So I was driving along through this wonderful construction in Detroit (potholes a' plenty) and as I'm leaving the construction area and back onto regular smooth road, I hit a sharp bump that surprises me... so as expected, I hear this loud *kerchunk* on my car ...scared the hell outta me because it sounded like I sharp crack and I felt that I either blew a tire, hit the undercarriage or messed up my suspension, but the car has been driving fine these past couple of days, and when I visually inspect around the wheels and under the car, everything looks fine.

So I was wondering, is this normal? (I'm sure it's not but I'm hoping it is) I've been used to driving pick-up trucks for the last 5-6 years and it's difficult for me to know about the TSX, since its suspension is stiffer than what I'm accustomed to. Any thoughts? Comments? Questions?

PS. I Know, I'm not supposed to go offroading. :P

 

The suspension itself might have bottomed out. If it drives fine, then it wasn't broken.

I wouldn't worry.

 

Thanks! I was hoping it would be something of that sort.

 

I hit a curb in my TSX one day...heard the ka-chunk you are referring to. It just bottomed out the suspension on that wheel, but didn't do any damage...I didn't hit it going that fast either...

 

I agree that it most likely was the suspension bottoming out and everything is fine. You might want to check out this thread though and check your roof

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...&threadid=3371

I really doubt that'd happen from hitting a bump, but you never know...

g

 

Scary.

There's been a Euro crash test of the TSX-Euro Accord, but not one by the US DOT or IIHS yet.

http://www.euroncap.com/details.php3?id=car_169_2003

Not an awfully impressive performance but at least the roof doesn't seem to be buckling. (Probably absorbing a little more kinetic energy than a highway bump.)

 

Interestingly enough, I've noticed one tiny "wrinkle" or indentation on one corner of my sunroof. It's on the passenger side, same as the side I hit the bump on. It's most likely coincidental, but interesting.

 

I posted the referenced thread in the Car Problems and Fixes Forum. I hit a piece of construction (a hard hit on a concrete lip, but not THAT hard), and now have indentations at three of the four corners of my moonroof. As far as I know, the only cause could've been the bump. I'm taking the car to the dealer tomorrow to look it over and tell me if they think the bump caused the indentations. If it did, we're all driving in cars that don't respond well to really hard bumps. I'll let you all know.

 

I did exactly what you described in your other thread on Saturday.
I was on unpaved or scrapped road that was about to paved and came to the part where they stopped scraping the road. I was probly going about 60km's (40 miles) when I hit. It sounded pretty bad, but everything seemed fine. I'll have a look at the area around the moonroof after work. I don't think the lip was 2 inches high though. More like 1 inch.

 

I just got back from the dealer, and my suspension and chassis checks out OK after my construction encounter. The indentations around the moonroof are a little bit of a mystery, though. The service people don't think it was caused by any buckling of the roof due to twisting of the chassis, but it might've been caused by the heavy window assembly pulling down on the roof during the impact, buckling the sheet metal slightly. We looked at a couple of other TSXs (new) on the lot, and they had very, very slight indentations on some corners, not nearly like mine. The service manager speculated that the roof is weak there, and the window can buckle it when you hit a really hard bump. It'll be interesting to see if this shows up in more cars as more bumps are encountered. Take a close look at the corners of your moonroofs, especially if you've smacked into something on the road.

It turns out they're covering it under warranty, and I'm to set up an appointment with the paintless dent removal people to take care of it. This was my first encounter with Acura service, and I was very impressed by the professionalism and courtesy.

 

Anytime you hit a kerb or really big bump, you may want to consider having the front-end alignment checked. Although the car may feel, drive, and look fine, alignment problems can cost you down the road with irregular tire wear. Also, I would recommend having the tires balanced along with front-end alignment. I've never had weird or premature tire wear since having these two areas routinely checked. They also adjust the steering wheel to be true (aligned).

I like to have my front-end alignment checked once a year. A local independent shop charges about US$60 for that job.

 

That's really interesting. I wonder how that assembly would put weight on that part of the roof like that. Anyone have one of those nifty manuals handy? Maybe during your warranty repair, there'll be some revelations as to where those dents orginiate. If i continue to get them, I'll definitely have to check with the dealer about them.

I know there are some Canadian geese where I work and their turds are pretty big but...nah...

 

The window assembly wasn't pulling down on anything. It's the weight of the car itself that caused this. Your whole chassis flexes and/or bends when you go over bumps. I bet the bending moment you get when you hit a huge bump like that at a high rate of speed is pretty big. Especially since it's caused by a dynamic force.

It's kinda like breaking a baseball bat over your knee, if that makes any sense.

Edit: Doctor V, why did they say (or how did they know) that it wasn't caused by buckling?

 

Your point is well taken about the bending of the car - I can see how the car's flexing could lead to buckling at the moonroof, since it's weak there, but I'd hate to think that's what happened, since the bump was not that bad. If it buckles with a bump that doesn't affect the alignment or wheels at all, what would happen if you hit something really hard?

Acura was speculating. Their Techline wasn't any help, so we looked at several TSXs on the lot. They also had very slight indentations at the corners of the moonroof (look at the car from the front, catch a reflection of something patterened at each corner), but not nearly as noticable as mine. The service manager felt that if the impact wasn't severe enough to throw off the alignment or damage any suspension components or wheels that the whole vehicle flexing enough to buckle the roof was unlikely. There was also no other wrinkling or misalignment anywhere.

The moonroof window assembly is heavy, and he thought maybe the impact pulled down at the corners a little, enough to indent them further. So, the hypothesis is that all TSXs may suffer from this flaw, and a hard bump makes the indentations worse. I'll be interested in seeing if more of you, after hitting bumps, see your indentations grow.

 

Interesting. I'll have to keep my eyes open for that....