Hidden damages from winter spins
Suspension, steering, tires and wheels TROUBLESHOOTER
No doubt about i t, Canadian winters bring a lot of “fun” to driving. Fun as in whiteknuckle blind navigating through a whiteout, or playing a round of “How much slush does it take to suck this car into the ditch?”
Spin- outs certainly belong in the white- knuckle category because all you can do is hang on and hope you don’t hit anything. But spinouts and their close cousin, curb kissing ( sliding into a curb from a lack of wheel traction), can do much more than just raise your heart rate. They can cause a lot of damage to various steering and suspension components.
It’s easy to connect damage to hitting a solid object such as a concrete curb, but simply spinning out without hitting anything?
Modern vehicle steering and suspension systems are wonderful things as long as the wheels are travelling in the direction for which they were designed and built. But subject even the hardiest of components to a new and unintended direction ( say sideways) and it’s a different story.
The risk of damage in a spin- out comes when the tires suddenly gain traction (on a dry section of road sur- face) in mid- spin, bringing the vehicle to a shaky stop. Under these conditions the amount of lateral forces on wheels, bearings, control arms, steering linkages and such can overcome their strength, leading to a variety of symptoms.
Damage from either a curb kiss or severe spin- out can range from losing the wheel alignment settings up to bending suspension arms or rims or blowing a tire. If you experience one of these heartbeat- skipping events, take the time to do a little assessment before resuming the journey. If it was a hard enough contact to blow a tire, of course this won’t be possible. But in other, less-severe cases, take the time to drive slowly at first to determine if there are any new noises or steering pulls. Listen at low speeds for any new rattles or clunks ( especially over bumps). Check to see if the steering easily returns to centre after a turn.
If things seem OK and you can safely increase speed, check for any new wheel vibrations and listen to determine if a wheel hub bearing is noisy. These bearings will usually create a hum or howl which immediately changes or lessens when the steering is shifted slightly to one side or the other.
If things are quiet, don’t rest too easy because wheel bearing noises sometimes take some distance and time to appear after an impact.
If any new symptom appears, it’s wise to get things checked to be on the safe side.