Tonight was the worst night for the miata in a while. Here in detroit MI its been raining every other day for like 2 weeks. Tonight it was POURING, and I was all nervous about my top leaking. Go to leave the g/f's house and my genius *** left the window down. At least the passenger side and rain rail dont leak.

Well, as the title states on the way home I hit a HUGE pot hole. It was on a 3 month old road (gotta love Michigan roads) and thanks to the wonderful stock head lights I never saw it. Yanked the wheel right out of my hand and sent me into the oncomming lane. Thankfully it was late and I was the only one there. So now my car pulls HARD to the left. Drove home and felt no vibration, checked the sidewall and my T1-R doesn't have a bubble. Tommorow I'm guna take it to work and align it and check for a bent wheel.

 

ouch....

 

i live in staten island new york.its the same situation 6 month old paved roads with foot and a half drops.

 

i grew up in detroit and can empathize. jack up each front corner, one at a time and check the wheel for play. left-right play = tierod end or ball joint, up-down = hub

 

Well got it to work and checked it out. I put it on our new Hunter 811 laser guided alignment machine. The left front was out 2 degrees. Checked out all joints, both tie rods, control arm bushings and both ball joints. No movement. Put the wheel on the balancer, spins just fine. I have a set of konis set to near full stiff, how the wheel didn't bend I will never know. I'm AMAZED I got away with just an alignment issue. Mazda really built a tough little car.

I will try and get a picture of the pot hole, as I have yet to see it. I'm seriously considering an upgrade to some Hellas.

 

yes. i reconstructed a 'total'. the gusseting and stoutness on this car is really amazing. with the exception of the rear end on the 1.6, the car is WAAAY overbuilt.

 

I hit a pothole so hard once that it broke a spoke, and bent the lip so far back you could see light between the wheel and tire on a oem bbs wheel with 205/45/16 tire. For some reason it was on the back too, and the front was not damaged.