Wife+S3=bad mix (crashed into 2 traffic islands)

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gordongecko

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Had an absolute shocker today, let my wife drive my S3 for the first time. She's been driving for over 10years and never had a crash, but all her experience is on the right hand of the road. Don't know if that made a difference or what but driving to the local sports center she nearly side swiped a concrete barrier. I should have known better but also let her drive on the way back and she rammed into not 1 but 2 traffic islands!!! She hit the first one with the front passenger side wheel and I was like "jesus christ what are you doing move right and slow down" and she proceeded to ram into the next one a bit further down. About 50 yards apart. Man I am gutted!!!!!

Pics below of the damage, I took control at the next traffic lights and handling seems to be ok but didn't get it above 30. Not sure I should be given the size of that bulge.... I will take it into the garage for a once over but what do you guys think I need to get done as a minimum - allignment check and a new set of front tyres? I am guessing I should do the allignment check after I change the tyres??

1.jpg



2.jpg
 
Ouch, im guessing she wont be driving the S3 again.
 
This is why I don't let Woman drive my cars...:lmfao:.....I feel for you Dude. :bye:..There is a lesson here to be learned. #Neverletwomandrive
 
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oh my days thats bad fella , hope there isn't any other damage than just the wheel and tyre keep us posted
 
Oh man, that really must suck... Wow 10 years experience you say? Have you been up to no good lately? lol
 
Mate thats bad My Mrs is using my 8l s3 at the moment as she works 5 miles up the road im working 40 miles away so its cheaper for me to use her dreaded french diesel I bite my nails every day worrying that she is gonna come home and say [IM SORRY BUT]:banghead:
 
Awful, sorry to see what's happened. At least it's a wheel, not to bodywork.

PS: might be time to get some new rubber too looking at tread depth! Expensive month.
 
Um.....I'll say oh dear and leave it at that.

The answer to your question is yes, you need to get the alignment checked and ask them to look at everything else while they are there as that is quite an impact.

Also, you don't want to go too far with a bulge like that in the tyre so you need to get that replaced along with all the other three looking at the tread depth on the picture !!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad ( and expensive ) news , but as others have said it could have been worse so just chalk it up to experience.
 
Sorry to see that mate.... but at least its nothing major. Hope you dont need to change the alloy although it should not to be expensive to get second hand set. My missus kerbed mine the other day and now she must to put money down towards new alloy or she wont be driving and walk to work for rest of the year:]
 
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Lol @ the comments. Thanks for those :) The wife was very apologetic and basically burst into a crying fit while she was still driving. There was nowhere to stop though so she had to keep going till the next lights. It's an accident at the end of the day so can't be too harsh but between us I couldn't believe it. I mean hitting one traffic island ok sh*t happens but then to hit the next one 50 yards down??!! It was like a nightmare with my s3 instead of dodgems hahaha

Tyre tread is not that bad actually, maybe the picture just makes it look bad. They are just over a year old, have got 8000 miles on them, city driving in London mostly, so without the accident they would have had life in them still for prob another 3-5k miles.

I am a bit confused about next steps at this point though so advice appreciated. Obviously I need to change the front tyres now, I should probably get the back ones done as well right? I am thinking whilst am at it I may as well bite the bullet and get the wheels refurbed at the same time given the mess they are in (advice on places that do a proper job near south west london appreciated - not the mobile van guys)

So should I do refurb and new tyres (2 or 4) and then allignment check? I hope the suspension or anything like that is not damaged, were probably going about 25mph+

btw I can park on a yellow line locally 6.30pm-8am :)
 
Sorry to see that and fingers crossed you get it sorted.....no accidents for me ever ;)

lol @ Ads oh and actually I got divorced after my ex wrote off my car (not just for that reason though lol).....telephone conversation went like, him ' I've had an accident'; me ' hows the car?' He wasn't happy that I never asked how he was! That was after he tried to save some money getting the back tyres from somewhere else to the front ones and then wrapped it around aroundabout
 
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Get the front tyre replaced, if the other one is still good leave it. You drive in London and having 3 or 4 mm difference in tread depth on the same axel wont make any difference. If your flush get both fronts changed I guess. No need to touch the rear tyres at all.

Then get an alignment and make sure you tell them to inspect for impact damage to the wishbones, tie rods, drops links etc etc.

You might find your wheel is slightly buckled, but the tyre fitter will tell you that when you replace the tyre and balance it out if they can.

HTH, Tim
 
UPDATE: went to kwikfit today for a quick opinion on whether to get 1 or 2 tyres replaced. The guy there agreed just doing the 1 would be ok so that's what I'm doing this Saturday, will then get it on the motorway for a fast run (dont want to do it now with the bump) and then will get allignment checked. Alloy repair/refurb will come last.

So Kwikfit wanted £175 for a new Conti Sports Contact 3 (had it in stock) I told him it's £144 on your site can you match that he said no that's pre-order only. So that's what I told him I would be doing and he made a comment to the effect of "well I hope it doesn't burst". I noticed some sarcasm in his voice ****** me off a bit. So for that I went home and ordered it off blackcircles for £132 and getting it done at an independent :) A bit stupid if you ask me this pre-order nonsense, if he had matched the £144 I would have done it there and then
 
My wife and I share "my" S3 as our only car - and have had a range of nice cars like Clio 197, A3 2.0T quattro etc. in the past 10 years.

During this time, she's scuffed a bumper and the alloys have had a really hard time - I count on about 3+ refurbs each year (but less since a pair of AlloyGators were fitted!). However, it's still much cheaper to have her driving the S3 than owning a second car and I'd far rather repair a nice shared car than have to own a rubbish one that I didn't care about. Her confidence with driving has also grown, so that I don't think twice about being driven by her - and the number of minor scrapes has reduced a lot too.

I've had that sort of damage to the wheels and would definitely replace the tyres (yes, probably 2 as you don't want one new and one near the end of its life on the same axle), refurbish the alloy and definitely get 4-wheel alignment done.
 
And just to add that you're best going to a specialist like Protyre - they'll give you a good tyre price straight away (admittedly you'll need to order with 24hrs notice) and be able to do a proper 4-wheel alignment.
 
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