bit of 20MPH +. WHAM---WHAM!!! . Remember that setup I'd mentioned above? Yeah, well I didn't feel my car actually lift over the speed bump at all. The suspension/tires/wheels took pretty much every bit of the brunt of that speedbump .

So with limited travel in the low-perch Konis...my biggest fear is what could I have done to "true" suspension components having travelled so aggressively over that speed bump. I realize my alignment is likely shot to the high heavens (it needed aligned anyway from recently installing the Konis & KG/MMs...so perhaps better that I'd not "wasted" my $$$ on an alignment before doing this foolish thing). I'll get the alignment taken care of soon. But I'm more concerned with various arms, knuckles, sway bars, et al that might potentially have been bent/stressed because there was no where else for the energy of the impact to be absorbed. And will I necessarily be able to appreciate any such possible damage with the naked eye? There does not seem to be any undue "clunks" or generally unacceptable noises. On the highway, the car seems a little less well-behaved on straights. Although I have immediate response to jerking the steering wheel left and right. Its just as though it'll "go its own way" a little easier than before the speedbump incident (leaving me to move the steering wheel left or right a bit more than it just tracking true all by itself). That to me indicates simply a need for an alignment. Buuuuut, I don't want to be foolish about this either. If there is anything to be concerned with other than alignment, I'd like to be considering it.

Thanks in advance!

- w1ngfool

srlmartin

Hi:
I have a hard time reading your post. However, I ran over a huge bloated dead deer. Car still stinks to this day, but the alinement is fine.
Can't hurt to have it alined though. Just set ya back 70 or so.
-s

TepEvan

If the car holds straight, no need for an alignment.

TubeDriver

Dave,
That sucks. The first thing to do is the get an alignment. With the lower ride height your camber is probably a bit aggressive (too negative) and your front and rear tow will be off. If you get an alignment and everything works out alright (be sure and check overall thrust angle, it should be 0 or very, very close to 0) than you are fine. What could happen? Well worst case is bent suspension components but it is unlikely. You probably hit the bumbstops and that is rough but probably did not cause any lasting damage.

When I autoX, I have about 38 psi in the front and about 34 in the rear. On the street I run 34-35 front and 33 rear. No reason to have a really high rear tire pressure as the tire will not roll over at lower psi.

davidq37

Find the same speedbump but.....now approach in opposite direction of what you did before.....then *gun* it again......and your car will be *balanced*! j/k!

I did something like that befor with my old car and rear fiberglass bumper came off!

nodisguise

If you didn't feel your car move up or down, the bump was probably small enough to be completely absorbed by your car's suspension. It's probably fine. Just get that alignment.

Haha, in my old Civic, I drove over a curb-high island at about 25mph (it was the same color as the street and I wasn't paying enough attention). The only thing that broke was my ego. No damage to the car -- or at least none that I found in the 4 years I still owned it afterwards. I did replace worn tie rods, but that wasn't until after about 3 years of delivering pizzas (the ultimate test of a car's reliability) in that car with about a 2" drop.

silvs2knvb

I doubt youhave a ny problems dave, if the car is running straight then your good to go