Road Potholes: How to Avoid Damaging Your Car
Here are some tips for avoiding road potholes, and how to make sure your car recovers from any unforeseen pothole encounters.
Written by Alex Reale
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Urban legends about English pottery makers from the 16th century compete with French expressions for hen’s nests, and descriptions for depressions in glaciers make a decent case, too. No one seems to have a good sense of its etymology.
But even if we can’t figure out exactly where the word came from, we definitely know what phenomenon it describes. Here are some tips for avoiding road potholes, and how to make sure your car recovers from any unforeseen pothole encounters.
Road potholes 101
Road potholes occur in the aftermath of a perfect storm of moisture, weather, and pressure. Imagine a rainstorm has just coated the interstate.
As water seeps into the asphalt, it is soaked up by the ground underneath it. If it’s cold enough, the water freezes, and consequently expands. This expanding ice cube elbows for space underground, which can cause cracks in the surrounding pavement.
Add a whole bunch of cars repeatedly driving over the same area, and you’ve got a recipe for a weak spot.
Plus, once it’s warm enough, the ice cube that once held the pavement in place will melt and leave behind a cave for the ground to collapse into. This is also why you may notice more potholes pop up in the spring—a cold, wet winter is an ideal breeding ground for these natural speed bumps.
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Tips for avoiding road potholes
Potholes are interesting if you’re a student of geology or meteorology, but they’re not so fun when you’re just trying to drive to grandma’s house. There are a few steps you can take to minimize your contact with them.
Firestone
shares a couple practical tips. Leaving enough following distance while driving is always a good choice, but a nice side effect of that additional space between you and the car in front of you is extra time to spot obstacles like potholes. Safe evasive maneuvers can then be taken.
Also filed under “safe driving,” reducing speed is another tried-and-true tactic. Going a little slower, much like increasing following distance, gives you more time to assess the road in front of you and move out of the line of pothole fire.
What to look for if you can’t avoid them
MORE: Should You Repair Cosmetic Damage on Your Car?
If these tips sound a bit like a bandaid for a gaping wound, it’s a fair critique. But since our roads are paved and we have precipitation, potholes are the price we pay for zooming around town. If you do feel that little bump in the road, you can take steps to make sure your car shrugs it off, notes
Geico
. One starting point for problem assessment is at the scene of the crime: see how your tires did after their pothole encounter. If you spot any weird bulges or parts out of place, chances are that the sidewall may have been damaged. Unfortunately, that would probably mean getting a new tire.
One way to mitigate this issue is to make sure your tires are always well-inflated. Tires that have the right amount of air do better in pressure situations.
Stay low, because we’re checking out the wheels next. If any part of the rim looks like it’s off-kilter or cracked, it won’t roll as well, and could cause further damage to the tires.
Once back in the car, try driving in a straight line. Are you noticing movement to the right or left without your guiding hand? It’s possible that your suspension got knocked out by the pothole. If this is the case, Geico recommends bringing your car in to get an alignment check to make sure everything’s still running smoothly.
Road potholes are an inevitable pain, but with a few easy driving adjustments and your mechanic’s hat on, you’ll breeze through the springtime, potholes and all.
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