JonMBZ

I had the same issue, but it was on the 5 freeway. Giant pothole in the fast lane. I read up on it and most people have no luck with getting reimbursed from the highways, so I just went through insurance. Insurance reported it as a collision and now my rates about doubled.

CoolBDPhenom03

That's why I files the other claims first. It wasn't my fault nor should my insurance have to shell out for it. BS if you ask me.

m a x i m u s

Glad to hear at least insurance is picking up the bill. So this is your third vorsteiner lip? Did you have to take out any additonal policy to cover the afternarket lip? And how have the claims affected your rates? Just curious.

CoolBDPhenom03

Yup, it's the third one. AAA doesn't require a separate aftermarket policy. If it's bolted on, it's covered. I guess we'll find out in about 9 months what happens to my rates.

m a x i m u s

dang, you must be a superstar over at the vorsteiner factory. sounds like the lip is pretty fragile ... i was gonna get one too, but maybe now i won't.

CoolBDPhenom03

It's really not. I just have crap luck with potholes and road debris.

Actually, I'm on a first name basis with HRE too...

DuaneC63

Cool. Glad your insurance pick it up. SF is notoriously bad in both its road maintenance and taking any resposiblity for damage caused. The local anti car jihadist actually prefer beat up roads. They ride the bus or a bike and can avoid the mess.

Roswell

Sorry to hear Cool... but damn you got the worst luck with your car, it's not even funny. LOL

Maybe it's time to return your car to stock form or at least at stock height. LOL

CoolBDPhenom03

@Duane, that's too funny, yet true.

@ Roswell, I might eventually, but only if I get a serious sports car. Otherwise I'm just going to be stubborn about it. The car looks too good to make BS compromises.

Karl901

Time for a ML 63. Then you will really **** off the anti car jihadists!

Pickles

Pot Holes?...We have the same issues in Oz.....which are getting worse.
In spite of MASSIVE & ever increasing road penalties, using the most sophisticated roadside & car mounted speed detection devices, for the likes of exceeding the speed limit by as little as 3 KPH, the "authorities" have obviously decided not to put any part of this HUGE revenue into fixing our roads.
So yeah......in Oz.....we have potholes......some VERY big ones......ya gotta be on the lookout all the time.....and even then, there's a lot of luck involved to avoid "meeting" one, and incurring.....a damaged rim.
Cheers, Pickles.

Sebs

+1

Capn

Damn bro, that's rough. I would definitely file a claim with CalTrans and take lots of pictures and write details of how it happened.

Sadly, potholes are starting to pop-up around West LA too

farhadahmad

wowowowo thats a big a$$ dip in road. Gluck i hope u get them!

VividRacing

Good to hear AAA is taking care of you bud!

CoolBDPhenom03

Update:

Last Wednesday, I dropped my car off to repair the bumper, bumper frame, and lip while I was out of town for NYE. I was supposed to get my car back today, but it turns out there's a back ordered part that won't get here from NY until Monday. That's because no one in California has a front rail extension, which got bent...along with the hood latch, a side panel got broken, and some metal cover in the engine compartment. Plus, my fog light enclosures were cracked upon further inspection.

My body shop guy is fairly confident that AAA won't raise my premiums and they may even go after the paving company since this bill is getting close to $7k.

Anyway, aside from that small part that will help make the bumper flush to both headlights, everything else is repaired and ready to go. Apparently, there is also a part that allows you to adjust the headlight vertically, but our cars only come with it stock for the driver's side headlight. So he bought and fit one for my passenger side, too. This news kinda screws up my plans for the weekend, but he might be able to pull some strings and get me a GLK from the local dealership, which would be sweet since that might be a candidate to replace my gf's aging Forrester.

Will keep you guys posted on the experimental project as well.

balthaser

I was in SF last weekend with my C63. For me the most inconvenient part of SF road is not the potholes but the markings on the road. Dang those are some pretty well worn markings. At nights I can hardly see anything on the roads.

Pickles

+1.
Agree.."Night Time Driving".....particularly when the roads are wet.
Cheers, Pickles.

VividRacing

Dang $7000!

moosejaw

The paving company should be held responsible for their work....
Usually in road construction, the paving company has to provide the city with a MOT (Method of Transportation) Plan which is a drawing/submittal of how they intend to deal with traffic during construction. This includes placment of all temp road signs, closures, cover plates etc, off duty police vehicles etc.....

