5 tips to avoid needing pothole repairs on your vehicle

5 tips to avoid needing pothole repair

Even though it’s no longer winter, here in Michigan our roads are suffering.  The contracting and expanding leaves more than a few potholes for drivers to hit.  It’s driver beware season with your cars and trucks.  If not careful, your vehicle may need pothole repairs, and it may not be cheap. I’ve partnered with Cooper Tire to share info on how to keep safe from those persistent potholes.

I have a friend who spent $3,230 last winter on repairs thanks to potholes!  She had to replace 4 rims, 5 tires, needed to have rims reshaped and an alignment on her car, from potholes. Even our governor made a campaign promise to fix the roads!  We have a problem with our roads here in Michigan.

So how do you survive the potholes on the road?  Here are 5 things to do to navigate through the potholes.

Avoid – It should go without saying, but needs to be said. When possible (and safe), try to avoid hitting the pothole.  Look ahead on the road for any potholes or puddles. Move your vehicle within your lane to avoid, when possible.  Don’t follow vehicles to close, or you won’t have time to react.

Tread – Make sure your tires have adequate tread on them and are properly inflated.  Take a penny and turn it upside down so that Lincoln’s head faces down.  If the top of his head is covered, you have enough tread.  If you can see the top of his head anywhere around the tread of the tire, you may need new tires.

Inspect – Check your tires for cuts cracks, splits, punctures, irregular wear or bulges. You can feel around the back of the tire for bulges as well. We inspect our tires when we wash the car.

If it’s unavoidable to hit a pothole, you can do the following:

Slow down when you are coming up to the pot hole. Take your foot off the brake before your tires touch the pothole and roll gently through the pothole.

Alternate route – If you know a road to be full of potholes, find another way to your destination. There is no need to cause damage to your car if at all possible.

keep potholes from ruining your car and day

According to Jessica Egerton, Director of Brand Development at Cooper Tires, “While it can be easy to overlook tires, it’s important to remember that your tires are the only 4 things connecting your car to the road. At Cooper®, we encourage everyone to take 10 minutes to check your tires before heading out on the road. It’s as easy as 1,2,3—check the pressure, tread depth and the overall condition of the tire.”

This post is part of a paid partnership with Cooper Tires, which provided information for this story. Learn more about protecting your tires and your car by following the hashtag #TakeOnPotholes on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.