I've been driving my brand new TC alot and I've driven over lots of bumps and potholes. I try to avoid it, but sometimes these bumps in the road come out of no where. I hate when that happens..

I'm afraid of I've damaged my rims, tires, undercarriage, and suspension system.

So what kind of long term damage will that do to my car if I continue to drive over potholes and not do anything about it? What kind of maintenance do I need to be aware of?

 

get alignments done often and ur gonna be fine, ur wheels arnt gonna bend thats what the rubber if for unless you feel some shaking when going the highway or sumthin ur wheels are fine, and remember this is what cars are tested to do they wont break down after hittin sum potholes

 

For maintenence the main thing is to keep the tires properly inflated and have them rotated AND balanced AND Aligned on schedule. That will make them last much longer despite whatever abuse you put them through.

An under-inflated tire could allow wheel rim damage on a pothole, and I suppose someone out there will say that they've had messed-up rims while the tire pressure was fine, but all the cases of wheel damage I've ever seen, tire pressure was always a likely contributing factor.

If the roads are really bad and you drive truly abusively, you could prematurely wear out the some suspension components, but you will probably go thorough a set of tires or two long before that happens. Also if the roads are that bad in your area you should probably forget about lowered suspension or a body kit with ground effects.

 

Just keep a distance and drive slow. Not like those who speed up and tailgate etc... those are the ones to get a Messed up front bumper full of chips .

 

and c'mon nobody wants chips, unless there the delecious kind

 

Also keep in mind that the more rubber between the wheel and the road (taller tire sidewalls), the more protection there is for both rim and suspension...

Really low sidewalls on larger-than-stock rims cushion the blows less than the stock small-wheels/tall tires combo.