Looks like to me that the subcontractor didnt finish the work within the day and abandoned it till the next day. There should be flashing lights, orange warning signs, traffic cones. What if you had a hole in the sidewalk? Would you not bring awareness to it or wait for someone to get hurt?

Unfortunately this type of work is awarded to low quality subcontractors which usually have a "in" with city govt. Its not uncommon to see work like this in any metropolitan area. Even in Miami we have the worst pavers, and they are usually what we call "trunk slammers" Contractors that dont have a license and are piggy backing off of someone elses, uses their personal vehicles to transport materials, labor to the jobsite, doesnt have the insurance requirements, and wants to be paid within the week.

I would suggest you get a lawyer and send a certified latter to the city/contractor for them to pay up.

CoolBDPhenom03

Since this is a non-fault incident, I'm expecting AAA to have my back and not increase my premiums. I do, however, expect them to take the paving company to collections. My car is lowered, but not slammed so if they had graded the road as they claimed, this damage wouldn't have happened.

And no, there were absolutely zero signs, warnings, or anything. The only thing I saw when I went back were signs near the curb indicating that you couldn't park there due to the construction.

The reason why they denied my claim was because the risk management department insisted that they only grade 2 inches of road, nothing more. I tried to point out how impossible that was based on the damage to my car and my wheel. They also said I didn't have sufficient evidence even though I submitted an estimate, photos of my wheel, photos of my lip, and crappy night photos of the road.

CoolBDPhenom03

Here's my front end completely disassembled. There's a small "L" shaped bracket that holds the silver bumper guard to the frame...that was bent.



Here's what the headlight frame looks like...



Close up of the headlight frame...the crack is why I could put my finger between my bumper and the headlight.




My bodyshop guy said these were damaged in addition to a side panel, the radiator cover, and the radiator splash guard. That should be enough proof that the impact was hard enough and the paving company did a crap job in measure the right depth so that I hit it hard enough at just 35mph. Hopefully AAA will take them to the cleaners, or at least win reimbursement.

moosejaw

It is true, you cant grade more than 2" of road. Its extremely expensive and a maintenance nightmare to do so.

Most roads are paved at a max 2" deep of asphalt. Anything more indicates heavy wear by vehicles. Usually they mill and resurface is a 1-1/2" of asphalt especially when balancing out manhole covers, sanitary and water cleanouts etc..... What they did there does look like more than 2" so im inclined to believe they did utility work as well (perhaps new drainage structure/sewer lines/Renforced concrete pipe) where the asphalt was lifted as well as some of the limerock base which depending on where you are located can be 6"-8" deep.

Doesnt matter whether the photos were crappy not. You can clearly see no warning signs, flashing lights, even a plate to ease the transition.

I dont understand why they would need to regrade such a short section
There are new utilites under that section. Looking at photos again..are there new traffic lights/signals/lightpoles? Something happened over there and it has nothing to do with mill and resurface or even a asphalt overlay. Someone was pulled out or put in underneath that road bed

If its electrical, its safe to assume electricians arent best at roadwork repair. Looks pretty shIIItty to me. How is the road now?

CoolBDPhenom03

I have no idea what else might have been done besides repaving. Apparently some folks have been on the road soon after and it was fine. Perhaps it was a project that fell behind and was finished the next day.

In any case, I did my best to reason with the risk mgmt lady about how she was wrong. Fine, you don't grade more than 2" of pavement. But you weren't there. I could almost fit my entire shoe in the whole...closer to 4". I took pictures of the damage and the hole...what more did she want? She didn't receive any claims...well I HEARD two or three other cars scrape that same spot while I was waiting for the light to turn to take the picture.

I just couldn't understand how she was so sure the construction folks did their job flawlessly.

In any case, my body shop is keeping meticulous records and photos of all work done and original damage. We'll submit it to my adjuster and there's an internal AAA adjuster that will go back after insurance companies to recoup the cost...in this case, they'll go after the paving company. And I won't feel sorry at all. My body shop guy sees my car just about every month so he would have noticed this damage before if it was from something else. It seems irrefutable from our end.

CoolBDPhenom03

I'm not in that area often so I haven't noticed anything new.

However, that wasn't the only section they dug up. There were at least 4 other spots on the road for a couple of blocks that were the same depth and size.