Long story short, Drove over a pothole i couldn't avoid on freeway near L.A. My wheels are ok but it did scratch up my sideskirts pretty bad and there seems to be a gap between the fender and the door now.

Seems like it's flaring out a little but not sure.

Should i take it to the body shop and let them handle it or is there anything i can do to make it better? Pretty bummed out.

Thanks for the help.




http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k6...ps82f07486.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k6...s8660f508.jpeg

 

pull the fender back its thin as shit

 

It looks like your front bumper also bashed into the ground.. Mine was doing that all of the time and eventually I was having to reattach the front bumper to the fenders every time I drove my car... You may be able to tweak it back into place but may have to loosen the bolts that hold the fender to the body to bend the tabs back the bolts go through back to their original shape. What wafulz says in true. The fenders are very easily bent back into shape just like they are easily bent out of shape.

 

Bro, potholes dont warp fenders like that, are you sure you didn't fall into a manhole? Any shock to the car that warps fenders like that could be a tweaked chassis and that's why it bent whack like that. Get it thoroughly inspected that nothing else is bent. Did any part of the car strike teh ground or what happened exactly?

 

check ur LCA, tie rod is the steering shaking if not pull fender

 

fACK, a pothole big enough to allow the side skirts to strike the floor is pretty serious pothole.

 

Must have been Grand Canyon sized pothole

 

I would be thoroughly entertained if the plastic clips holding the sideskirt on and the sideskirt itself survived and the fender and frame did not.

Pothole must have been 5 feet across and 3 feet deep

This all seems suspicious but in for more

 

^ theres one of those holes on a street called Alameda blvd in Los angeles ITs hell drivng down that street but not 3ft probly 2 ft

 

I am lowered so maybe why?? I was surprised to see the fitment off so i posted here. Maybe it is the fender will check after work. I am not 100% sure what area got hit. I didnt lift the car and inspect, but from what i can see now the side skirt is scratched so guessing there.

There is nothing different in performance wise. No shaking, no tpms light, just weird fitment issue i noticed.

I have a scratch( no paint) half way across my side skirt near te bottom but didnt seem like the clip fell off.

Dont know why roads are so crappy here in california. I used to live in atlanta and the roads were heaven compared to here.

Anyways thanks for replies.

 

To people asking what exactly happened. Its nothing unusual to tell really.

Ate dinner at santa monica and drove home back to Seal beach area on 405freeway. . I saw people dodging something but i was too late and ran over it on passenger side.

 

i knw how that its i ran a pole over one time bent 1 rim pop 2 tires i wonder y people dogging in front i found out lol

 

I can believe this happened in LA. I thought when I moved from Boston I'd be escaping potholes due to no snow/ice to expand and crack the asphalt. WRONG. It's actually worse here, and I'm not sure why. And the potholes that exist don't get filled because California is broke. So annoying.

Sorry for the mini rant. Hope it's nothing more than popping it back in, OP. Keep us posted.

 

What sort of bowling-ball-surface earth do you people drive around on? The Fit has only like 5 inches of ground clearance ... EASY to imagine a pothole that deep, I went over one this weekend on a bridge near Harvard Sq. (Not INTO one, or presumably I'd have the same problem).

A serious pothole I'll certainly grant you, but not entirely unusual. Stinks to get a frame twist from a pothole! That doesn't bode all THAT well for the strength of the Fit's body, I have to say. I would certainly expect suspension damage but not frame.

Oh .. also occurs to me it could just be the door hinge or latch. Those don't need to be as strong as the frame.

 

Make the County pay for it.

 

2nd...your tax dollars hard at work....

 

I third that.

 

I don't get it. How could hitting a pothole of any size bend the pillar out? If your door moved them most likely your car has been hit before and the bolts were not properly torqued.

Are you positive it wasn't like that before? My 2010 had the right rear door improperly adjusted from the factory (Sayama) so I re-adjusted it myself after making sure the car had not been hit/repaired when new.

 

That was one of my huge pet peeves when I got this car, all 4 doors had a different sound and closure. Some had a nice thump when you close it some had a nice lock release pop when door is opened. I played with those screw like rubber bumpers until all 4 were the same sound and closure. I guess I'm just OCD like that.

 

The only thing I see that is bent is the fender. It is nothing that can't be easily bent back from inside the wheel well after pulling out the plastic fasteners that hold the plastic fender liner in place to gain access to the part of the fender that is bent... I've had to do it to my car a few times due to the stupid low ground clearance the car has when stock and living on a dirt road that washed out a couple of times a year... Now the county takes care of the road and I only have to grade the uphill driveway with my tractor... I also raised the car to a reasonable height on Buddy Club N+ Coilovers...